Black Venus (2010 film)

Black Venus (French: Vénus noire) is a 2010 French drama film directed by Abdellatif Kechiche. It is based on the life of Sarah Baartman, a Khoikhoi woman who in the early 19th century was exhibited in Europe under the name "Hottentot Venus". The film was nominated for the Golden Lion at the 67th Venice International Film Festival, where it was awarded the Equal Opportunity Award.

Plot

Paris 1817, the Royal Academy of Medicine. "I have never seen a human head so similar to that of an ape’s". Standing by a molded cast of Saartjie Baartman’s body, anatomist Georges Cuvier’s verdict is categorical. Seven years earlier, Saartjie left her native South Africa with her master, Caezar, to expose her caged body to the audiences of London’s freak shows. Free and enslaved all at the same time, the "Hottentot Venus" became an icon in the slums, destined to be sacrificed in the pursuit of a shimmering vision of prosperity.

Cast

Black Venus

Black Venus may refer to:

Film

Literature

Music

Black Venus (short story collection)

Black Venus (also published as Saints and Strangers) is an anthology of short fiction by Angela Carter. It was first published in the United Kingdom in 1985 by Chatto & Windus Ltd. and contains a collection of eight stories, the majority of which are concerned with re-imagining the lives of certain figures in history, with a particular emphasis on some well known through literature.

The "Black Venus" of the title story is Jeanne Duval, the lover of poet Charles Baudelaire. The anthology's contents are also reprinted in the volume Burning Your Boats, which features all of Carter's short fiction.

Contents

References