Directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty
Plaisir d'amour ne dure qu'un moment.
chagrin d'amour dure toute la vie.
The joys of love are but a moment long
The pain of love endures the whole life long
I’m back!!! The 1973 Senegalese film Touki Bouki seems like a good reentry point. This film has been on my watch list for some time and when it came to the Center for Contemporary Arts in Santa Fe where I recently started working, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to see it on the big screen. I really know nothing about African film let along African politics, so I’ll leave that angle alone and focus on a couple of things, out of many, that caught my attention while watching.
This film had been described as “sonic soup” and indeed the soundtrack seems, much to my delight, at times to exist autonomously from the visual. What we hear directs us as much as what we see on the screen and sometimes it directs us to places of confusion. There are many sounds, like a baby crying, that invade a scene from off screen and leave one wondering at the significance. There are also sounds, like crashing ocean waves, that comingle with and epically describe the visual that is only hinted at on screen. And … there is plenty of music. Like Mambéty’s use of Josephine Baker’s “Paris, Paris” for instance, which eloquently illustrates the two young lovers’ desire to leave Dakar for the glamour and opportunity of Paris.
Along these lines, I was particularly struck by Mado Robin singing Johann Martini's song “Plaisir d’amour” or “Pleasure of Love” – a classical French love song from the eighteenth century. Translated lyrics of this song appear on the screen as subtitles and go something like, “The pleasure of love lasts only a moment, the grief of love lasts a lifetime.” The lines from this two-hundred-year-old song seem not only to foreshadow the outcome of Mory and Anta’s love affair but also to dig at something a little deeper. Falling in love requires optimism. To lose oneself in the possibilities presented by love might lead one ultimately to deny or ignore the certain temporality of life. Mory and Anta are in love with the fantasy of Paris. They play dress-up and fantasize about the power of wealth. They are focused on what the Paris of their dreams can offer them and they ignore the possibility of struggle and hardship that would likely befall them as immigrants in a foreign and inhospitable land.
As I was looking for more information on “Plaisir d’amour” I came across some interesting videos – a very young and angelic Marianne Faithfull for one. I also discovered the Elvis Presley song “Can’t Help Falling in Love” uses the same melody. From there, I just had to watch my favorite Elvis video – one of his final performances where he belts out “Unchained Melody” with so much raw emotion and power. I love when he looks out at the audience and a lovely grin spreads across his face that lights it up with the spirit of youth. Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efg4l3brInU