Whitewashing in movies: French edition

[salinea]

So yesterday, I went to the movie theater (to watch Princess and the Frog, which was good, btw, nice songs); and I saw an ad for one of those big historical dramas that French cinemas like so much, called "L'Autre Dumas" (The other Dumas); about Alexandre Dumas; and his relationship with one of his writing collaborator/ghost writer Guillaume Maquet. Gerard Depardieu plays Alexandre Dumas.

In case you're wondering "so, what?", this is a picture of Alexandre Dumas:
Dumas was a little bit Black, you see. Grandson of a Black slave from Saint Domingue aka Haiti. Yeah.
Funnily enough I never learned that one in any of the classes at school.

For added irony, the French word for "ghostwriter" is the same word as the French N-word. (Yes, people keep using it widely in the media without wondering if it might offend anyone). So all the synopsis are talking about it as the relationship between (white) Alexandre Dumas and his "N-word" with a heavy connotation of "and his slave". (One article I saw, not about the movie, but about a book on the same subject re-edited for the occasion uses the sentence: "L’ironie de l’Histoire veut qu’à l’heure où la France s’apprête, en 1848, à abolir l’esclavage trime dans les soutes de Paris un nouveau type d’esclave, le « nègre littéraire »." = "The irony of History wills that at the time when France, in 1848, is on the verge of abolishing slavery, a new type of slaves is working in the holds of Paris." Yeah, really. Ghostwriting = exactly like slavery! *facepalm*). Which, interestingly, back in 1845, was exactly the sort of word games a Pamphlet against Dumas on the subject of ghostwriting by Eugene de Mirecourt, who really liked to use racist language against Dumas, and for which Dumas even got him condemned. Which, it gets worse, according to the wikipedia is even where the etymology of this particular use of the word "nègre" in French comes from. Oh, for fuck's sake!

Are they really making a movie about Dumas and ghostwriting without addressing the context of racism that shaped the whole controversy? Or are they going to address the controversy blindingly ignoring the irony of what the fact having a white actor playing a biracial historical figure means about racism in contemporary France? Either way, this is full of fail.

ETA: Two articles in French criticising the whitewashing as well.

Comments

[haremstress.livejournal.com]

I only recently found out that Dumas was black, and I was like, what??? It is just conveniently never mentioned anywhere.

[chisakami.livejournal.com]

Yeah this post is how I found out. WTF?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I think the fact it's so little mentionned does say a lot of thing about racism in France & outside :(

[misstopia.livejournal.com]

I didn't know before John mentioned it that one time.

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

Oh, wow. That is a lot of fail put together.

Also, isn't it common knowledge that Dumas' grandfather was black? I remember knowing it as a kid - or did I just read weird stuff? o.O I know I've seen the photo you linked very often, at least.

[solesakuma]

Yep, me too, but I'm a Dumas fan. :S

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

That is made of so much fail I can't even.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Very much so, yes :(

(btw, icon love!)

[alanashinean.livejournal.com]

The casting is both shocking and yet not terribly surprising. It is very disappointing though, because it seems like such a ripe story to investigate in a movie.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Quite.

[cloud-wolf.livejournal.com]

Okay, so I also just found out. I just ran down the stairs (and up again >_>) to find my mum and shout "Alexandre Dumas is partially black! Why did nobody tell me this?"
My mother also didn't know, despite loving quite a few of his books. Suffice to say, she wasn't very impressed by the fact that nobody ever seems to mention it.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

That was my reaction when I learned about it too! It's so... so... blatantly erasing. Can't erase the People of Colour themselves, then let's pretend they're white; or at least never mention anything to the contrary aloud. Otherwise, who knows, young PoC in France may think they have a shot at doing great stuff that'll have a place France's cultural History.

[shiinabambi.livejournal.com]

Wooooooow.

There is not enough facepalm for this. Seriously? What made them think it was a good idea to do it this way?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it boggles the mind. Then again from how racism oblivious French culture typically is, I'm not that surprised.

[hamsterwoman]

I knew Dumas was biracial, but I learned that in Russia. I kind of wonder if it was more popularly known there because our own great literary figure, Pushkin, was also biracial (his great-grandfather was Eritrean).

The rest of it sounds pretty fraught, yeah... and I didn't know that about the French word for "ghostwriter" -- going to go ask B if he knows the word.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Oh, I didn't know Pushkin was biracial! Well, then again, I don't know anything about Pushkin...

Yeah, that word :( now that I know where it comes from, I can't believe it's not considered horribly racist and I boggle that it is so frequently used in media all the time. Just. Argh.

[twhitesakura.livejournal.com]

I did not know that Dumas was black! Thinking back, my school curriculum didn't focus on black writers until we learned about the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and poets like Langston Hughes.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

We... didn't have a lot of things on non white writers either. First (and last time) we did was the last year of Highschool, when we studied some poetry by Leopold Sedar Senghor. (Now, him, they'd have had a hard time pretending he was white XD)

I never heard of Langston Hughes :( *goes google*

[schemingreader.livejournal.com]

But I thought there was a law in France, that all historical movies had to star Gerard Depardieu, even if the main character was female?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

You made me laugh aloud for 3 minutes there XD

[lodessa.livejournal.com]

Wow. I did not know that Dumas was bi-racial.

The rest of it is obviously also fail, but I find it interesting how many of us did not know that fact, whereas there are plenty of authors (although perhaps not French ones) with whom race is one of the first things that comes to mind.

So many layers of race issues.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there really is.

[rainmage.livejournal.com]

Another one who had no idea about Dumas. Of course, we never saw him on school, but I doubt such a thing would've mattered to be pointed out.

But still, it's really sad that such a thing seems to be treated as an embarrassing secret of sorts. I think it's pretty cool he's not white. WTF Depardieu.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think so too.

Well, wasn't much fond of Depardieu in the first place so XD

[xraytheenforcer.livejournal.com]

Well I'll be goddamned. I had NO IDEA that Dumas and Pushkin were bi-racial. None. And I *studied* French literature!

That movie sounds like so much fail that I'm afraid to even look at it. :(

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Funny stuff how many people don't know!

yeah, well, yeah :(

[mystickeeper.livejournal.com]

I feel kind of horrible because the only reason I know that Dumas is biracial is from when I became mildly obsessed with Gankutsuou for a two-week period.

But yeah, that's pretty heinous, :[

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

haha, only two weeks? But Gankutsuou!!!


Yeah, yeah it is :(

[catiechu.livejournal.com]

I knew Dumas was bi-racial because I looked him up back when I was reading him heavily--not sure why everyone is flipping out because no one ever took them by the shoulder and told them. :P Information exists, if only folks would care to look for it.

*snerks* I had to make a site for him back in the day, for a web design class in high school. For the layout, I'd vectored this image, then photoshopped Dumas's face over the king's and given the cows musketeer ensembles. They were credited as "les trois moooo-squetaires." XD

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

hahaha, you make a good point I guess. I don't know that much about writers' life in general. Except those I do. Hmmm. I guess there are some writers' whose life details are more widely known that others though.

HOLY FUCKING COW. Err, did you get a good grad?

[flo-nelja.livejournal.com]

Je savais que Dumas était un métis ; je l'avais appris dans la préface d'un bouquin sur la révolution de 1830 écrit par son fils. Je suppose que les éditeurs trouvent que c'est plus pertinent dans un livre politique ; c'est un peu affligeant, mais toujours moins que de ne pas le mentionner du tout...
C'est impressionnant à quel point les gens peuvent... oublier ce genre de "détails".

Ca n'a rien à voir avec l'histoire, c'est de la mythologie, mais je suis sûre que si quelqu'un, un jour, écrivait une version de l'histoire d'Hercule qui tienne compte du fait qu'il était bisexuel et que son arrière-grand-mère était noire, il se ferait accuser de réécrire une histoire politiquement correcte, alors que c'est du canon.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Oui, je pense aussi. Ya des choses qu'on plus en exergue que d'autres dans l'Histoire, et certains details en particulier ont tendance à etre plus oubliés que d'autre.


Hahaha, je savais pas du tout ça pour l'arrière grandmère d'Hercule. Et oui, les gens diraient totallement ça :(

[peadarog.livejournal.com]

Wow! I never knew any of that. I *love* French-made historical dramas, but I'll have to give this one a miss...

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

That's a shame :( - I wasn't personally likely to watch this one in the first place, so yeah. Perhaps you could download it? ;)

[cafecomics.livejournal.com]

C'est le genre de choses que j'ai appris via les discussions sur le racisme sur LJ alors que ça aurait dû faire partie du cursus scolaire. Et c'est quand même bizarre que le n-word français ne sois plus socialement acceptable que dans ce contexte littéraire.

Je suis en train de lire Ces noirs qui ont fait la France, du chevalier de Saint Georges à Aimé Césaire de Benoît Hopquin. Alexandre Dumas n'est pas dedans mais son père est mentionné dans plusieurs chapitres. C'est une série de portraits d'acteurs, musiciens, écrivains, politiciens, soldats révolutionnaires, héros de Verdun ou tirailleurs de la 2nde guerre mondiale. C'est souvent "rage-inducing". (1)

(1) Je lis vraiment trop d'anglais, trop de sources en anglais et aucune en français. Il y a une belle bibliographie à la fin du bouquin.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Oui hein. Plein de choses qui manquent du cursus scolaire :(

Le bouquin m'a l'air très chouette!!

(1) Je lis vraiment trop d'anglais
I know the feeling.

trop de sources en anglais et aucune en français.
:( ça dit tout.

[eefster.livejournal.com]

That is just mindboggling. Okay, no, we (in any of my French classes) weren't ever explicitly taught that he was of mixed race, but I really don't think we covered the background of any of the authors we read. I think I only found out about it a few years ago, tbh. I would have thought the people who are making a movie about his life would have known, though!!

I had no idea about the word for "ghostwriter", I must admit. You'd think it'd at least be worth thinking over before using, though I know US customs and strictures can't be imposed on France. (Is that a word that's used much?)

This sounds like it could have been such a fascinating movie, but it's being done so, so incorrectly.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I don't think they don't know. They just didn't think that was a good reason to hire a mixed race actor. I mean, a mixed race actor? In top billing of a big historic movie? no way!!

About the literary use of the word "nègre", it's almost always use in the context of ghostwriters, which is relatively frequent about political literature and the like, with non professional writers who are famous people and are expected to make books which they don't necessarily have the skill to do. So, hmm, sort of.

[scriva.livejournal.com]

I never really read much about the biography of Alexandre Dumas, and I regret it, his background sounds incredible interesting. It's sad and infuriating that the first movie describing his life follows the tradition of diffamation.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Yes, definitly so. And his dad too!!

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

Wow. Thank you for that history lesson. I am another one who had no clue about Dumas being bi-racial.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!

[etherealmonkey.livejournal.com]

His dad was awesome. It still blows my mind that a black dude was a general of the French Revolution. Why haven't they made a movie about him?!

They'd probably just whitewash it anyway. Sigh. :(

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Yeah, sounds like it! I want to watch that movie about the (non whitewashed) general Dumas damnit!