----------------------------Original message---------------------------- > I once suggested that Souleymane Cisse's BRIGHTNESS (YEELEN--better > translated in its French title, "The Light") plays off influences by and > allusions to African oral traditions and classical European mythology, > the characterizations of both European art cinema and the patterns and > traditions of tribal life. One scene, depicting a ceremony in the tribal > cult of the "Komo," seems puzzling and too long to Western eyes, but > Cisse said it would have tremendous impact to a native Mali (Bambara) > viewer, connecting them to the roots of songs and ceremonies passed down > but repressed. In other words, it points for the need for a prior knowledge > that pure formalism cannot acknowledge--a contextual formalism can give > access to some of these films, but we need to find the contexts first. > > When an American viewer who even lacks much of the context of the classical > Western past encounters these works, there is little to anchor them. > > --Don Larsson, Mankato State U., MN > You are pointing to the important problem of diegetic intelligibility predicated upon extradiegetic knowledge. But isn't Bertolucci (not the Bertolucci of the "Asian" trilogy!) always assuming historical-cultural knowledge about his films? *Il Conformista,* just to name one. And Godard's *La Chinoise?* Godard in general? But we have all gained the necessary expertise to access these films, havent' we? Why can't it work for Sembene's films as well? Gloria Monti