La sirène des tropiques
France,
1927, 110 min
Shown in 1996
CREDITS
- dir
-
Henri Etiévant, Mario Nalpas
- scr
-
Maurice Dekobra
- cam
-
Albert Duverger, Paul Coteret, Hennebains
- cast
-
Josephine Baker, Régina Dalthy, Pierre Batcheff, Régina Thomas, Janine Borelli, George Melchior
- source
-
Archives du Film (CNC)
- premiere
-
International Premiere Revival
-
COMMENTS
Presented as part of the Spirit of the Dance sidebar. Jean-Claude Baker, Josephine Baker’s son; and Patrick Bensard, director of the Cinémathèque de la Danse present this new tinted print along with original live jazz accompaniment by Dominique Pifarély (violin) and François Couturier (piano).
OTHER
It’s like watching the birth of the modern age: take one creaky melodrama barely evolved from the 19th century—something about a lecherous marquis—and chuck a cherry bomb of effervescent spirit and joyous carnality into the middle. That’s Siren of the Tropics, Josephine Baker’s first screen vehicle, which best showcases her exuberant vitality, idiosyncratic beauty and formidable leg power by allowing her free improvisational rein over her role, as well as by offering such a stunning contrast. Boy, those Europeans are dull! La Baker plays Papitou, a sylph of the Antilles who rescues the romantic hero from the marquis’s skullduggery, falls for him and pursues him to Paris, there setting the town on its ear with her music hall triumph (a reprise of Baker’s 1927 Folies Bergère coup d’éclat). Yes, you can wince a little at Papitou’s pidgin French and simple-savage manners, but the sheer power of Baker’s self-invented persona can’t be dimmed by the naive colonialism of the setting. Even the way—especially the way—she can’t quite keep her shirt from falling off is endearing. And her dancing.... Here’s a chance to see the indescribable for yourself.
—Alicia Springer
FACTOID #111
Both parents of TV star Mariska Hargitay attended the Festival, but not at the same time. Actress Jayne Mansfield attended in 1966 on a lark, and bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay attended in 1989, having appeared as himself in György Szomjas’s film Mr. Universe.
