Movies set in the Belgian Congo or French Colonial Africa?

[Schweizer]

Hey, everyone.  I was wondering if anyone had a few suggestions for films set in either the Belgian Congo or French Colonial Africa.  I've seen the '94 Roth/Malcovich Heart of Darkness, and I know that there surely must be more.  Most of the films I've got seem to center around British and Dutch colonies.

Thanks!

[Sakura]

Noirs et Blancs en Couleur (1976), Jean-Jacques Annaud - recommended

[cdr]

noirs et blancs.....highly recommended

[Arthur]

Dark of the Sun (a.k.a The Mercenaries) is definitely post-colonial as the action takes place after the independence during the Simba rebellion (and not in the Katanga as many summaries of the film would have us believe).

Betrand Tavernier's Clean Slate (Coup de torchon) is a black comedy set in 1930's French colonial Africa. Alain Corneau's Fort Saganne is a more traditional colonial epic and mostly takes place in the Sahara. Both films were released in the early 1980's. On the English language front, Nicolas Roeg directed an adaptation of Conrad's Heart of Darkness in 1993 starring Tim Roth as Marlow and John Malkovitch as Kurtz, but I haven't seen it so can't comment on its quality. 

[mjkerner]

Fort Saganne (1984), set in French Colonial Africa, was very good.  Good scenes of tirailleurs and spahis drilling and some decent action scenes.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087284/

[Plynkes]

There's the Mauritanian/Burkinabé/French film from the 80s: Sarraounia









Good luck finding a copy, though.

[yancey5]

Maybe not too  French Africa, but I recommend "March or Die" with Gene Hackman, not  too bad for post WW1 vs. Berbers (Arabs) in the desert, plus in English!

[Siaba]

There is also "Capitaines des Ténèbres"  a french TV movie about the Voulet-Chanoine expedition.



I didn't watch it but the book based on the scenario wasn't bad. The red uniform of the character on the right says a lot about the historical accuracy of the movie  

[traveller]

Siaba,

I have been searching for that movie. Have you seen it available with English subtitles?

[inkydave]

This is good fun. I think a few of us will be searching ebay and Amazon. We must try not to bid against each other though

Siaba-I am ignorant of the 'Voulet-Chanoine expedition' and have no idea what uniforms the main characters are supposed to wear. Officers of Spahis Senagalais wore something similar, but there is something about French soldiers of this period wearing red that just seems wrong

This tunic is the 1900 model
 

[Arthur]

Siaba-I am ignorant of the 'Voulet-Chanoine expedition' and have no idea what uniforms the main characters are supposed to wear.

The Voulet-Chanoine expedition was hardly France's most glorious hour in Africa. The mission was one of three columns sent to conquer the Chad basin in 1899. Captains Voulet and Chanoine, its two commanders, were experienced colonial officers but their force left a trail of murder and destruction wherever it went, raping and killing civilians and razing entire villages to the ground. Apparently suffering from syphylis and prone to bouts of depression, Voulet seemingly descended into madness during the expedition and killed the French officer sent to relieve him of his command after news of his exactions became known to the authorities. He was finally murdered by his mutinous Senegalese tirailleurs along with Chanoine.

I haven't seen Capitaine des ténèbres, but a region 2 French DVD is available from Amazon.fr (don't think it has English subtitles, though) : http://www.amazon.fr/Capitaine-ténèbres-Bonus-documentaire-mémoire/dp/B0040ZK90W/ref=sr_1_1?s=dvd&ie=UTF8&qid=1322605737&sr=1-1



Back in the 1970's, there also was a French television mini-series entitled Fachoda about the adventures of the Marchand mission which culminated in the Fashoda incident with Britain. I don't think it's available anywhere as a DVD or a download, though.   

[Will Bailie]

Several of the 'Young Indiana Jones' episodes were set in Africa, with Young Indy as a soldier in the Belgian army. 

[Siaba]

Siaba-I am ignorant of the 'Voulet-Chanoine expedition' and have no idea what uniforms the main characters are supposed to wear. Officers of Spahis Senagalais wore something similar, but there is something about French soldiers of this period wearing red that just seems wrong Cheesy

This tunic is the 1900 model

Yes, this uniform does exist. But Voulet and Chanoine were both marines or infantry officers....so the red tunic is definitively wrong. I think it was used in the movie to differentiate Voulet from Chanoine 

History says that both officers were killed by their troops but a theory pretend that they disappeared under false identities. Chanoine was the son of a former french war minister and the senegalese nco who assured having saw them killed died accidently a few months later.
When their tombs were opened, a few years later, they were empty....

[traveller]

I have another one which I picked up in China. Unfortunately only in French so I have just watched the action scenes which were quite good: "L'Algerie des Chimeres"

[gloriousbattle]

You may find some here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_films_featuring_the_French_Foreign_Legion

They range from the comic to the tragic, and from the great to the execrable.