BERLIN -- French filmmaker Regis Wargnier (East-West, Indochine) has long displayed a fascination for cultural conflict, but in Man to Man, he comes upon a clash of cultures so vastly different and so fundamentally antithetical that only tragedy can result. Based on the more egregious extremes of both the scientific and entertainment communities of the mid-19th century, Man to Man gives us the dismaying spectacle of Victorian Britain's confrontation with African pygmies.
It's a unique look at a staggering example of human ignorance, exploitation and racism. Unfortunately, in the film's second half, another carry-over from the 19th century -- that of overripe melodrama with hiss-able villains, staunch heroes and midnight skullduggery -- emerges. This saps much of the life out of a truly fascinating subject. This is a not unnatural consequence of an approach by filmmakers who do not trust their audience to "get it" without a lot of Hollywood flourishes.
The film thus falls between the camps of intriguing independent filmmaking and commercially calculated entertainment. So despite a cast that includes Joseph Fiennes and Kristen Scott Thomas, the film will challenge its marketers to find an audience curious about the subject yet willing to forgive melodramatic excess.
An 1870 expedition into unexplored Equatorial Africa by ambitious Scottish scientist Jamie Dodd (Fiennes) and entrepreneurial widow Elena van den Ende (Scott Thomas) captures along with wild animals for European zoos a male and female pygmy (played with much dignity by Lomama Boseki and Cecile Bayiha). Like many scientists of that day, Jamie and his colleagues back home -- the imperious Alexander Auchinleck (Iain Glen) and dogged Fraser McBride (Hugh Bonneville) -- are deluded by the theory that pygmies represent a living "missing link" between man and ape.
The two kidnapped Africans survive a rough ocean voyage to the U.K., where they are thrown into a makeshift Scottish prison and poked and prodded as if they were animal specimens. The arrogant Victorians grant no human connection between themselves and these Africans.
The image of local villagers, alarmed at rumors of "savages" in their midst, surging through woods at night guided by lighted torches, can only remind us of the Frankenstein movies of James Whale, still one of cinema's best evocations of science run amok. It's an apt image, for these are truly "mad" scientists, who in their crude study of these two individuals choose to note or ignore only what falls into line with preconceived racist theories.
Then, of course, our hero, Jamie, breaks from the pack. He no longer is willing to disregard clear clues of the pygmies' human emotions and intelligence. Elena is torn, innately sensing what Jamie does but mindful of her financial interest in the pygmies, whom she wants to display in human zoos all over Europe.
In the nearly silent communication between the scientist and his two subjects, the film finds its heart and soul. The actors have only their faces, their eyes, expressions and gestures with which to communicate across such a great divide.
But the break among the scientists gets treated less as a sharp difference of opinion than an opportunity for Wargnier and his co-writer, William Boyd, to indulge in more kidnappings, a false imprisonment, an assassination attempt and a second murderous mob. Exploitation clearly is as much in fashion now as it was in 1870.
The physical aspects of this French-British-South African production are terrific with all the period details in Africa and Europe in place, strongly backed by Patrick Doyle's robust music and cinematographer Laurent Dailland's muted colors for that gas-lit era.
MAN TO MAN
A Vertigo Prods. production in association with Skyline (Man to Man) Ltd./France 2 Cinema France 3 Cinema/Boreales
Credits:
Director: Regis Wargnier
Screenwriters: William Boyd, Regis Wargnier
Based on a story by: Michel Fessler, Frederic Fougea, Regis Wargnier
Producers: Aissa Djabri, Farid Lahouassa
Director of photography: Laurent Dailland
Production designer: Maria Djurkovic
Music: Patrick Doyle
Costumes: Pierre Yves Gayraud
Editor: Yann Malcor
Cast:
Jamie Dodd: Joseph Fiennes
Elena van den Endee: Kristen Scott Thomas
Alexander Auchinleck: Iain Glen
Fraser McBride: Hugh Bonneville
Toko: Lomama Boseki
Likola: Cecile Bayiha
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 122 minutes...
It's a unique look at a staggering example of human ignorance, exploitation and racism. Unfortunately, in the film's second half, another carry-over from the 19th century -- that of overripe melodrama with hiss-able villains, staunch heroes and midnight skullduggery -- emerges. This saps much of the life out of a truly fascinating subject. This is a not unnatural consequence of an approach by filmmakers who do not trust their audience to "get it" without a lot of Hollywood flourishes.
The film thus falls between the camps of intriguing independent filmmaking and commercially calculated entertainment. So despite a cast that includes Joseph Fiennes and Kristen Scott Thomas, the film will challenge its marketers to find an audience curious about the subject yet willing to forgive melodramatic excess.
An 1870 expedition into unexplored Equatorial Africa by ambitious Scottish scientist Jamie Dodd (Fiennes) and entrepreneurial widow Elena van den Ende (Scott Thomas) captures along with wild animals for European zoos a male and female pygmy (played with much dignity by Lomama Boseki and Cecile Bayiha). Like many scientists of that day, Jamie and his colleagues back home -- the imperious Alexander Auchinleck (Iain Glen) and dogged Fraser McBride (Hugh Bonneville) -- are deluded by the theory that pygmies represent a living "missing link" between man and ape.
The two kidnapped Africans survive a rough ocean voyage to the U.K., where they are thrown into a makeshift Scottish prison and poked and prodded as if they were animal specimens. The arrogant Victorians grant no human connection between themselves and these Africans.
The image of local villagers, alarmed at rumors of "savages" in their midst, surging through woods at night guided by lighted torches, can only remind us of the Frankenstein movies of James Whale, still one of cinema's best evocations of science run amok. It's an apt image, for these are truly "mad" scientists, who in their crude study of these two individuals choose to note or ignore only what falls into line with preconceived racist theories.
Then, of course, our hero, Jamie, breaks from the pack. He no longer is willing to disregard clear clues of the pygmies' human emotions and intelligence. Elena is torn, innately sensing what Jamie does but mindful of her financial interest in the pygmies, whom she wants to display in human zoos all over Europe.
In the nearly silent communication between the scientist and his two subjects, the film finds its heart and soul. The actors have only their faces, their eyes, expressions and gestures with which to communicate across such a great divide.
But the break among the scientists gets treated less as a sharp difference of opinion than an opportunity for Wargnier and his co-writer, William Boyd, to indulge in more kidnappings, a false imprisonment, an assassination attempt and a second murderous mob. Exploitation clearly is as much in fashion now as it was in 1870.
The physical aspects of this French-British-South African production are terrific with all the period details in Africa and Europe in place, strongly backed by Patrick Doyle's robust music and cinematographer Laurent Dailland's muted colors for that gas-lit era.
MAN TO MAN
A Vertigo Prods. production in association with Skyline (Man to Man) Ltd./France 2 Cinema France 3 Cinema/Boreales
Credits:
Director: Regis Wargnier
Screenwriters: William Boyd, Regis Wargnier
Based on a story by: Michel Fessler, Frederic Fougea, Regis Wargnier
Producers: Aissa Djabri, Farid Lahouassa
Director of photography: Laurent Dailland
Production designer: Maria Djurkovic
Music: Patrick Doyle
Costumes: Pierre Yves Gayraud
Editor: Yann Malcor
Cast:
Jamie Dodd: Joseph Fiennes
Elena van den Endee: Kristen Scott Thomas
Alexander Auchinleck: Iain Glen
Fraser McBride: Hugh Bonneville
Toko: Lomama Boseki
Likola: Cecile Bayiha
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 122 minutes...
- 2/10/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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