You've seen Moolaade? You are officially my new most favorite poster!

Moolaade was my second most favorite movie of that year, and I have seen many of Sembene's works, read several books about him, and also read several of his novels. The Furkino Faso biennale film festival is in large part due to his advocacy as well. He is officially a genius in my book, and Moolaade is stunning.

Jon, please do me a favor though, read the novel version of Xala. Its one of the few of his movies I haven't seen (I have seen 5, you can check out reviews for the main site that I did for Mandabi and Moolaade) but there is no way it beats the book. The book is only 110-ish pages, so you could read it in one sitting, honestly, and its such a great book. I've been trying to get the office of material selection here to buy a book discussion set of 30 copies of it.

Anyways: http://www.worldofkj.com/forum/viewtopi ... t=moolaade

I am so happy right now!

Well, I've actually been around for nearly three years, I've just mostly dissapeared since I was banned from BOM at the end of '03 by the Mein Führer of BOM, Sean Saulsbury.

But yes, I've seen Moolaade. An Art House theater only 45 minutes away from my home was showing it last summer, so I saw it. I'm glad I did, as its my #2 of 2004 as well (Behind Before Sunset).



Interesting that you haven't seen Xala, as that and Mandabi are the only films available on DVD (Or Netflix, at least). But I'll try ordering the novel if I can.

What would you say was his best film though?

And you should also try going over to the Oscar Watch forums sometime. There are a few people there that have also seen Moolaade, and they HATE Crash.

My favorites now are Mandabi and Moolaade. They've both grown in my estimations, and I'd probably give both an A- or A. I didn't like Faat Kine as much. It was a bit preachy, but not at the audience....just in a kind of internal dialogue way. It felt like everyone there was always giving monologues at eachother rather than speaking with eachother, and it was his least subtle film. That's not to say it didn't cover important ground.

Comparing those to his earlier work is like apples and oranges. His earlier, Black Girl, the Barom Saret, are shorts (an hour and half an hour respectively), and gritty neorealist because he had pennies to work with and had to always ship the prints to France with sporadic editing, rather than being able to work on them spontaneously and directly. I really like his first two as well, but they are very different. They are also heavier. Still poetic, but not uplifting at the end the way his later ones are.

Haven't seen Xala. I have read the book. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/155652 ... e&n=283155 And I've read Gods Bits of Wood as well.

1.Spielberg
2.Miyazaki
3.Scorsese
4.Peter Weir
5.Otomo