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28890: Hermantin(News)HEADING SOUTH (unrated) | three stars (fwd)
From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>
Posted on Fri, Aug. 11, 2006
HEADING SOUTH (unrated) | three stars
On politics, strange bedfellows
BY BOB STRAUSS
Los Angeles Daily News
Heading South has reportedly found an appreciative audience of middle-age women
in New York.
Why is eminently understandable. Set at a Haitian resort in the late 1970s, the
film sensitively portrays the feelings of North American women who, past the
age of desirability in their peer group, purchase the attentive affections of
gorgeous young Haitian men.
Yes, the movie is about sexual tourism, although reversing the usual gender
roles really does make a whole lot of difference. While wealthy males doing
this with Third World girls would naturally evoke audience disgust, women who
feel unloved taking similar steps evokes a more complex and sympathetic
reaction.
The movie is not designed to be a fulfillment fantasy, though much of it plays
that way. And while its main characters are admirably humanized, this is
nevertheless a movie about economic exploitation. It's a very sexual work, but
it is far more political at its core. Adapted from three short stories by
Quebec-based Haitian writer Dany Laferriere by the brilliant French director
Laurent Cantet (Human Resources, Time Out), the movie is both sensually languid
and charged with an underlying unease.
And any ventures into the Duvalier regime's capital, Port-au-Prince, remind
tourists and residents alike that their beachside idyll is a bubble of fragile
joy surrounded by sudden violence and unending misery.
Queen bee of the encampment is Charlotte Rampling's Ellen. A cynical, Sybaratic
French instructor at Wellesley University, she leads the more demure ladies in,
supposedly, purely physical celebrations of young black flesh.
But then Brenda (The Sopranos' Karen Young) shows up. On a previous visit with
her then-husband, Brenda found herself irresistibly drawn to a local boy named
Legba. This led to the first orgasm of her life. She associated this with true
love, and a few years later has worked up the courage to return and claim Legba
for her soul mate.
Trouble is, he's grown into a man (charmingly and powerfully played by
first-time actor Menothy Cesar) who, while happy to service the generous
ladies, refuses to be anybody's anything, even their heart's desire. Legba is
also the cocksure Ellen's favorite. The tension between the two women explodes
in devastating accusations.
When the subject isn't sexually related, Cantet wisely focuses most of the
film's attention on Legba's life outside of the resort, his dealings with
government bullies and strained relationships with family and friends. He
becomes the film's most important character.
By the end of the film, both needy Brenda and haughty Ellen have grown in
surprising and necessary ways. But whatever the white women come to realize,
they still have options. And because of the way things are, the men who provide
them so much pleasure are nowhere near that lucky.
Cast: Charlotte Rampling, Karen Young, Menothy Cesar, Louise Portal, Lys
Ambroise.
Director: Laurent Cantet.
Screenwriters: Laurent Cantet, Robin Campillo.
Producers: Caroline Benjo, Carole Scotta, Simon Arnal.
A Shadow Distribution release. Running time: 105 minutes. Vulgar language,
nudity, sexual situations, violence, drug use, adult themes. In Miami-Dade:
Intracoastal; in Broward: Sunrise.