Two Cents is a Cinapse original column akin to a book club for films. The Cinapse team curates the series and contribute their “two cents” using a maximum of 200-400 words. Guest contributors and comments are encouraged, as are suggestions for future picks. Join us as we share our two cents on films we love, films we are curious about, and films we believe merit some discussion. Would you like to be a guest contributor or programmer for an upcoming Two Cents entry? Simply watch along with us and/or send your pitches or 200-400 word reviews to cinapse.twocents@gmail.com.
March is Women’s History Month, and we’re focusing our attention on memorable works of Black female filmmakers. The four movies under our theme this month range from horror to romantic comedy to the supernatural, but each exhibits distinctly original voice and a creative vision. Join us as we celebrate this underrepresented group of directors and their stand-out films.
The Pick: Eve’s Bayou (1997)
Kasi Lemmons’ filmmaking debut is a supernatural family drama set in rural Louisiana in the 1960s. Her original story centers around the Batiste family: doctor Louis (Samuel L. Jackson), wife Roz (Lynn Whitfield), daughters Eve (Jurnee Smollett) and Cesily (Meagan Good), and also Louis’ sister Mozelle (Debbi Morgan). Eve witnesses her dad with another woman, and her decisions after this lead to disastrous consequences. Eve’s Bayou was a hit in 1997 and is now part of the National Film Registry.
The Team
Elizabeth Stoddard
Kasi Lemmons’ directorial debut is a stunner from the first scene to the last. Haunting narration opens the film, telling the audience, “The summer I killed my father, I was 10 years old.” This and the dreamlike imagery accompanying it set the tone for the rest of Eve’s Bayou.
Young Jurnee Smollett plays Eve, middle daughter to a well-to-do doctor servicing an insular Black community in Louisiana. After seeing her father Louis (Samuel L. Jackson, who also produced the film) mid-liaison during a family party, Eve loses trust in him. Her elder sister Cisely (Meagan Good, Roll Bounce), however, tends towards the other direction, obsessed with her father and his approval. Despite their differing opinions about their dad and the troubling onset of Cisely’s puberty, the sisters share a tight bond; Good and Smollett show acting talent beyond their years, turning in unforgettable performances.
Debbi Morgan is also a happy surprise as Louis’ sister Mozelle. Along with Eve’s visions, Mozelle’s psychic ability and cursed love life factor into the supernatural feel of Eve’s Bayou. Indeed, one of the most powerful scenes plays out as the aunt tells her niece Eve about her doomed affair and second husband’s death. Mozelle stares into a mirror and watches her memory unfold in the background, even stepping back to interact and own her part in the tragic events. The staging of the shot emphasizes the immediacy and keenness of her pain, years later. It’s haunting storytelling which foreshadows Eve’s own tragedy to come.
Lemmons and her crew create a true sense of place, from the verdant cinematography of the Louisiana location shots to the gorgeous period costuming (the texture and design of Lynn Whitfield’s dresses are especially striking). The screenplay is lyrical, even unsettling. As the closing credits appeared on the director’s cut I was viewing recently (thanks, Criterion Channel!), I had chills. There’s a reason Eve’s Bayou holds the place in cultural memory that it does.
Justin Harlan
I swear I watched this film years ago… but I genuinely didn’t remember much of anything about it. I was gifted a copy of the Criterion Blu-ray a few years ago just after its release and this week’s Two Cents selection gave me perfect cause to finally open it up and pop it in. I quickly realized that while familiar with aspects of the story, I couldn’t have actually seen this one before – as it’s not a film to forget.
A truly powerful film with tour de force performances from two very young actors at the center, Eve’s Bayou is striking, emotional, and genuinely something really special. Jurnee Smollett’s performance as the eponymous Eve and Meagan Good’s as her older sister Cisely are some of the best performances from child actors anyone has ever given. The cacophony of emotions in the film’s final act will stick with me for years to come.
It’s hard to put to words why this film is so powerful. The performances of Smollett and Good are certainly a large part of that formula – but the writing and direction, as well as the rest of the ensemble’s performances, are such a vital part of it as well. To think this was Kasi Lemmons’ debut feature is something that’s genuinely hard to believe. Amazing work!
One of the reasons I was first intrigued by Eve’s Bayou was because it came out in that magical year of 1997, that space of time when, as a young burgeoning cinephile, I was discovering the world of indie and arthouse cinema, of which this played a very important part.
Eve’s Bayou works as a film because it’s about genuinely complex characters; real people who live in the grey and are presented as both flawed and utterly human. Lemmons makes them so by going beyond the surface with each one of them, revealing so much about the people in Eve’s world not just through dialogue, but with looks and gestures that speak louder than words at the most pivotal of times. All of this can’t help but make for an incredibly human experience.
At the heart of the film is Eve and her journey. For her, the bayou is her world and her existence. It is the place where all of her innocence, childhood, and memories live. It’s shattering brings upon the end of that innocence and childhood, led by the discovery and realization that her father is a flesh and blood human, not the mythologized figure she built him up as.
It’s a real coming of age tale that’s driven by a mysticism and a collection of great actors doing what they do best, from Samuel L. Jackson to Diahann Carroll to the incredible Debbi Morgan. But it’s Jurnee Smollett’s accomplished turn that anchors the film, resulting in one of the best child performances of all time. The young actress has such a perceptive take on the material and the character that’s full of so much emotion and wonder, that the movie simply wouldn’t have worked without her.
Eve’s Bayou is a film that plays with different points of view and people’s own realities in very interesting and poetic ways. As a piece of cinema, it contains some of the most gorgeous set ups and camera compositions, specifically one of Mozelle (Morgan) looking in a mirror that for some reason has never left me. Lemmons’ film is truly a mix of high stylization and incredible rawness as much as it is a twisty dramatic, familial thriller with turns right up until the end.
The film’s setting should also be as commended. There’s a tremendous sense of place with the Bayou country of Louisiana, which gives such great insight into that very specific part of America. One key element of this is the Batiste family, who are well-to-do and maintain both prominence and position in their community. It’s the type of family that is commonly found in that area, yet hadn’t been depicted on the screen as much before the film’s release.
Lemmons has done great work post-Eve’s Bayou, most notably with 2007’s Talk to Me. Yet this film remains her masterpiece. As a filmmaker she is truly one with the story, understandably so since, as the screenwriter, it’s her creation. From what I heard, at one point Danny Glover wanted to star in and direct it himself. No disrespect to Mr. Glover, but only Lemmons could’ve made this film; a movie that’s both universal and incredibly specific to this world and this culture. It remains a rare, mesmerizing feat.
This month, we’re honoring some of the incredible Black female voices in film! Join in by sending your thoughts on any of the films above to cinapse.twocents@gmail.com or your favorite Cinapse staffer by early in the week listed above. Hope to see you all month long!
