Moi un noir

On the surface, this is a film about a group of pals surviving on odd jobs in the streets of Abidjan, Ivory Coast. But MOI, UN NOIR is much more than this. In this film, Rouch best achieved his goal of penetrating reality through a fictional device. Rouch asks his characters to choose a persona for themselves and to act accordingly. This film is one big game in which, for example, the main character assumes the name of Edward G. Robinson. Like every game, this one is also revealing. Behind it is the idea that a documentary unveils not the truth of ‘reality’, but the truth of ‘observation’. In other words, a film is always a film about the act of filming. What one always has is the reality of a game: people who decide to fable for the camera’s benefit. Objectivity is a chimera. João Moreira Salles