The artful documentary Le Ciel et la Boue has its audience tracking French adventure-seekers through the wilds of Papua New Guinea. The crew begins by flying over the landscape to their predetermined starting point noting that soon they would be "dots on the landscape, like whoever lives in that hut." Thus, they proceed into the thicket of the 'Island of the Wicked,' so named by the Dutch colonizers that first infiltrated it.The most trying portion of their journey is 150 uncharted miles that they come to navigate on foot and by rafts of their own making.
The filmmakers are overwhelmed to say the least by "savages" with no small comparison to Kipling's "The White Man's Burden;" taking it upon themselves to wow them with opera recordings and modern medicine. They strongly emphasis headhunting and cannibalism which Gaisseau finally decides "even for New Guinea, this is a bit much." Their methodology is questionable, but their resolve, unflagging. Through leeches, malaria, dysentery, and even the quixotic death of a few native guides the French press on: "Above all, in the jungle, one must never admit the possibility of being lost." Le Ciel et la Boue might well be the most succinct lesson in modern colonialism to come out of France in 1961 besides, obviously, the Algerian War. Their strange and harried journey ends regally with the two primary filmmakers literally walking into a sunset on a beach. Throughout the movie, there were scattered references to the Moon and the rockets that had recently been exploring them. Such revelations were met with disdain from Gaisseau and the natives. The Moon must have felt even further away in New Guinea than in Paris without the technology to even observe the technologies. So this movie above all, shows the audience the remoteness of all places relative to one person. Who is where? And how far away are they from everything else? Be it 150 miles in the jungle, a desert in Africa, the streets of Paris, or the other side of the moon. There is everything and nothing to disorient us and deter us from our paths. Essentially, this film glorifies French colonialism and expansionist tactics through the cheap thrills of leeches etc with the arrogance to purport that they're "helping them." It would be grossly offensive if it wasn't so improbably funny.
The filmmakers are overwhelmed to say the least by "savages" with no small comparison to Kipling's "The White Man's Burden;" taking it upon themselves to wow them with opera recordings and modern medicine. They strongly emphasis headhunting and cannibalism which Gaisseau finally decides "even for New Guinea, this is a bit much." Their methodology is questionable, but their resolve, unflagging. Through leeches, malaria, dysentery, and even the quixotic death of a few native guides the French press on: "Above all, in the jungle, one must never admit the possibility of being lost." Le Ciel et la Boue might well be the most succinct lesson in modern colonialism to come out of France in 1961 besides, obviously, the Algerian War. Their strange and harried journey ends regally with the two primary filmmakers literally walking into a sunset on a beach. Throughout the movie, there were scattered references to the Moon and the rockets that had recently been exploring them. Such revelations were met with disdain from Gaisseau and the natives. The Moon must have felt even further away in New Guinea than in Paris without the technology to even observe the technologies. So this movie above all, shows the audience the remoteness of all places relative to one person. Who is where? And how far away are they from everything else? Be it 150 miles in the jungle, a desert in Africa, the streets of Paris, or the other side of the moon. There is everything and nothing to disorient us and deter us from our paths. Essentially, this film glorifies French colonialism and expansionist tactics through the cheap thrills of leeches etc with the arrogance to purport that they're "helping them." It would be grossly offensive if it wasn't so improbably funny.