Eve’s Bayou
Film Reviewed by Sherelle R. Williams

EVE’S BAYOU (1997)

I’m writing to give everyone a head’s up to what is possibly the best African-American film to come out in a while.  That film is EVE’S BAYOU.

It is set to be released on November 7 and I am strongly encouraging everyone to go and support this film. Written and directed by actress Kasi Lemmons (Silence of the Lambs, Drop Squad) and produced by Samuel L. Jackson,  Eve’s Bayou is set in 1962 Louisiana.   The story centers around 10 year old Eve Baptiste  as she discovers the secrets of her family.  Samuel L. Jackson plays her father, Louis Batiste, the town’s highly respected doctor "and a man known for his ability to ’fix things.’"   The cast also includes Lynn Whitfield as Eve’s mother, Debbi Morgan as Eve’s aunt who has the gift of visions, Vondie Curtis Hall, Branford Marsalis, Lisa Nicole Carson, Jurnee Smollett as "Eve" and Diahann Carroll as "Elzora".

As quoted in one review: Zydeco music, lively parties and Louisiana voodoo infuse this story of passion and misunderstanding, madness and love.  Over one explosive summer, an unforgettable young girl will attempt to expose some of her family’s most frightening hidden truths - and then try to bind them together against the tide of tragedy that threatens to sweep through Eve’s Bayou." This film is at once engaging, delightful, suspenseful, and sensitive.

Lemmons weaves a story which has a personal feel and is textured with the history and traditions of the Creole community.  It is beautifully photographed by cinematographer Amy Vincent in a way that flows as smoothly as the ripples of the waters of the bayou.  The score is
wonderfully created by Terence Blanchard.  Please support this excellent film!!   Take or tell your friends and family to support it as well!!  Hollywood knows that African-Americans make up a large percentage of the moviegoing audience.  If they are going to be profiting off of our dollars, we should at least be seeing films that are about us and reflect our culture.  And they should be films of quality, not just of the ’hood, gangsta and inane comedy genres that
have dominated African-American cinema in the past. 

As a graduate film student and part-owner of a film and video production company, I know many talented African-American writers, producers and directors who have written pieces just as good, if not better, as the stories listed above.  With your help and continued support, more of these films will get the "green-light" for production in the mainstream cinema and get budgeted accordingly.  The BEST way to let Hollywood know that we want these films (family dramas such as Soul Food, and Eve’s Bayou, and romance like Love Jones) is to give them great box office numbers!!  Join me in this effort to create a renaissance in African-American cinema!!

Kimberly Walker

I don’t think it was terrible.  I think it was like a European film…lots of dialogue, interesting characters, but really no action, as American audiences are used to seeing.  I thought it was interesting, and the little girl in the role of Eve (wasn’t she one of the Huxtable kids’ playmates on "The Cosby Show"?) was incredible.   She showed cabin fever at its most sticky, steamy, bored best.

But, most amazing to me was the way Debbie Morgan looks.  how much comsetic surgery has this woman had?  Obviously, she has been seeing the Jackson family physician.  She used to be so pretty, and REAL.  She looks like carmel nougat Barbie now.