"Simeon"
                             A Film Review by
                           Linda Lopez McAlister
                     "The Women's Show"  WMNF-FM, 88.5
                              Tampa, Florida
                            September 11, 1993

   There's a wonderful film event going on in our area this weekend that
 many listners may want to get to. It's Project Black Cinema's
 Second International Film Festival being held at the Asolo Theater in
 Sarasota.

   On Thursday night I went down to the Festival in Sarasota to see Euzhan
 Palcy's newest film, "Simeon"--and to see Euzhan Palcy herself who was there
 for a question and answer session after the film.  She is the young woman
 filmmaker, originally from Martinique, who wrote and directed "Sugarcane
 Alley," then did a stint in Hollywood where she co-wrote and directed the
 anti-apartheid film "A Dry White Season."  Now headquartered in Paris,
 she has her own production company and she's working on several interesting
 projects: a three part documentary about the Caribbean writer, poet and
 statesman Aime Cesaire, a feature film biography of the African American
 aviatrix Bessie Coleman, and a film about the Haitian patriot Toussaint
 L'Ouverture.  These are major accomplishments but she had an early start--she
 told the audience on Thursday that she decided to become a filmmaker when she
 was ten years old.  She worked first in television in Martinique and then went
 to Paris in 1975 to earn an undergraduate degree in French literature
 and then a Ph.D. in Cinema at the Sorbonne.  She studied filmmaking at
 the Louis Lumiere film school.  She has also composed and recorded two
 albums of children's songs.

   It is her interest in and love of Caribbean music that inspires
 "Simeon" which is really a film about the spirit of this music and a paean to
 those who perform it, especially some of the still-living but older musicians
 who introduced this music to the world in the '30s and '40s.  What emerges is
 one of the most vibrant and vital films you'll ever see.  It pulsates with
 energy and high spirits and contains a wealth of musical performances of
 contemporary and more traditional Caribbean music.

   The film is written and shot from the point of view of a 10-year-old  girl,
 Orelie, in a little West Indian village whose father, Isadore, is an
 out-of-work mechanic but also a fantastic singer and guitarist. His mentor is
 Simeon, a tall, handsome, older man who teaches music and is clearly a beloved
 figure in the community.  They dream of introducing Isidore's new brand of
 music to the world.  One night, after a huge festival of food and music
 Simeon has too much rum and falls to his death before the dream can be
 realized.  During the wake, Orelie sneaks into the room where Simeon is laid
 out and snips the braid off his head, a relic to remember him by.

   Even while they're still mourning him, Simeon's spirit returns because he
 cannot rest properly since a part of him has been left behind.  Orelie
 persuades him not to go back just yet but to stay around and help her father
 find his way.  The film develops from there with Simeon, invisible to all but
 audible to those who really understand the spirit of the music, serving as
 guide.  Isidore goes to Paris looking for a chance to record his music,
 congenial collaborators (those able to hear Simeon's voice), and love.  In a
 stroke of cinematic genius, since the entire film is told from the point of
 view of an imaginative little girl who's never been to Paris,  Palcy has shot
 all of the Parisian scenes  as Orelie would have seen them in her imagination,
 with little out-of-place Caribbean touches thrown in, stylized street scenes
 that show rudimentary sketches of famous Parisian monuments in the background,
 exaggerated ideas of what snow must be like, etc.  The Caribbean scenes, on
 the other hand, are accruate portrayals of Orelie's world.  It's a delight.

    While there are no more screenings of "Simeon" scheduled this weekend,
 I reviewed it anyway because it's too good a film to disappear and I'm sure
 it'll be back for a regular run on the art film circuit in the not too distant
 future.  Watch for it and go enjoy.

   For the WMNF Women's Show this is Linda Lopez McAlister on Women and Film.



 Copyright 1993 by Linda Lopez McAlister.  All rights reserved.  Please do
not reprint this review without the permission of the author.