Black Cinema

It occurred to me today that I haven’t seen much about what used to be called Race Films. That is, movies made for a black audience with black actors and sometimes with black writers, directors and producers. These were the sort of movies that would have things like “An All Colored Cast” on the on the poster and would rarely be shown to white audiences. These were before the Blacksplotation period of filmmaking. I’m not talking about blacksploitation movies, these are earlier than that. By the way, can anyone tell me if wikipedia’s spelling as Blaxploitation is correct? I’m not sure I’ve ever seen it written that way and it looks a little weird.

I’ve seen parts of Hallelujah! and The Emperor Jones sounds familiar, but beyond that this seems to be a pretty much forgotten period in cinema. If anything, it seems like a lot of white critics are embarrassed to talk about it, because it represents segregation and instead of discussing that topic they’d rather segregate their reviews… which is ironic when you think about it.

Sort of like Stepin Fetchit has been excised from the movies he was in, which is supposed to be sensitive because they’re removing a stereotype from the screen, but it always reads to me as “Oh my GOD! What is that black person doing in my classic movie? Get him off! GET HIM OFF!!!!” I’d rather have the portrayal, examine it for what it is, and then discuss it than try to pretend it never happened. I’ve been told that the role isn’t completely negative, and that it represents a sly subversion, but since I’ve never actually seen a movie with Stepin Fetchit in it, I can’t judge for myself.

I decided that I want to see some of these movies, so I found this site that has some lists and some reviews and I’m going to gather up some of these old movies and check them out.

I can find lots of crappy Grindhouse sets and Exploitation sets, surely a set of old black movies shouldn’t be that hard to find right?

…he said knowing exactly how tough finding something he wants can be.

I wonder

How different would the world be if John Woo directed Duck Soup?

5 Romantic Comedies I’ll Actually Watch and Might Enjoy

I’ve decided to be dogmatic about the definition of a Romantic Comedy in that it has to be a comedic film in which the romance is the central story. No claiming that just because it’s a comedy and there is a romance that it must count. If I did that, I could name Five Marx Brothers’ movies and knock off for lunch right now.

NO!

They must be actual Romantic Comedies. So let’s see how my list would work out in reverse order…

5. Lady and the Tramp
I’ll admit right now, after deciding on a number, I found myself at a loss to fill all the slots. One of the chief problems of course being that often Romantic Comedies are neither. Not funny, the relationships feel forced in that “Pretty Male Lead + Pretty Female Lead = Bed Bouncing” sort of way. So instead I opted for padding and chose a Disney movie. That should tell you how hard it was for me to come up with 5 of these things. There will be more padding later.
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4. When Harry Met Sally…
Seems strange now, to think that this movie didn’t exist at some point. It is the launch pad for pretty much every Romantic Comedy for the next ten years or so. They all used the old standards, all turned the movies into Seinfeld like “Men are like this, but women are like this” observations. It’s still a good movie, but it gets dropped to the 4 slot because it spawned many ugly children and I blame it for them.
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3. Better Than Chocolate
This Canadian Lesbian Romantic Comedy from 1999 (*whew* I am done giving this movie categories now) is far from perfect but it is charming and fun. At 91 minutes it also manages not to be long enough to wear out its welcome. If I have a complaint it’s that there are one two many storylines and that not all the stories are given equal treatment. Frankly, once again the bisexuals get shunted to one side to make way for the officially and fully gay. It’s a shame because according to the commentary there were scenes that would have fleshed out the bi character but they were dumped because they needed to trim for time. Why they didn’t trim the lip-sync dance numbers instead will remain a mystery to me forever, but whatever. It’s not the Seven Samurai of lesbian comedies, but it’s cute and funny and worth at least one viewing.
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2. A Fish Called Wanda
It’s almost a heist flick, almost a sex comedy, almost a crime picture, but I choose it for this list so it’s a Romantic Comedy sez I! I said there would be more padding! Actually, the romance works in this movie in my view. It’s also genuinely funny in its own right. Not much of this movie creaks with age, it remains a funny and intelligent movie. Besides, every once in a while you need to include a movie where a stuttering animal lover fails to kill an old woman but can manage to whack her dogs in a list of Romantic Comedies. I am a very sick man.
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1. My Man Godfrey
Because it’s the best of the bunch, that’s why! This is one of my favorite comedies hands down, without classification. The story of a tramp being taken in by a socialite and turned into a butler only to be more than he seems may be more than a little silly, but it works. Actually, since we’re close to having wide spread Hoovervilles again, it might just be worth a look now too. This is a good example of the screwball comedy, which people still try to make now but can’t seem to really get a handle on. Probably because they don’t have Carol Lombard anymore, who was a serious hottie back when it meant something. Actually they also had William Powell who was no slouch himself.
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