Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/03/22
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Folks,
Some Oscar antidote for you, see it if you can.
I just saw (twice!) 'Port Djema',in which I believe one of my favourite
photographers, Josef Koudelka, may have had a hand(if I read a multi-film
review correctly). In the credits, there is only one reference to
photography, I couldn't see any technical/consulting credits.
Alice, the photographer in the film, has a battered black M6, last non-asph
35'cron, and a current 50 'lux, both in chrome, w/black-rimmed filters and
no shades.
One still photograph that has a key role in the film is that of a small
boy,in the light, against the background of a lit/shadowed wall. Very HCB/JK
Another photo shows Alice in a room with her lover Antoine, and uses a
mirror to reflect, frame and contextualise their images.
A third photo shows Driss, the boy in photo 1 above, on a veranda thru the
rain.
All very capable, credible shots.
When we see Alice shooting, it looks and sounds right: she focuses and stops
down in the right directions for the subjects. Unlike me, however, she never
runs out of film (nor appears to carry any easily available), and never has
the wrong lens on for the subject:=). The shutter sounds are Leica, and
sound about right for the speeds she'd have to use with, say, asa 400/800 in
the ambient light (she appears to hand hold down to around 1/4).
See reviews below, and enjoy
Oh, one more thing - it has a great soundtrack
Alistair Stewart
Port Djema
Languidly drifting through the dusty, deadly
byways of a fictional francophone African
nation, Port Djema is a maddening but
nonetheless effective riff on promises and
helplessness. Hermetically sealed from any
local internal realities by virtue of its
almost
exclusive focus on white angst, Djema opens
with an offscreen gunshot and ends with a
mute photograph: a black boy whose
snapshot cutes demand that he be saved. In
between, Pierre (Jean-Yves Dubois), a French
surgeon, arrives in Port Djema with the
photograph, which had been sent by Antoine,
an old buddy who's been killed while tending
to the victims of civil war. Trying to fulfill
a
promise he'd made to Antoine, Pierre decides
to find the boy and take him back to France.
Portrayed as more clueless than heroic,
Pierre's quest for at least one happy ending
lands him in the expected nightmare. Port
Djema is at the brink of collapse and
everywhere Pierre turns he faces conflicting
needs and questions, from the omnipresent
wounded to the mystery of his friend's death
to the needle-in-a-haystack problem of the boy
in the photo.
Djema indulges in a familiar, lax political
shorthand (by way of irony it offers a
hardened
French intelligence operative trying to do
good), and its evocative, meditative visuals
sometimes exoticize its locale (director Eric
Heumann's long takes slowly become
alienating, Africa as faraway-seeming as
Mars). In the end, though, Port Djema's
distance becomes an unexpected strength.
Pierre is neither a savior nor a villain,
displaying qualities of courage and cowardice
in believable measure. He's forced to give up
on the possibility of doing good in favor of
stumbling lost through Port Djema, clutching
the photograph, but instead of feeling like a
surrender, his admission of helplessness feels
like a first step toward understanding the
flesh
and blood people in front of him.
Tell us what you think.
editor@villagevoice.com
Port Djema
Indochine co-producer Eric Heumann has picked up the director's megaphone
for Port Djema, a story based on the real-life
experiences of co-writer Jacques Lebas while working as a doctor in Africa.
Pierre Feldman, played by well-known stage actor Jean-Yves Dubois, is a
Parisian surgeon who arrives in a former French
colony in East Africa knowing little about the bloody civil war that rages
between two ethnic groups. Pierre's mission is to take
over from Antoine (FrŽdŽric Pierrot), a fellow doctor who ran a dispensary
in the heart of rebel territory until he was found
murdered in Port Djema.
On his journey, Pierre meets Alice (Nathalie Boutefeu), a photographer
intent on capturing the two faces of Africa: breathtaking
beauty and horrific violence. But Pierre gradually realises his own homeland
also has its dark side. France - the officially neutral
bestower of humanitarian aid - is actually supplying both sides in the civil
war with arms.
Heumann, producer of 13 films through his own production outfit Paradis
Films, found himself directing Port Djema after
gradually becoming more and more involved with the project. While producing
ThŽo Angelopoulos' Cannes Jury Prize-winner
Ulysses' Gaze, he accompanied photographer Joseph Koudelka to shoot stills.
Then he scouted for locations in central Africa,
before sitting down with Lebas to develop the script.
"I assume that somehow I unconsciously did not leave myself any other choice
than to direct the film," he says. "That was how I
broke with film producing. It hasn't been easy, but then that kind of thing
never is." Not that this is a clean break. The
41-year-old filmmaker is producing Angelopoulos' new film, Eternity And One
Day, now shooting in Greece and starring
Bruno Ganz (Der Himmel ?ber Berlin). "I found out that film directing is
more difficult and more exciting than producing," says
Heumann. "However, I still like producing and I will keep on doing it." Adam
Minns
Port Djema
Directed by
Eric
Heumann