Zouzou

This is a simple story that really has no surprises but how can you resist a film that stars the legendary Josephine Baker? The worst part is that you don't hear her sing until the last 20 minutes and then you hear this tremendous voice that would put Mariah Carey to shame. It's also astonishing to see how different standards in film were in France. There is nudity here and it's kind of weird to see a film from 1934 that has nudity. Actress Illa Meery seems to have no problem with it. Also, their is a scene where Meery is in the same bed with her fiancé and while there's no nudity it's the suggestion of their relationship that's evident. In another scene Jean Gabin is walking down the street with a girl and his hand moves down to her rear. You can see that while Baker was not a trained actress she was a natural performer even when not singing. Her energy and personality more than carry the film and she easily steals scenes from her trained counterparts such as Gabin. That makes this film worthy of the archives. Not a great film but you can't resist watching a legendary performer that only made less than two dozen films.

I've long been a fan of Josephine Baker, but have never seen more than clips of her films. This is one of her most famous films, in which she co-stars with Jean Gabin. Unfortunately, it's pretty worthless. It's a musical, but it really doesn't want to be a Hollywood musical. It wants to be semi-realistic, and the songs only take place on stage, so there's only a couple of them, and they're right at the end. The first seventy minutes are ridiculous, moronically plotted, and boring. Baker and Gabin are twins, in reality two adopted children of a circus man (Pierre Larquey). When they grow up, Gabin is a sailor and Baker a laundress. Kind of. Gabin immediately isn't a sailor, but is instead an electrician working in the theater, where Baker gets accidentally discovered when the big star (Illa Meery) is acting up. Baker's secretly in love with her brother, but her co-worker (Yvette Lebon) catches his eye. Oh, and Gabin is sleeping with Meery, too, maybe. At least in one random scene. Ugh, the whole plot is a mess. And then we get to the giant musical number, which is so silly it would make Busby Berkeley laugh in derision - and that should be a hoot, but it's so over-edited that it becomes annoying. The film only comes to life when Baker is given center stage, which is not close to often enough. Even then, she's burdened with ludicrous costumes, like the one that makes her look like she has yeti fur growing out her tits. Damn, I was really looking forward to this.

Zouzou is a very much substandard French film from the thirties, with a flimsy and unengaging story, a completely unnecessary murder subplot that is introduced (presumably for suspense) and then dealt with offscreen in about 60 seconds, and ends weakly and unconvincingly, with a whimper not a bang.

But it is a landmark movie in other ways, most obviously in the treatment of race, here being depicted by black American ex-pat Josephine Baker. It's amazing to reflect that back at home she would have had to drink from a separate water fountain and sit at the back of the bus for another thirty years after this was made, whereas here in Paris she is loved and applauded and treated like an equal by every single person she meets, everywhere she goes. It's almost like an alternate celluloid history of the 1930s, and a very refreshing one at that.

Another way it differs is in the frank depictions of nudity, which go further than even the pre-code films of Hollywood at the time would have done. Both these factors ensured it never got an approved release back in the States.

Baker is entertaining throughout, if unconvincing in the emotional scenes, and the young Jean Gabin, who is always good, adds weight and character to his too-undernourished role. It culminates in a couple of big Busby Berkeley-like musical numbers with some enormously oversized sets (a bed, a birdcage, etc). The songs aren't particularly memorable, but then watching a musical with subtitles is never going to be the best way to experience it.

It's not a very good film, but it is a likeable one, and a deeper, more positive cut of history than we are used to seeing today.

This isn't a very good movie, even by the standards of its time. And Josephine Baker only hints at what made her a legend. But it's worth seeing just to get a glimpse of this great performer who, against overwhelming odds, prevailed against the endemic racism of her time by leaving the US and going to Paris, where she became a star. It's too bad more of her performances aren't preserved on film.

Zouzou feels like a French version of a pre-code Hollywood film, though I don't believe French filmmakers ever had the equivalent of the Hays Code inflicted upon them. It has bawdy dialogue, scantily clad women, a silly plot, and an alluring star in Josephine Baker. Of course, the fact that Baker was an African-American and simply allowed to be a leading lady, without a lot made over her skin color, is something that was unthinkable in America at the time. There are a couple of other things you wouldn't see in an American film; the F bomb is dropped in one scene, and there are a couple of instances of near toplessness. The film is light in tone and rather playful, and what it also stars Jean Gabin, Baker is the reason to watch it. While she's a little overly emotive in her acting, her joy is infectious. In one scene, director Marc Allegret emphasizes her elongated form and curves with her giant shadow moving along with her as she dances. In another, she sings as if she were a canary in a giant birdcage, swinging back and forth in the smallest of feathery outfits. "He runs after all the girls, they are all at his mercy...his eyes undress me, his hands sometimes too," she trills. Unfortunately, the film as a whole is rather uneven. The musical numbers look amateurish, and the editing is consistently odd. Worth seeing for Baker and this little window in 1934 France though.