Schadenfreude Review-My Baby is Black

My Baby is Black
1965



My Baby is Black was released in 1965. It was publicized by the Exploitation Movie Distributers of the time as a shocking expose of the race problem in America. Which seems like an odd thing, as the movie is French. Let us be clear, it is not just shot in France, but it is written with French characters, situations, places and themes which never occur in the United States, thereby invalidating any possible accurate reflection of the race problem in America.


However in 1965 America, mixed race couples were rare, considered to be scandalous and even morally wrong by some. Isn’t that weird? The Egghead rationalizers of suffering have a technical term for mixed race mating: miscegenation, and it scared the hell out of a lot of people. But by 1969 the sight of white girl hippies kissing black male hippies would become almost required for any exploitation film released in the US. It’s still a social issue today, but exploitation films inadvertently helped to ease these racial tensions. Exploitation needs to frighten people a little in order to succeed, and by showing how miscegenation was not equal to aliens, mutants, junkies or even VD, a lot of wind got let out of the sails of hate.


But the Schadenfreude news is, even if My Baby is Black ain’t Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, it’s still French. Extremely French. And with the gentle aging of forty plus years, the racial themes have mellowed - with the assistance of ridiculous French film styling. So the sour social grapes of 1965 have become heady and hilarious Vintage of 2011.


The movie’s opening is Option Number 7 from the Official list of “Predictable Opening Scenes that the Director Doesn’t Think is Predictable”. The lead actress is wheeled from an ambulance into a hospital room; it’s the old ‘Show the last scene first” trick! Right away, we know we’re in for an extra special treat when the background music kicks in. It sounds just like the singers from the original Star Trek theme song escaped from Rigel 7, dropped some acid, got a tympani drum and pressed ‘record’on a beat up cassette machine. We receive the second sign of Bad Movie Apocalypse in the form of the head doctor, who is smoking a cigarette while being dressed for surgery. And he keeps on smoking the cigarette during the procedure! The music builds, and AHHHHHHH! It’s a black baby! What? That’s the horror? It’s not even reversely offensive, it’s just silly! And this was tested amongst the multiple races of the Conclave as being genuinely ridiculously funny.


Over and over again we found ourselves saying ‘Wow! This movie is extremely French’; from the pointless stock footage of French slums to close ups on bleached skulls inexplicably strewn about the room. The camera seems to be everywhere except on the people talking. It’s more Cocteau than thou! And when it is not French, it is preachy. And when it is not that. . . well, it’s just those two things. There are montages aplenty about the love of our lead characters, and they such French-y things about their love such as, “In the great feast of love, everything has the color of love.” And a bad translation helps a bad script come off like a First Year French Grammer Book written by Jean-Paul Satre.


A funny aspect of the movie is the character of Daniel, who is perfect, smart, handsome and brave. He has no bad characteristics. All the Anglos in the movie are flawed, often they openly admit their flaws. But Daniel has none it seems. At the Schadenfreude Conclave, we do not judge a movie by what it claims to be, we judge it by what it is. When we strip a film of it’s pretense in this manner, we create a window into the mental viscera of existence: our suffering ethnic antagonist, Daniel, is a perfect person, and many movies who fought for racial justice put forth ethnic characters who had nothing but positive qualities, which made them perfect and therefore stereotypes! The Circle of BullShit, we call it here at the Conclave. Imagine being stuck between the role models of Sydney Poitier and Buckwheat. One is a lie, the other an impossible goal.


Some caution, the N word is uttered several times near the end of the movie. But most of the racial tension has been let out of this tire a long time ago. There is also one side boob shot. But that’s it. We recommend this one with cultural study groups. Or your grandparents. Watch ‘em sweat and relive the days when this stuff mattered.


Some fun stuff particular to this flick are:

The French students, oh so lame.
The theme music. Oh so unique
The shots of the feet. Oh, so sole-y.

Classsic bad movie elements contained in this Flick
The dubbing and bad translation
Montage, montage, montage
French everything or anything

THE DRINKING GAME FOR “My Baby is Black”

TAKE A DRINK WHEN:
You see the skull!
They compare their love to anything.

CHUG A WHOLE BEER WHEN:
You see Daniel’s feet!
The N word is uttered

IF ONE HAS TO WRITE A COLLEGE ESSAY FOR FILM CLASS

When considered the cultural landscape of deGaulle’s France, the Communist Front cannot be understood without first analyzing, “My Baby is Black.” The Socialist themes contained in the overt plot are obvious, but the revisionist economic pleading for a laissez- faire trading platform in Europe are subtly stitched into the subtext and the art laden picture poems of Paris in turmoil. We are all oppressed, as long as the salt tariff is over three percent.


SCHADEN FREUDEN SCORE
Elements: 8(out of 10)
Titillation: 1(out of 5)
Wrongness: 3(out of 5)
Style & Funness: 4(out of five)
Extra points: 3(out of five)

TOTAL: 19( out of 30 )

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