Observations of this film: Lovely. Nice visuals. Stunning production values. Baker treated with respect, even though the white people still thought they were better. My Fair Lady? Yessssssss. Dress you up in nice clothes. Get your nails done. Teach you to eat with a fork. Teach you arithmetic, dancing, piano playing. Set your hair professionally. Sauvage? Non, mon ami. Civilisation? Oui. Yes, for awhile. Le Professeur Henry Higgins knows everything (not).
Henry Higgins is a jackass, oui. Just like the one who wants to eat his novel (spoiler).
Alas, a lot of this film was only a fantasy, as storyline of a novel. Baker being given the villa was no joke. The animals in the house were nice. An animal (donkey) eats the front page of Max's new book, named "Civilisation", and that is quite humorous.
Baker has a baby with Dar? Are she and Dar married? Do they believe in such a thing? Who knows? They look very happy.
I enjoyed Baker's dancing and singing. I thought Baker was supposed to have been an exotic/sensual dancer, but her dancing here appeared to be quite tame -- even though very lovely, in my opinion. I realize that the Hays Code did not exist in France, however.
I loved Baker's beautiful clothes at the horse races (Ascot Gavotte), in the fantasy sequences.
During this same time period in the United States, African American actresses were playing maid and mammy parts, and African American men were playing servants and shoeshine persons. There was no respect, I tell ya, there was no respect. One famous African American actress won an Oscar for portraying a maid in a film, she who said something like, "I would rather get paid lots of money for playing a maid, than being one in real life."
Baker, however, was the star of this film, Princesse Tam Tam, and had several glamorous scenes in this film, which was French and not American. Baker was groomed and pretended to be an exotic Black Princess, and was not telling a spoiled brat, sassy white Southern plantation owner's daughter to "behave, Miz Scahlett."
Did Henry Higgins ever give Eliza Doolittle a mansion? It never happened.
10/10
Henry Higgins is a jackass, oui. Just like the one who wants to eat his novel (spoiler).
Alas, a lot of this film was only a fantasy, as storyline of a novel. Baker being given the villa was no joke. The animals in the house were nice. An animal (donkey) eats the front page of Max's new book, named "Civilisation", and that is quite humorous.
Baker has a baby with Dar? Are she and Dar married? Do they believe in such a thing? Who knows? They look very happy.
I enjoyed Baker's dancing and singing. I thought Baker was supposed to have been an exotic/sensual dancer, but her dancing here appeared to be quite tame -- even though very lovely, in my opinion. I realize that the Hays Code did not exist in France, however.
I loved Baker's beautiful clothes at the horse races (Ascot Gavotte), in the fantasy sequences.
During this same time period in the United States, African American actresses were playing maid and mammy parts, and African American men were playing servants and shoeshine persons. There was no respect, I tell ya, there was no respect. One famous African American actress won an Oscar for portraying a maid in a film, she who said something like, "I would rather get paid lots of money for playing a maid, than being one in real life."
Baker, however, was the star of this film, Princesse Tam Tam, and had several glamorous scenes in this film, which was French and not American. Baker was groomed and pretended to be an exotic Black Princess, and was not telling a spoiled brat, sassy white Southern plantation owner's daughter to "behave, Miz Scahlett."
Did Henry Higgins ever give Eliza Doolittle a mansion? It never happened.
10/10