Film still of Native Son © RR
Native Son, portrait of the Black community in a divided America
In 1951, the French director Pierre Chenal, then in exile in Argentina, directed the film Native Son, an adaptation of the eponymous novel by Richard Wright, in which the author confronts the white and black communities over the story of a murder. A restored copy of the film is presented at Cannes Classics.
Within the affluent white community of Chicago, Bigger Thomas works as a chauffeur for Mary, a young woman with a serious drinking problem. One day, he accidentally suffocates her, then buries her body and flees. After committing another murder, he is captured and sentenced to death.
Who better to play the character of Bigger than the man who created him? Richard Wright, one of the most acclaimed Afro-American authors of his time, this time under the direction of Pierre Chenal, donned the costume of an actor for this story which calls into question the humanity of each and every one of us. But the film was cut by the censor before its official release in the US and it was not until 2016 that the complete unexpurgated version, with 16 additional minutes, was presented at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
The screening for Cannes Classics of Native Son continues the work of restoring Argentina's films, following on from La Historia Oficial (1984) and Sur (1988), thus shining a light on a booming subsector of the film industry.
A presentation by Argentina Sono Film. Restored in collaboration with the Library of Congress.
