Both the photos in Pair D were moments in the film that I thought probably had the most tense and subtle emotion behind them over anything else throughout the entire film. Not only does Diouana’s mask represent her pride, it also encompasses her freedom from life in Senegal, while still holding on to a nostalgic piece from home. Even though Diouana looks forward to a better life in France and gives the mask to the couple as a token of her appreciation and gratitude, that mask remains an integral part of her life in France though its meaning begins to shift as we progress through the film and Diouana starts to feel more trapped and servant-like rather than free-willed and independent.
In the first shot from Pair D, the focus is projected onto the couple as they begin to discuss the mask’s authenticity. What I never noticed when watching this scene during the film was the painting centered just above the couple’s heads, right over the mask. It’s a painting of two African women, where the one on the left is wearing a dress that seems it might’ve come from a different culture, and the one on the right seems to be wearing what looks like traditional African clothing. In juxtaposition, it looks like the woman on the left is probably carrying something on her head as though she may be working, while the woman on the right is free from work. This painting on the wall clearly references Diouana and her overall state after she enters the couple’s home in France- she thinks she will work and be happy and live a popular lifestyle, but she quickly finds out that she would have just been better off if she’d stayed in Senegal. The way that the painting of ‘Diouana’ is centered just above the mask that’s being closely scrutinized and guarded by the couple suggests in a sense that even though the couple treats her as though she is a slave to them, she’s still ‘over’ them as long as she has her pride and her sense of personal freedom.
We start to see that this isn’t the case and that once the mask is out of Diouana’s hands, her sense of individuality starts to disappear and she loses all will to fight back for herself and try to make things better. In the second shot of Pair D, we see Diouana as she tries to symbolically take back her freedom and take control of her life, but the mistress tries to prevent that and keep her down. The pictures on the floor of the second shot also help symbolize her sense of freedom that she had in Senegal with her boyfriend, but are also threatened to be stepped on and crushed, in a sense, by the fight between Diouana and the mistress. Even though Diouana wins in the fight to keep her mask, it doesn’t console her enough to forget about her failed dreams of a new life in France. She knows that as a person, as an employee, she will always be put down and degraded for who she is and what the couple thinks of her, and the weight of that is too heavy for her to cope with.
Some interesting points here. Still, I think we need to keep in mind the source of the mask. It's not Diouana's to begin with. She essentially buys it from the boy in order to give it away, so whatever it represents goes beyond any individual representation of Diouana. And we have to wonder, too, what her reason is for giving it. It's not expected, and its authenticity is a surprise, adds some additional value. Maybe a productive way to think about the mask is to consider it in opposition to the clearly modernist qualities of the painting, European qualities that are alien to Diouana's Senegal.
ReplyDelete