Euzhan Palcy Movies
Filmmaker Euzhan Palcy is best known for her internationally acclaimed drama Rue cases negres (1983). The praise for this film lead her to Hollywood where she became the first black woman to direct a film for a major studio. The film, MGM's A Dry White Season was based on a novel by Andre Brink. Palcy showed her remarkable talents at an early age. With encouragement from her father, she wrote poetry, songs, and performed drama. While in Martinique she wrote for local periodicals. During her teens she read two books that have had tremendous impact upon her film career: Alan Paton's Cry the Beloved Country, and Josef Zobels Martiniquan classic La rue cases negres, which became the basis of her first film. At seventeen she directed and acted in La messagere (1974) which was a short play for televison. She then went to Paris to study literature at the Sorbonne. While there, she simultaneously studied cinema at the Rue Lumiere School. In order to get French TV to fund her dream project Rue, she had to produce a short film to prove her talent. The result was Devil's Workshop (1981-2) the prototype for her more famous feature length film. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 2001
Noted filmmaker Euzhan Palcy, who made a name for herself by directing a series of socially minded films about racism and oppression -- including Sugar Cane Alley and A Dry White Season -- continues in the same vein with this gritty courtroom drama about the bloodshed and the coverup of the Attica prison uprising of 1971. Protesting the dreadful conditions at the state penitentiary, 1200 inmates -- mostly African-American -- took control of Prison Yard D. After a half a week negotiating with the prisoners, the police burst into the jail with guns ablaze. Reportedly 2,200 rounds were fired, 39 people killed, and 80 wounded. Fearing an investigation, the State Department indicted a number of prisoners for murder, including Shango (Morris Chestnut), a former law student and activist against the prison administration. Crack lawyer Ernie Goodman (Alan Alda) agrees to defend him, but before he can keep him from the gallows he has to allay Shango's distrust. Meanwhile, civil liberties activist Linda Borus (Rose McGowan) uncovers the truth and the elaborate layers of deceit that the state erected. This film was first screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- Starring:
- Morris Chestnut, Alan Alda, (more)
A six-year old African-American girl scores very well on early scholastics tests and is chosen by the New Orleans school district to be the first of her race to be integrated into that city's public school system. ~ Rovi
- 1992
Euzhan Palcy (best known for Sugar Cane Alley and A Dry White Season) directed and co-wrote this fable about music, myth and the power of dreams. Jean-Claude Duverger plays Siméon, a music teacher who guides students in a small village in the West Indies. His star pupil is Isidore (Jacob Desavarieux), a gifted guitarist who works by day as a mechanic. Siméon and Isidore share the same ambition: they want to form a band to play their own brand of West Indian Créole music, bringing their native island's sound to the outside world just as Bob Marley brought the muscular but sensuous rhythms of reggae to music fans beyond Jamaica. Siméon's dreams are cut short when he's killed in an accident, but Isidore's daughter Orélie (Lucinda Messager), who always liked Siméon, snips off a lock of his long hair to keep as a memento. According to Créole legend, as long as someone in this world has any part of a person, that person cannot be truly dead, and this turns out to be true -- while Siméon's body is gone, his soul lives on and speaks through Orélie. Siméon (in Orélie's guise) inspires Isidore to not let his dreams of music die. The guitarist assembles a handful of gifted musicians to form a group called Jacaranda, who achieve the success Siméon and Isidore always wanted. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jean-Claude Duverger, Jacob Desavarieux, (more)
Schoolteacher Ben du Toit (Donald Sutherland) has been insulated all his life from the horrors of apartheid in his native South Africa. Perhaps he really didn't want to know. When the son of his black gardener is arrested and beaten as a result of a schoolboy protest in Soweto, at first he imagines the police must have had their reasons. However, the boy is picked up again, and this time he doesn't come back. Ben promises his servant that he will look into the incident, and discovers that the boy was killed simply to gratify the violent urges of Captain Stolz (Jurgen Prochnow), a "special branch" policeman. At long last he has gotten a glimpse into the truly arbitrary and violent nature of the system he has so long benefitted from, and he hires Ian Mackenzie (Marlon Brando) to prosecute the killer. It is a foregone conclusion that Stolz will not be punished, but Mackenzie rises to new heights of withering sarcasm and irony in the courtroom. This situation turns Ben into a radical firebrand, which alienates him from his white friends and neighbors, as well as members of his family. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Donald Sutherland, Winston Ntshona, (more)
The teenage life and adventures of young José who lives in a shanty-town on Martinique in the mid-'30s comprises the body of this well-wrought film on how to enjoy what you have. José lives with his grandmother and is well aware of the French colonial presence but they are far away from his world. He gets into mischief, learns valuable lessons on living from an old former slave, drinks too much one time, and even sets fire to one of the run-down shanties. Regardless of his pranks, José never lets up on his studies and in the end, his diligence pays off. Darling Legitmus won the "Best Actress" award at the 1983 Venice Film Festival for her role as the grandmother in this film, and Rue Case Negres won the 1983 Cesar for "Best First Film" for director Euzhan Palcy. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Garry Cadenat, Darling Legitimus, (more)
