Second day at the Cultural eXchanges week (2/3/10) at DeMontfort University in Leicester and a controversial African film on the agenda: Badou Boy (1970) by Djibril Diop Mambéty.
Also translated into “Day and Life of a Naughty Boy”, the film is 
accompanied by a rhythmical African sound and observes the paradoxes of Dakar’s (Senegal) everyday street life.
accompanied by a rhythmical African sound and observes the paradoxes of Dakar’s (Senegal) everyday street life.For me as a Film Studies student, the techniques and hidden implications were extremely interesting. After a long discussion with my friends, who despised the film, I have to admit that the film cannot fulfill the one and only goal: to entertain its audience.
The strange thing about infamous quality crafts: people familiar with the rules of particular artworks acknowledge the use of unique methods more willingly. In Badou Boy, rapid cuts, jumpy camera work and a superimposed sound rather than live recordings confuse most viewers.
I moreove
r tried to analyze the visual and oral signals such as the recurring motif of the plump and rude police man with his bike - that he never rides - and find out what message is conveyed: here a negative critic of Senegal’s post-colonial governing body.I wonder if we should concentrate primarily on entertaining readers or viewers?
In the end, we all want our work to be read or seen. Therefore, it is important to take the “entertainment-factor” into consideration.
Nevertheless, most accredited pieces only succeeded because someone pushed the boundaries. I liked Mambéty’s film, although mainly for academic reasons. So this event was a good exchange for normal lectures.
See for yourself here!
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The event review belongs to the first official publications of Nico Lehmann.