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?

[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

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

You know, now that I think of it, I'm pretty sure I read it on El Libro Gordo De Petete >.>

[redbrunja.livejournal.com]

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

[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.

[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.

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

... I meant grandmother. Obviously I fail too. *facepalm*

[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?

[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.

[solesakuma]

Wow.
De todos los lugares.

[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]

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

[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.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Quite.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Very much so, yes :(

(btw, icon love!)

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

What's that book about?

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's common knowledge, not compared to how well known Dumas is. I mean, everyone knows Les Trois Mousquetaires, right? Huge part of pop culture. People who know Dumas was mixed race, though, they are only people who are specifically knowledgeable in French Literature History or Dumas specifically. I'm pretty sure we studied Count of Monte Cristo when I was in middle school (my memories are vague, though), and the fact certainly wasn't deemed worthy of mentioning. Then again,, France can be very weird about race, as in, even mentioning it is considered sort of taboo, so perhaps in places when it's not such a taboo, they more openly talk about it.

And yes, a whole fucking lot of fail :(

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

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

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

It's an encyclopedia for kids that came out during the '70s (I read my aunt's books, heh). I haven't looked at it in ages and it's probably really dated, but it had a lot of variety of subjects - I learned a lot about art, literature, and famous people's anecdotes with it.

[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.

[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*

[laurus-nobilis.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I know I didn't learnt it at school, certainly. But we're pretty weird about race here, too.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

yeah, well, who isn't :( though in many different ways.

Anyway the movie is certainly not going to propagate the fact widely.