The Ballad Of Suzanne Césaire

Bluesky

Hints and suggestions, moments and memories of Suzanne Césaire are atomised in the tropical heat of Martinque in Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich’s evocative and experimental hybrid. Those who aren’t aware of Césaire – a writer, teacher, anti-colonial feminist and surrealist, to give her just some of her many labels – will probably find they get a sense of what made her tick from this film, rather than the usual tick boxes of things she said and achieved.

Zita Hanrot, who plays Césaire in scenes which mainly show her interactions with her husband Aimé (Motell Gyn Foster) and French surrealist André Breton (Josué Gutierrez), notes that “she didn’t want to be remembered”, destroying much of her writing before she died. One might also consider that the history of the first half of the 20th Century was also often all too ready to forget women who should have been better recognised, especially when, in the case of the likes of Césaire, they were married to someone who had found fame in politics.

Martinique springs to lush life in the 16mm framing from Alex Ashe, heat seeming to rise even away from the flames that spring up from time to time. While the sensation of place is strong, Hunt-Ehrlich draws attention to the film’s artifice. She doesn’t so much tear down the fourth wall as use it as a sort of veil between her cast and those they are playing, the present and the past. This malleability in the moment, which can see someone address the camera or indulge in a bit of contemplation about the person they are playing before returning to Suzanne’s writings or a scene, becomes irresistibly immersive as the film continues. Césaire’s pointed observations about writers who had the luxury of freeloading or living with their parents rather than, as she was, raising six kids, for example, are given extra weight as we see Hanrot juggling her own role with the early months of motherhood.

The word ballad is a good choice in the title because Hunt-Ehrlich’s film is a rhythms and muse affair, and the more you are willing to go with the flow, the more you are likely to get out of it. Césaire’s mystery is allowed to remain largely intact but she also feels beguilingly real and it will be hard to resist going on the hunt for more about the writer after watching this. While what is delivered may be different from what many will expect, as the film moves between observation and recreation, you can’t say Hunt-Ehrlich isn’t successful in evoking Césaire’s suggestion that “our surrealism will enable us to finally transcend the present”.

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