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Last Updated: Oct 24th, 2006 - 17:24:11 |
Most depictions of the imperialist sport of sex tourism show the predator to be male. But in Laurent Cantet's languorous yet haunting drama "Heading South," it is the women who vacation at an all-inclusive resort on Haiti, chiefly for the sexual favors of the local black-skinned boys.
Based on several short stories by Dany Laferriere, the film is set in the 1970s during the dictatorial rule of Baby Doc Duvalier, who kept his people poor and subservient with the help of his secret police, the Tonton Macoute. Yet the affluent American tourists could remain oblivious to the politics of the island, safe and ignorant under the palm trees at their hotel, sipping an island rum punch and occasionally retiring to their rooms for a little physical exercise.
Into this world arrives Brenda (Karen Young), 48, a stressed-out Georgian who returns after three years, seeking 18-year-old Legba (Menothy Cesar), with whom she had a liberating affair that she is intent on resuming.
To do so, she will have to go up against Ellen (Charlotte Rampling), 55, a Wellesley professor of French literature, who has been coming to the hotel for the past six summers and now seems to rule the roost.
Their dynamic and the artificial paradise of the resort, in contrast to the squalor just outside its gates, forms the basis of "Heading South," which juggles interpersonal politics with the cultural gulf between Haiti and the United States. Despite the physical dangers in Haiti, the police are highly protective of the tourists, so when violence does break out -- as was foreshadowed from the film's start -- guess who does not fare well.
The screenplay by Cantet and Robin Campillo inserts the interior thoughts of Brenda and Ellen in monologue, as well as a third-wheel Canadian guest named Sue and, intriguingly, the career headwaiter Albert, who hides his hatred of the white visitors behind a mask of courtly charm. Unfortunately Legba, the one character we yearn to know, is not given a monologue and remains an enigma.
Away from the resort, we see Legba on the run, pursued in some deadly matter that we never quite understand, as if we viewers also are tourists. Cantet moves his camera fluidly through the narrow streets and atop the corrugated metal roofs of the town, with a completely different visual style and pace than at the hotel.
Rampling, who has elevated withering hauteur to an art, is very much in her strength as Ellen, bossing the hotel staff around, blithely demanding Legba's time and only occasionally letting her feelings peek through her armor. Young is an effective contrast, as the no-longer-young Southerner who has confused love with sex. "Heading South" does not judge these women harshly, but sees their barter of money and gifts for sex as the reality of the island economy. And the dark shadows of Haiti are unknowable to them, even if they tried to understand it.
Heading South
STARS: Charlotte Rampling, Karen Young, Menothy Cesar.
DIRECTOR: Laurent Cantet.
RUNNING TIME: One hour, 45 minutes.
RATING: Unrated (sexual situations, violence, mature themes).
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