Charleston Parade

Bizarre. I really enjoy Renoir's unhinged side. Found some YT compilation of charleston music which accompanied the film pretty well.

Renoir offers a critique of European society in one of the more bizarrely construed films of the silent era. But what would you expect when a nearly nude woman, a black man in blackface, and a guy in an ape suit get together in front of a camera? That the white woman is the "white object" of a black actor who himself was a "black object" of curiosity in European and American society makes the irony of the story all the more pointed.

A strange, strange artifact, wherein Renoir's wife, Catherine Hessling, alluringly, even lewdly, dances the Charleston for the benefit of a clown in blackface, newly arrived on the ruined streets of Paris in his spaceship from the advanced civilization of Central Africa. Also, there's a man in a monkey suit. Honestly, the main point was apparently to show our half-naked star gyrating in loving slow-motion, and the film does accomplish that. As to the rest of it... it's something.

Delightful post-apocalyptic dance oddity. Recommended soundtrack: Juno Reactor "Bible of Dreams".

The content itself is ok but flawed, a muddled commentary on colonialism that gets a bit old, but the playfulness of the style makes it enjoyable.

Ironically, it's a musical from the silent era and stars a black man in black-face. They don't make movies like this anymore.