Oct 13 2009
No More Stereotyping.
So Souleymane’s Cisse’s “Min Ye…” was a production that destroyed all stereotypes I have ever made about independent film. It was long. I’m talking 2 1/2 hours long. That’s even long for a regular movie. Aren’t indie films supposed to be under-funded? How did Cisse have the resources to make the movie go on, and on, and on…
The longevity of the film took away from its power. Should it have been cut after about an hour and 40 minutes, the audience would have been able to walk away respecting Mimi – at that point she decided to call of the divorce, made up with her husband, and was having a romantic lunch with him. Then suddenly, Cisse decides to do a 180 on the character. Mimi turns into a crying psychopath, breaking out in tears with reason or without. And the worst part – she instantly went back to her old ways and cheated on her husband. Really now? Come on, Mimi, you know better than that.
Cisse’s decision to continue the story after the apparent reconciliation between the couple only made the plot circular, which in itself is not a good way to go about intriguing the audience.
So in conclusion, the independent film did not seem independent at all. It was long, the director did not do a good job driving his point home, which made the movie seem ineffective and allowed the audience to forget about the main point of the story – whatever that was.
Our faces during this lengthy movie.
I first typed”totally agree!” and it said my comment was too short and didn’t post it, so i’m rephrasing that to:
I totally agree with how the movie would have been so much more powerful had Cisse cut it short by 45 minutes by deleting certain unnecessary scenes about Mimi’s affair.
I was confused about what she does as well. In the playbill it talks about her as a bureaucrat, but at one point in the movie she talks to the police about being a doctor(?) who brings in a revenue of 10 billion of whatever currency they have in Mali to the country’s economy.
I respect that he wanted to focus on the issue(s) polygamy brings about in relationships, but, like you said, he could’ve ended it after the first half of the movie. He, unnecessarily, depicted Mimi as both the “man” in the relationship AND as the weak woman. Cisse should’ve kept her as one or the other- not both.
That’s very funny. I wish instead of having 2.5 hrs, he could have used that money to make his characters more interesting by adding personality and background information. For example, make a setting for Mimi’s workplace and there we could see how she makes her money and what she does outside of her house… besides cheat on her husband by a river.