"But did he have rhythm?" Madman Films has revealed the first look trailer for an acclaimed documentary film titled Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat, made by Belgian filmmaker Johan Grimonprez. This film is an entrancing look back at a major moment in global politics during the Cold War, intertwining music history & pop culture with these events. Jazz & decolonization are entwined in this historical rollercoaster that led musicians Abbey Lincoln and Max Roach to crash the Un Security Council in protest against the murder of Patrice Lumumba. After Lumumba was murdered in 1961, the US State Department swings into action by sending jazz ambassador Louis Armstrong to Congo to deflect attention from the CIA-backed coup in the country. The doc features excerpts from My Country, Africa by Andrée Blouin (narrated by Marie Daulne aka Zap Mama), Congo Inc. by In Koli Jean Bofane, To Katanga & Back by Conor Cruise O’Brien (narrated...
- 5/5/2024
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Louis Armstrong arrived in the Congolese capital, Leopoldville (now known as Kinshasa), on October 28, 1960, armed with his trumpet and wiping sweat from his brow. His visit was part of a U.S. State Department-sponsored tour of Africa, an arrangement Armstrong felt ambivalent about. Still, the Congolese people gave Satchmo, as the American jazz trumpeter was known, a near royal welcome. Drummers and dancers carried him to his performance venue on a red chair, fashioned like a throne. Civilians cheered him on. Ten thousand people showed up to watch him play.
This was a momentous occasion, a storied event for the newly independent republic of the Congo. Four months before Armstrong came to play jazz, the country had freed itself from the colonial grip of Belgium to become one of the more than dozen postcolonial African nations formed in 1960. But the region was still plagued with problems, most of them stemming...
This was a momentous occasion, a storied event for the newly independent republic of the Congo. Four months before Armstrong came to play jazz, the country had freed itself from the colonial grip of Belgium to become one of the more than dozen postcolonial African nations formed in 1960. But the region was still plagued with problems, most of them stemming...
- 3/1/2024
- by Lovia Gyarkye
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
This is HuffPost World's regular feature that highlights interesting musicians and musical trends around the world. Know of a great musician doing ground-breaking work outside the United States? Send us your ideas for bands to profile or up-and-coming musicians to follow. Please fill out this survey form. -- By Adam Waller Marie Daulne, founder of the prolific international band Zap Mama, has seen -- even characterized -- the rise of the catchall genre of "world" music from the industry's smallest niche market to an integral part of Top 40 musicians in recent years. Now, in a time where it is almost fashionable to refuse to generically specialize our musical tastes, this attitude of musical universalism that has characterized Daulne's entire career seems to be the end goal for contemporary listeners. Yet this trajectory toward total acceptance has been at the...
- 8/6/2009
- by Modiba
- Huffington Post
NEW YORK -- Mattieu Kassovitz has been described as a Jewish Spike Lee, and in this French feature, his debut film, one can certainly see why the comparison is made. Besides writing and directing ''Cafe au Lait, '' he stars, as a bike messenger (shades of ''She's Gotta Have It''), no less, in this madcap comedy about the relationship between a young and pregnant West Indian girl and the two men who are the potential fathers.
Kassovitz's character, Felix, is highly enamored of black culture, which is reflected in the film's energetic rap, hip-hop and world music soundtrack. The other man is Jamal (Hubert Kounde), a refined black Muslim law student who is his exact opposite. The freewheeling Lola (Julia Mauduech) is fond of both of them and wants to have the child.
When Jamal hears the news of her pregnancy, he realizes that he doesn't really want to be a lawyer, takes a job in a fast-food restaurant and offers to move in with Lola, who agrees.
Ultimately, Felix, who was initially put off by the news, decides that he too wants to be a part of Lola's life and, in an arrangement that could only be tolerated in bad Hollywood movies and frothy French comedies, all three move in together, with the predictably nutty results.
Although there are certainly similarities in terms of style, Kassovitz is even less subtle than Lee, and his picture is crammed with fancy camerawork and editing that fail to infuse it with anything more than surface energy. It doesn't help that the characters are cliches who are much less endearing than the filmmaker obviously meant them to be.
CAFE AU LAIT
New Yorker Films
Director-screenplay Mattieu Kassovitz
Executive producer Christophe Rossignon
Director of photography Pierre Aim
Editors Colette Farrugia, Jean-Pierre Segal
Score Marie Daulne, Jean-Louis Daulne
Cast:
Lola Julia Mauduech
Jamal Hubert Kounde
Felix Mathieu Kassovitz
Max (Felix's Brother) Vincent Cassel
Felix's Grandfather Tadek Likcinski
Felix's Grandmother Jany Holt
Running time -- 94 minutes
No MPAA rating
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
Kassovitz's character, Felix, is highly enamored of black culture, which is reflected in the film's energetic rap, hip-hop and world music soundtrack. The other man is Jamal (Hubert Kounde), a refined black Muslim law student who is his exact opposite. The freewheeling Lola (Julia Mauduech) is fond of both of them and wants to have the child.
When Jamal hears the news of her pregnancy, he realizes that he doesn't really want to be a lawyer, takes a job in a fast-food restaurant and offers to move in with Lola, who agrees.
Ultimately, Felix, who was initially put off by the news, decides that he too wants to be a part of Lola's life and, in an arrangement that could only be tolerated in bad Hollywood movies and frothy French comedies, all three move in together, with the predictably nutty results.
Although there are certainly similarities in terms of style, Kassovitz is even less subtle than Lee, and his picture is crammed with fancy camerawork and editing that fail to infuse it with anything more than surface energy. It doesn't help that the characters are cliches who are much less endearing than the filmmaker obviously meant them to be.
CAFE AU LAIT
New Yorker Films
Director-screenplay Mattieu Kassovitz
Executive producer Christophe Rossignon
Director of photography Pierre Aim
Editors Colette Farrugia, Jean-Pierre Segal
Score Marie Daulne, Jean-Louis Daulne
Cast:
Lola Julia Mauduech
Jamal Hubert Kounde
Felix Mathieu Kassovitz
Max (Felix's Brother) Vincent Cassel
Felix's Grandfather Tadek Likcinski
Felix's Grandmother Jany Holt
Running time -- 94 minutes
No MPAA rating
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 8/19/1994
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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