cinema2020

MadagascarCINEMATOGRAPHY

As in many other African countries, the development of the cinematography of the former French colony, which became independent in 1960, did not await independence. One of the pioneers of cinema in sub-Saharan Africa, the director Raberono, is in fact Malagasy: he made the film La mort de Rasalama (the date is uncertain: 1937 or 1947) to commemorate the first Christian martyr of M. in centenary of death. Apart from this work, the island's cinematography was formed in the sixties and seventies: Justin Limby Maharivo, Naïvo Rahamefy, Edmond Agabra, Hugo Raharimanantsoa, ​​Architote Andrianajamanana, Jean-Claude Rahaga were the most significant directors, for the most documentary authors. In particular, we remember Fitampoha (1980), directed by Rahaga and the French Jacques Lombard, testimony of the secular ceremony, officiated every ten years, of the immersion of the royal relics in the ocean waters; fiction are films such as Limby Maharivo's Asakasaka (1973), the story of a girl who dies after having an abortion, and Richard-Claude Ratovoranivo's Tranon Kala (1971), on the memories of a death row inmate.

Prominent figures are also Benoît Maurice Ramampy, Ignace-Solo Randrasana and Raymond Rajaonarivelo: reflections on power and justice are at the center of Ramampy's films The Accident (1973) and Dahalo, Dahalo (1984, also known as Il était une fois dans le Moyen-Ouest); Randrasana's work moved between the sociological and the historical side, analyzing the city-countryside relationship (Very remby, 1974, also known as Le retour) and the 1947 insurrection for independence (Ilo tsy very, 1987, also known as Mad 47). Rajaonarivelo worked on historical facts (Tabataba, 1988) and elements of popular culture (Quand les étoiles rencontrent la mer, 1997). Also noteworthy is the original Macbeth reinterpretation of the Englishman Alexander Abela, who in Makibefo (1999) made recite the tragedy of W.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The association des trois mondes, Dictionnaire du cinéma africain , 1st vol., Paris 1991, ad vocem; G. Gariazzo , Short history of African cinema , Turin 2001, pp. 138-39; S. Toffetti , Hic sunt leones. Black African cinema , in History of world cinema , curated by GP Brunetta, 4th vol., Americas, Africa, Asia, Oceania. National cinemas , Turin 2001, pp. 474 and 1224.