I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE

Jacques Tourneur/Val Lewton

1943

Film had title (from articles by Inez Wallace about voodoo)– no story. Story constructed

Some nod to Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte) but actual connection is tenuous.

Picture was in production before Cat People released.

This is the most poetic of the three Lewton/Tourneur films.

Voodoo syncretic religion merging traditional West African Vodun with Christianity (mostly Roman Catholicism)

Palo Mayombe is another syncretic religion (more Congo)

Voodoo is an ecstatic religion (spirit possession) rather than agricultural Involved in ancestor worship and protection against witchcraft,

Voodoo dolls generally involved with sorcerers (bokor) not priests

Voodoo has been the subject of many films including

Live and Let Die
The Believers (links voodoo to child sacrifice and Satanism)
Serpent and the Rainbow (completely divorced from the book of the same name by Wade Davis – whose accuracy is heavily under fire) which deals with Zombies (practically a genre on their own). Points out that people are not afraid of Zombies, but rather are afraid of being made into Zombies

Rationalism vs, Anti-rationalism

Science vs. magic and religion.

In this film (like other films of this sort) the supernatural and natural are set up in a dichotomy in which the viewer needs to decide on which side the film comes down – if it chooses to come down on one side or the other. WATCH IN THE FILM FOR THE CHARACTERS THAT REPRESENT THOSE POINTS OF VIEW.

What questions are posed about causality in the film and whether causes are scientifically (rationally) or supernaturally (anti-rationally) explainable.

Sound important as usual and especially photography

AFTER THE FILM

Some language things

Ti Misery (St, Sebastian name of island) "Petit"
Our people (whose?)
Much talk about things past. Most of the background story is told but little is really said about current things

Music

first film to use Calypso (Sir Lancelot real Calypso singer)
Use of drums in background
Contrast between Chopin and Native music indicates something ot the distance between Holland and people brought from Africa.
Real practioners of voodoo do the ceremony
 Opening sequence. Betsy Connell (Francis Dee) walks on beach with Carrefort (Darby Jones)

Then office shot of hiring (reminiscent of The Innocents 1961 made some 18 years later)

Lighting is often Rembrandt lighting.

Film techniques:

Depth of field: use of objects in foreground to add to depth

Moving camera (especially notice walk to Houmfort - compare with walk through transverse in Cat People) Movement toward camera as menace

Jessica toward Betsy
Calypso singer toward Betsy
Carrefour toward Betsy and Holland
<.menu> Treatment of Minorities

Sir Lancelot - calypso singer (appears in Curse of the Cat People, Ghost Ship)

Theresa Harris (Cat People, Out of the Past)

No accents, no silliness . Scene with horse might start looking like joke, but becomes clear it is a ruse to listen in on conversation

Questions about guilt: Who is responsible for Jessica's state?

Fever
Mrs. Rand
Fight between brothers

Builds to climaxes that don't have "pay off" Walk to houmfort reveals nothing frightening. Tension is built, but little or nothing happens. Patch comes off of Betsy's dress - no problem develops. Suspense generated by seeing something the character doesn't know.

Appears of Carrefour, skull in circle, animal hanging from tree.

The film is questionably a horror film. It is a kind of supernatural drama that seems to be looking at questions of responsibility and guilt. This is a theme to watch for.