This is a film by Laurent Cantet who directed the superb ‘Time Out’ and the not bad ‘Human Resources’, both films about the alienation of work and the struggles and personal demons that follow. ‘Heading South’, by contrast is about sex tourism. Set in the late 1970s in Haiti, the film depicts a group of middle-aged white women who stay at a small hotel in Haiti in order to surround themselves and have sex with young Haitian men. In fact they are little more than boys. There is a mock documentary style as every so often, one of the lead characters speaks straight to the camera and tells his or her back story. And the whole film takes place against the backdrop of grinding poverty and the Duvalier dictatorship.
It is about sex tourism, but the use of power for sex pervades the entire film from the opening scene when a Haitian mother tries to give her 15 year old daughter to an older Haitian man at the airport, to depictions of the Haitian power elite forcing young girls to become their mistresses. The ability of middle class white women (one is a college professor at Wellesley, another works in a warehouse in Montreal) to buy sex with gifts, food and pocket money is just the most direct example of the relatively powerful using their power for sex.
Charlotte Rampling is the oldest of the group, and she presides over the other women, cynically saying what they all feel but would rather leave unsaid. Karen Young is the newcomer, obsessed with one particular Haitian teenager, Legba (Menothy Cesar). The acting from these women is excellent, especially Rampling, who manages to appear tough and fragile at the same time. It is an interesting choice to make a movie about sex tourism that does not focus upon men going to Thailand, but rather women going to Haiti. It makes it much easier to feel sympathy for the women. They talk about how any woman over 40 is ignored sexually in “the North†though it is also clear that it is not just the lack of available mates back home that drives them to Haiti. Race and age are also part of the attraction. But in any case, the insecurities of the women, and the kindness and affection that they show for Legba and the other available men, serve to complicate our notion of sex tourism. A persistent theme is the confusion of love and lust and we see Rampling and Young neatly reverse their initial positions as the film progresses.
I highly recommend it. The dialogue is not particularly good, but the power of the film is its imagery as the camera lingers on the faces of the characters, and it has a host of short, powerful scenes: a boy, barely a teenager, beginning the process of being initiated into the life of a male escort; Brenda (Karen Young) unselfconsciously losing herself in the music; Ellen (Rampling) trying to order Legba to spend the night with her; Brenda, high on Valium and alcohol, dreamily surveying a bar of young Haitian men.
I very much enjoyed Time Out and Human Resources and didn’t realize Cantet had a new film out. But I read yesterday that one of the New York Times critics listed this as one of the best of the year. Thanks for the head’s up, Chris. I look forward to checking this out.
well reviewed, chris, and sorry i missed it till now! i liked this a lot, too. the dialogue, as you say, is not its best feature, but there’s something this film does that feels daring and new. the most shocking aspect of it is the constantly present, constantly discussed racism. the vacationing women make very clear that they wouldn’t touch a black body at home, but that they find the black male body absolutely unproblematic in haiti. the way the camera lingers on the boys’ bodies and faces, you see why the women should reach such conclusion. not only are these boys, they are also cocky, relaxed, easy, aware of their power (it is only poverty that makes them do this, and part of their allure is the always-there possibility that they might decide to withdraw their favors), confident, playful, seductive. surrounded by wealthy women who fight over them, the boys become refined and elegant. these black men are very different from the black american male whose effigy is impressed in the mind of the white middle/upper-class, middle-aged woman of the film. cantet’s effectiveness as a director is that we, too, see these men as different from the black men of american cinema (probably i should speak for myself, as i fit exactly these women’s description, minus the money — a sobering thought indeed).
what is interesting here is that these people meet at an interesting intersection of power and powerlessness. middle-aged single women may feel marginalized at home, but have power here. and the boys are certainly exploited by the women, but also fawned over, and, as i said, given some pretty high level of control over their exchange with them. it is no chance, either, that these are boys. these women are just about as powerful, in the global world, as poor, third world boys. their relative powerlessness is evident not only in the fact that they cannot hold on to their boy of choice, but also that, in spite of their delusions to the contrary, they are absolutely helpless when it comes to saving his life. the geopolitical and social commentary here is very astute.
i liked very much the figure of the older waiter, who’s too old to play the sex game and too aware of the humiliation of the black man to assert himself in any way at all. it’s really brilliant that the film should start with him in that awkward, heart-breaking, impossible transaction.