MovieChat Forums > La noire de... (1966) Discussion > SPOILER...towards the end of the film...

SPOILER...towards the end of the film...

posted 17 years ago by mstern18
11 replies | jump to latest

Just wondering if anyone else had my thoughts.
Diouanna (did I get the spelling right?) committing suicide didn't make much sense to me. Then again, suicide is probably never a completely rational choice. Anyway, at a point in the film, after her employers give her the money, I was thinking she should just take it, leave, and simply go back to Dakar. I know the situation there wasn't much better..but still. I was a bit shocked when she goes into the bathroom and I realized what she was about to do. Perhaps this doesn't have to be too realistic and is more of a strong statement by the filmmaker..obviously it would not be as powerful had Diouanna not died.

[–] mathew5000 16 years ago

I don’t think the film was trying to be realistic exactly. It was interesting because there are a few ways you can read it. You can understand why Diouana felt she had been deceived and that she was being mistreated, but surely she was going too far when she described herself as a slave. Yes, her employers were bad to her, but not as bad as slaveowners were. Diouana felt isolated, and with good reason, and was suffering from a serious case of medical depression, but when the man gave her 20,000 French Francs as wages, maybe it wasn't a huge salary for however many months she had been working but it didn't seem so low as to be insulting. (The scene at the very end, where Diouana’s mother rejects his money, is different, because she might perceive it as a payoff for the life of her daughter.)

[–] mathew5000 16 years ago

The review at the World Socialist Web Site is pretty interesting (http://www.wsws.org/articles/2006/jan2006/blck-j17.shtml). It suggests that the reaons Diouana doesn’t take the money is that “She did not come to France to wear an apron and make money.”

[–] lovepink7755 16 years ago

Could she have taken the money and ran back home? Her mother sounded like kin of a bitch to me, asking for money... The point is she has no place -- anywhere. She had no where to go

[–] MPahlbod 16 years ago

her mother wasn't a bitch. The letter wasn't written by her. It was written by the French man in order to cheer Diouana up and encourage her to work. Diouana knew it was fake and tore the letter up.

[–] fd4s 15 years ago

That's what people from other countries do when they go work in foreign countries. They send money home to help their families the younger siblings. They don't jist think of themselves.

[–] amina1113 15 years ago

Her pride may have played a role in her committing suicide.She knew that going back to senegal means that she wont be able to face her family.She was one of the main source of income for her family, but she couldn't just leave France because she was being treated badly.I think depression got to her and the only answer was to kill herself.

[–] ManicMuse 15 years ago

i think it's deeper than pride

the ending shocked the hell out of me, i thought she would just go home, but it hammered home what she was actually feeling. to me the ending made the film.

i think most viewers, like the family she worked for, just didn't get how bad it was for her. I think her comparing her situation to slavery was not exactly literal, but definitely made sense. she was not being treated as a true individual, her life was expected to be her work. she was treated like property by the wife. people who have not experienced real poverty sometimes assume that the impoverished person should be fine with certain levels of abusive treatment.

this is a young woman who was coaxed from her homeland to work without any explanation of what her responsibilities would be. the wife assumed that she should take on the new responsibilities of cooking and cleaning when she was never asked to do that before. now diouana, trapped in a different country where she knows no one, and can't communicate, is to just accept her fate? she was not even allowed any personal time, or to wear clothes that made her feel good about herself. the family took no interest in the transition of a person who has left home, and everything she knew behind. anything outside of what the wife envisioned her maid to be, was simply not allowed. i can't imagine being confined to that apartment, having my every waking moment devoted to serving a woman who belittles me, and with know means for escape.

i also think that type of treatment is deliberate.

sure she could have chosen to deal with it in a host of other ways (suffer through it, teach herself to read and speak standard french, simply run away even if she has to beg, find her way back to the boat, scream back at her mistress and make demands...), but she reacted like a person who feels truly trapped and refuses to remain trapped. she felt she had no other voice. it shocked me, but it made total sense to me, and felt sort of inevitable.

"WHO'S ON TOP & WHO'S ON BOTTOM NOW, huh?! WHO'S ON TOP & WHO'S ON BOTTOM NOW!"

[–] marbleann 14 years ago

In NY there have been many cases where rich people promise people from different countries all type of things if they come here and work for them in their houses. They pay for their passage here and end of not paying them anything. Imagine coming here from another country. Cannot speak the language and have no money. I can't imagine why there are not more suicides. Or there are more then we hear of.

Two years ago a young girl runs into a Dunkin Donut on Long Island a passerby wanted to know what happened to her. Turns out she escaped from her employers house. It opened up a can of worms. They had her and another lady living in virtual servitude. The couple was bought to court and convicted. I am sure this happens a lot, but nobody finds out. A lot of these people are illegals and have no resources for help, and the employers know that. I have read of stories where people have live ins and do not pay them anything but 20 bucks because they are live in. They believe that is all the money they deserve because they are living and eating in their house. I am sure the director of the movie was not exaggerating.

[–] Stirchley 8 years ago

Another thing that happens in these situations is that the employer holds on to the "servant's" passport, thus ensuring that that they are well & truly trapped.

[–] catpukecatplsswhatsthediff 14 years ago

Don't know if that helps any.

[–] PoppyTransfusion 8 years ago

There are several layers to her life with the French family in France and to Diouana herself.

The first is that she wanted to better herself. Not just to earn money abroad for her family, which, as another posted, is a common migrant experience, but to be French, as former colonial countries were told they were. She wants to enjoy living in France. She's young and pretty, she has style and she wants to enjoy herself. The situation she meets is grim to say the least. Her employers are despicable to her.

Then there is the examination of colonialism, which is woven with racism. The way the dinner guests speak of her is shocking and ignorant. Her employers, who know her from Senegal indulge the views. The fact that the the employer's wife treats Diouana as her property is another sign of the deep and unconscious colonialism at work. And they expect Diouana to be grateful!

Finally the film examines the idea of being enslaved. Alone, trapped in an apartment in a country she does not know and where she has no one, Diouana is treated as sub-human.

The film was excruciating and the white people horrid.

I'm scared of the middle place between light and nowhere