Africa as a Character in Film

[Hemingway Jones]

Africa has been a central theme in classic and classic themed films. Sometimes the film makers are ignorant of the culture and sometimes they are surprisingly sensitive. Often, Africa is a force of change in a character's life; a vast wondrous wilderness; asbolute and unyielding, against which characters measure themselves.



Let's discuss films with Africa as a central theme, the effect it has on the characters, and how this amazing continent has been portrayed.

I'm not looking for a list of films with Africa as a setting, but rather how Africa enabled a character such as "Denys Finch Hatton" to be who he was.

From Morrocco to Egypt to "German East Africa" to Cape Town; it's a big place.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Africa, in film, has served as a lands end for characters with a shady past to reinvent themselves. "Rick Blain" finds himself here after wandering from Europe. He did something in America that means he can never return. "I'd like to think you killed a man; it's the romantic in me."

"Karen Blixon's" husband "Brandauer" was a never-do-well in Denmark that went to Africa to be a Dairy Farmer, or was it coffee in "Out of Africa." Once there, Karen meets "Denys" who is as wild as the continent itself.

"Katherine" asks "Almasy" what a man like him is doing in the desert in "The English Patient." His purpose for being there seems rather ironic; to escape the political boundries of Europe, he has traveled to the desert where there are no maps from which to draw political lines, yet that is the activity he is engaged in. Africa as blank slate, but ephemerally so.

 

[BellyTank]

Nice Topic-

But do you mean Blixen's husband Bror Blixen..?

Klaus Maria Brandauer was the actor who played the part in the film.

Bror Blixen was a Swedish Baron and Karen(to be Blixen)was his Danish cousin.

There was a very good Danish made documentary about Karen Blixen which aired here, on Danish recently but I missed it... bugger.

I like this topic Hemingway- I'll be more constructive when I am able.

Cheers,

B
T

 

[airfrogusmc]

A very good film that fits in here is "Nowhere in Africa" from a few years back.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0161860/

 

[Hemingway Jones]

A very good film that fits in here is "Nowhere in Africa" from a few years back.

How does it fit in?

 

[carebear]

Not just a "Land's End" of redemption but also a proving ground, either of self in the now or for future greatness.

Patton learning and proving that he could beat the Germans at the game of tank warfare in North Africa.

Who's-he-whatsis proving his courage in "Four Feathers".

Francis Macomber finding his manhood.

The men in "Flight of the Phoenix" forging bonds of trust, with one, the outcast engineer, proving his worth against suspicion.

Africa, simply in its wildness and untameable vastness, forces the individual to show their true mettle simply to survive, much less triumph. Add in outside human adversity and how can it be anything but a test?

Cornel Wilde in "The Naked Prey" surviving the country, its wildlife and its aggrieved peoples.

Humphrey Bogart both redeeming his bumhood to himself while also proving his worth to his lady love. Against Africa, Germans and leeches.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Excellent thoughts, carbear, and well stated.

I always found the scene in "King Solomon's Mines" when Quartermain returns one of his guide's necklaces to his widow after he was killed by the elephant very touching, and it at least alluded to a sensitivity to the indigenous people.

We never learn what Bogart's character is doing on that river in "The African Queen." Down and out at the beginning of the film, as you said, he certainly achieves redemption by the end and even gains a wife.

 

[Feraud]

Africa has lent itself to every type of story filmmakers can create. Whether it is losing one’s self and (sometimes) finding it again in films like The Sheltering Sky, Passion in the Desert, or Casablanca. Africa is the perfect setting for film. It is big and beautiful; Africa is sublime in its display of beauty, fear, or isolation. If you like comedy, drama, or action, there is a film set in Africa to satisfy.

 

[Story]

Beau Geste (1939)

The measure of a movie is how it inspires the imagination, for everyone from Marty Feldman to Bugs Bunny and Yosemite Sam.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0031088/
(Spoilers)
http://www.filmsite.org/beau.html

So it was the Arizona sands <shrug>, it got me to read alot of National Geographics. http://shillpages.com/movies/beaugeste1939dvd.jpg

 

[BegintheBeguine]

West of Zanzibar (1928) Phroso couldn't have set himself up as a pseudo-king on any other continent.

 

[Mojave Jack]

I think one of the factors that makes the deserts of Africa such a compelling location is the emptiness and the sheer scale. To people not familiar with the desert, particularly the huge sand deserts like the Rub al Khali (though that's in Arabia) and the Sahara, it is entirely foreign, and they stuggle to find familiar reference points. For movie goers I think that increases that sense of the exotic, the strange, and a certain amount of discomfiture that compels them.

I think one of the most haunting desert scenes I've ever seen is the opening to Five Graves to Cairo. The lone tank wandering of its own accord across the dunes with a dead crew is eerie in the extreme, and was filmed to maximize the effect.

Another opening scene that just stunned me was the beginning of the Flight of the Phoenix remake. The huge, open Gobi (again, not Africa, but the idea is the same) juxtaposed with the tiny Flying Boxcar was just incredible. Beautiful cinetography, but really gave the sense that these guys are very isolated. Unfortunately that was about the last good scene in the movie!

 

[airfrogusmc]

How does it fit in?

Takes place in Africa. Have you seen it? If you haven't I would highly suggest it. Its a very good film.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Takes place in Africa. Have you seen it? If you haven't I would highly suggest it. Its a very good film.

I assumed that much. What I meant was, could you elaborate?

 

[airfrogusmc]

Oh I'm sorry. Its about a jewish family during 1930s that moves to Africa to escape Europe and the madness.

The review near the bottom is very well put. I couldn't have said it better.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0161860/