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Princess Tam Tam(Princesse Tam-Tam)

✭ ✭ ✭

France · 1935
1h 17m
Director Edmond T. Gréville
Starring Josephine Baker, Albert Préjean, Robert Arnoux, Germaine Aussey
Genre Drama, Comedy

Max, a French novelist with a severe case of writer's block, travels to Tunisia and finds a source of inspiration for his new novel in a local shepherdess named Alwina. Subsequently, he decides to take her to Paris and pass her off as an exotic, African princess.

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Asia Cureton Profile picture for Asia Cureton

Needless to say, this film doesn't age well. I first encountered this film in a Harlem Reniassance class, and it is definitely a product of its time. Josephine Baker is an icon in her own right, and her character and characterization deserves so much better. On its surface, this film seems like it would be a romance. However, Alwina is purely meant to be an object of Max's desire. The Africans in this film are not only objectified and sexualized, but portrayed as primitive and ignorant. Despite how problematic it is, I believe this film is important to examine/analyze from a critical gaze. "Uncanny Performances in Colonial Narratives: Josephine Baker in "Princess Tam Tam"", by Elizabeth Coffman, is a great examination of the white, colonial gaze, fetishization, and the impact of colonization in this film.

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