1/3/2024 0 Comments Barques saint omer![]() Diop started out making documentaries, and she looks at the trial with a born observer's unblinkingly rapt attention. What makes the movie unforgettable are the scenes in the courtroom, every moment of them gripping. Saint Omer is about far more than just one murderous mother. Rama's identification with Laurence shows how the social and psychological issues raised in the trial go well beyond the courtroom. That said, her story is important conceptually. Now, it must be said that Rama's story is less emotionally compelling than the murder case, in part because Kagame, though haunted looking, is a less expressive actor than Malanda. Asked why she left Elise to die on the beach, she replies that she doesn't know, adding, "I hope this trial will give me the answer." Although her testimony is delivered matter-of-factly - even when she blames the murder on sorcery - she often contradicts her earlier statements. Of course, the trial's star attraction is Laurence who, in Malanda's rivetingly charismatic performance, is at once controlled and unreadable: She makes us feel that there's a whole universe in Laurence's head that we can never reach. We hear the righteous words of the mother she always felt distant from, and we cringe at the testimony of her one-time professor who, with exquisite cultural condescension, wonders why Laurence had wanted to study Wittgenstein rather than a thinker befitting her African roots. We see the self-serving slipperiness of Laurence's partner, a bearded white man 30-odd years her senior who wouldn't let her meet his family or friends. Pop Culture Happy Hour A mother on trial in 'Saint Omer' She heads off from Paris to the town of Saint Omer to watch the trial of Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda). Saint Omer begins with Diop's surrogate, Rama (Kayije Kagame), a successful intellectual writer who has a white musician boyfriend and a Senegalese mother she can't quite stand. Based on an actual criminal case in France in which a Senegalese woman killed her baby daughter, Diop's fictionalized version is at once rigorous, powerful and crackling with ideas about isolation, colonialism, the tricky bonds between mothers and daughters, and the equally tricky human habit of identifying with other people for reasons we may not grasp. This ambiguity takes mesmerizing form in Saint Omer, the strikingly confident feature debut of Alice Diop, a 43-year-old French filmmaker born of Senegalese immigrants. It's not simply that you can't always be sure who's telling the truth, but that sometimes nobody knows the truth well enough to tell it. Perry always found out who was lying, who was telling the truth, who was guilty - and why.Īs I grew older, I naturally discovered that things are grayer and more elusive in real world courtrooms. I was drawn to the show's black-and-white clarity. When I was a kid, I used to watch Perry Mason every day after school. Fruit, veges, meat, fish, clothes, toys, even a stall with bicycles and parts! The only thing missing was rubbish and junk that you so often find at markets.Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanda) confesses to causing the death of her baby daughter Elise in Saint Omer. I do always ask permission to take photos and often have fun banter with stall holders! There were eight rotisserie trucks there I reckon and who can walk past these without wishing to buy and eat? As we were moving on that afternoon, we just bought a rack of ribs (absolutely delicious) and sat on the church step to eat them along with the most amazing pastries. I took a video of the first vege stall we came to the produce was so nice and the presentation equally good, but then there were ten more stalls equally good. ![]() ![]() ![]() A lovely sunny day helps of course, but what stands out is the quality of produce. We first visited St Omer and this market about five years ago and decided on this holiday from New Zealand we had to go again. This market is worth making a special trip to France for from anywhere. ![]()
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