Word: bayou
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Like most memorable cinematic upscales, Eve's Bayou finds itself in a precariously balanced world, cascading between realism and mystical fantasy. From the beginning of this journey in which the waters of the bayou reflect and destory the surrounding images nothing is quite what appears...
Even the beginning, in which Eve Batiste claims "The summer I killed my father, I was ten years old," seems to indicate that Eve's Bayou will follow the tired trail of Southern Gothic. Yet like all memories, the narrator's claims may not contain the absolute truth...
Rauschenberg was a Texas boy, two parts Anglo, one part German, one part Cherokee. He was born in 1925 in one of the most art-free zones of America, Port Arthur, a bayou oil-refinery town on the Gulf of Mexico. His parents were Fundamentalist Christians, and as a teenager he thought of becoming a preacher. Luckily for American art, and perhaps for the ministry too, he ditched the notion on realizing that the Church of Christ forbade dancing. He did a stint in the Navy, as a male psychiatric nurse--which confirmed him as a lifelong pacifist. He dabbled...
...attractive, adulterous man; a woman trying to preserve her family; a child who sees and remembers too much. The same elements presented so coarsely in Soul Food come piercingly alive in Eve's Bayou. From the opening voice-over--"The summer I killed my father, I was 10 years old"--the film weaves a spell of magnolia and menace. This 10-year-old is Eve (Jurnee Smollett), second daughter of Dr. Louis Batiste (Samuel L. Jackson) and his elegant wife Roz (Lynn Whitfield). Louis pushes charm as much as pills, and the local ladies swoon at his touch...
Jackson wears Louis' shroud suavely; he can seduce everyone except Eve. But this is a woman's film, and a showcase for superb actresses. Morgan does especially fine work as a sorceress whose gift runs away with her. The poise and passion in Eve's Bayou leave one grateful, exhausted and nourished. For the restless spirit, here is true soul food...