Review of Moolaadé (2004) by Walter M — 07 May 2005

...she might get better. :p.

Yes, I return after a month and a half or so, after a few tests, two presentations, ungodly amounts of short papers, and buttloads of stress. I'm at least thankful for two things: I didn't have any finals or final papers, and that this horrid year is finally OVER. Over, I tell you! HA HA HA HA!

*pauses to let others seethe in envy over my lack of finals*.

So I'm back home with the critters, at least for now. Unfortunately, due to troubles I had in my ceramics class, I couldn't go on my archaeology professor's field school. Right now, I'm pinning my hopes on an internship at Whitefish Dunes State Park up in Sturgeon Bay, WI. It's a naturalist position, where I'd be doing things like tour guiding, organizing events, and writing for a newsletter. I'd be gone again for most of the summer, but they provide housing, will help set one up with a part-time job, and pay $500 at the end of the summer. These last minute internships have worked for me before, maybe this will be the same.

If not, I'll get to spend my summer at home, searching desperately for a tolerable part-time job.

Unfortunately, I haven't seen anything good in the theaters lately (I'm deciding right now whether to go see Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy or Kingdom of Heaven next weekend), but here are two I saw back in late March/early April:

*[b]The Merchant of Venice[/b] -- I was pleasantly surprised to see this had finally came to Madison, so I convinced my friend Katie to come see with me, and we were not disappointed. The story's a bit weird, but that's the fault of the author. You do have to wonder what possessed Shakespeare to think "Hmmm....serious drama...light romantic comedy...let's smush them together and see what happens!" So, you get this light romance with Bassiano trying to impress the fair and rich Portia as his pal Graciano tries to impress her lady-in-waiting, but it's mixed with the story of how Bassiano gets the necessary cash from his pal Antonio, who in turn has to get it from the Jewish usurer Shylock, who makes him commit to the payment of a pound of flesh should he not pay it back. He can't, so the whole thing ends up in court, where there is much drama and a bit of drag (because you can't have a Shakespeare play without a bit of drag, I swear. He was big on girls disguising themselves as guys.).

Al Pacino plays Shylock, and thank God he can occasionally tone down his acting. It's a fine performance -- dramatic where necessary, but without all his usual scenery-chomping. He doesn't do much to hide his normal accent, but it kind of help reinforce the character's otherness in a sea of Brits. Jeremy Irons turns in a solid performance as Antonio; Joseph Fiennes makes an unremarkable Bassiano. The woman playing Portia was surprisingly good, as well as very lovely in an unconventional but period-appropriate way. Another surprise was the good performance by the guy playing Bassiano's friend Graciano, whom I though was the angry red-headed guy from [b]A Knight's Tale[/b] but in fact was the gawky red-headed guy from [b]Love Actually[/b] (aka "Colin, God of Sex").

In short, it's a good production of a play that is tricky to keep balanced in regards to tone without being overly dramatic, and it does so while looking very lush.

[b]*Moolaade[/b] -- The French Club went to see this when it was been shown as part of the Madison Film Festival, and I'm very glad I went. It deals with the controversal topic of female circumcision, where half a dozen young girls run to a local woman, Colle, who has prevented her teenage daughter from undergoing the procedure. She takes them in and protects them by declaring moolaade, a state of sanctuary where the door is barred with a strip of cloth and no one may enter without permission. She is confronted by the town elders and the women who perform the procedure as she gains some allies, such as some of her fellow wives and the local merchant. Tensions rise as the confrontations between Colle and her allies become increasingly violent, but in the end her will and determination win the day.

This was made by Ousambe Sembene, a very famous Senegalese director who is basically responsible for founding the modern African cinema movement, and he does a fine job with this film. He presents the matter fairly -- neither side is fully sainted nor villainized, and it will leave you thinking for hours afterwards. If you can find this, I would absolutely recommend it.