astrid

Touki Bouki

i don't think i can articulate how good this movie is in a way that would do it justice, so you'll have to go through the reviews i liked for that. what i will say is that it is absurd to me that people will refuse to watch movies in a language they don't understand, from a country that isn't theirs and/or that was released 50 years ago. how lucky are we to live at a time where we have access to a restoration of a senegalese movie from the 1970s?

fabian

Touki Bouki

running from the familiar because it's somewhat better than doing nothing. a temporary relief to a permanent ever present confusion.

nathansnook

Touki Bouki

“𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘴, 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘴, 𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘴 𝘊'𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘳 𝘭𝘢 𝘛𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘦 𝘶𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘪𝘯 𝘥𝘦 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘴” So then men are just like animals, left to bleed dry and lay as still as the ground we all walk on. It was at one of the Landmark theaters in San Francisco, I think the Opera Plaza location, was when I first saw this, doe-eyed and time occupying my life, or rather I was occupying time’s life, and it made me realize how vast the world of cinema was. So much to see. So much to see how other parts of the world see. Here, scenes of Senegal, rich and vibrant wrap around two lovers in pursuit of Paris. The pursuit is weighed down by idealizations of prosperity of the white West, but elements of colonial terror reside in the very peripheries of the motherland. The terror comes forth all to land a brutal end, the honest truth, one sick and still in us that maybe dreams don’t come true. They’re meant to be lived for, and only that. DOA, and all. This is all echoed in the chopped up repetitions of Josephine Baker’s rendition of Paris Paris Paris (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=166kOb5bZuY), sad and sadder when you realize it is not the sound of dreams, but a haunting of what can only be dreamt. “𝘠𝘰𝘶 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘭𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦.” “𝘎𝘰𝘥 𝘩𝘦𝘭𝘱 𝘶𝘴. 𝘎𝘰𝘭𝘥 𝘴𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘶𝘴 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴.” *Revisited this mostly because I’ve realized, in my love for cinema and my run to see all that the world provides, so little distribution is made for African films, only to remember my heart was in the right place at the beginning of the chase.