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By PAUL BRENNER
In the languid and beautiful opening sequence of "The Louisiana Story," a young
boy floats leisurely through a bayou on a skiff as shimmering ripples play on
the water and overhanging foliage drapes over this boy's quiet, fantasy world
like ornate theatrical curtains. But this film is not one of those fictional
Disney homespun fables. Rather, it the final work of nonfiction film legend
Robert J. Flaherty.
In his documentary work, Flaherty has always leaned to the
side of the fictional (casting non-actors in roles, recreating long buried
survival techniques), but this film, "being an account of a certain Cajun
(Acadian) boy who lives in the marshlands of Petit Anse Bayou in Louisiana,"
veers so heavily in the direction of the story film as to inhabit a border zone
between fiction and nonfiction filmmaking. Commissioned by Standard Oil to "show
the contribution that the oil industry has made to civilization," "The Louisiana
Story," takes an idealistic view of even the oil companies, a view somewhat
tarnished by contemporary crimes against humanity perpetrated in the name of the
fossil fuels, democracy, and war. With the harmless camaraderie between the
smiling oilmen and craggy local poor folk, the film reveals itself like a
watercolor illustrated children's book. With no eminent danger of survival at
stake, Flaherty concentrates on beautifully composed shots, mysterious oil
derricks, and amoral alligators. But nevertheless, the journey is sweet, easy
and vitalizing. Abetting Flaherty is his ever-present collaborator -- his wife
Frances -- and a young Richard Leacock as his cinematographer. The film also
boasts a stirring, Pulitzer Prize winning score by Virgil Thomson and the film
itself was nominated for an Academy Award. It should also have been nominated in
the category of "Best Performance by a Raccoon."
The Home Vision Entertainment DVD has been brilliantly restored and contains a
pleasant selection of special features -- Frances Flaherty commenting upon the
film in a 1960 interview, audio commentary by Frances Flaherty and Richard
Leacock (culled from archival interviews) over the opening sequence, an excerpt
from a 1971 profile of Frances Flaherty, an excerpt from a 1940 Flaherty
documentary, and voice over correspondence between Leacock and his pregnant wife
during the filming of "The Louisiana Story." |
