Eight Films by Jean Rouch

Jean Rouch, who died at the age of 86 in 2004, was a multi-talented filmmaker: a founder of the cinema vérité movement in France, a pioneer in the hand-held jump-cut techniques characteristic of the French Nouvelle Vague, and the father of Nigerian filmmaking. This set, celebrating the centennial of his birth, offers a selection of films that demonstrate the evolution of his style over the 1950s and ‘60s. Mammy Water (1955) is a relatively straightforward documentary short about "water surfers" on the Gulf of Guinea, while The Mad Masters (1956) is Rouch's earliest work of so-called ethnofiction (combining documentary and fiction), portraying a Nigerian ritual ridiculing British colonial rule. More ethnographic features followed: Moi, Un Noir (1958), an improvisational tale of three Nigerian immigrants in a colonial port; The Human Pyramid (1961), about an experiment designed to develop friendships between black and white students; and The Lion Hunters (1965), following a tribe as it tracks down a lion that has attacked their cattle. Jaguar, released in 1967 although filmed over many years, charts the efforts of three young Nigerians to build a successful business, while its sequel—Little by Little (1969)—accompanies one of the trio to visit Paris to study French culture and business. Finally, The Punishment (1962) represents Rouch's purely fictional work: a psychodrama centered on a young woman who is expelled from school for tardiness and spends the day conversing with a succession of men. Jean Rouch: The Adventurous Filmmaker, a fine 2017 documentary by Laurent Védrine emphasizing Rouch's importance in the development of Nigerian filmmaking, completes this excellent introduction to the work of a man whose influence took many forms. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)