The Josephine Baker Movie Essay Research Paper free essay sample

The Josephine Baker Movie Essay, Research Paper Movie Review: The Josephine Baker Story Born on June 3, 1906, Josephine Baker was a subsister. Far from the glister and merriment that characterized her beloved Paris, Baker # 8217 ; s beginnings were rough and hard. Born in the slums of St. Louis, Missouri, Baker grew up kiping in composition board shelters and scavenging for nutrient in refuse tins. At age 13, Baker left her parents # 8217 ; house and got a occupation as a waitress. Soon afterwards, she married Willie Wells. However, the matrimony ended in divorce, and she returned to her waitress occupation. She so joined a group of performing artists, the Jones Family Band, and had her phase introduction at the Booker T. Washington Theater, a black music hall house in St. Louis. By age 18, she was out of Missouri, had been discovered in New York and was executing with legion companies in assorted phase productions. Some of these productions included the Folies-Bergeres, Ziegfeld Follies, and the celebrated Le Negre Revue in Paris. In Le Negre Revue, Baker danced with a male spouse ; her costumes dwelling of a skirt of plumes. It was in Paris that Baker # 8217 ; s transmutation began. For a metropolis that was spliting with the spirit and beat of wind, Baker was a perfect lucifer. She was an entertainer and terpsichorean, known for her contortionist places, striking coal black characteristics, and her cross-eyed face that she made. As she swung from a trapeze at the Folies-Bergere or tossed flowers to her audience, Baker embodied the hurting and emotion of the times. During the early 30s, Baker toured Europe, recorded vocals for Columbia Records, and starred in different two movies, Zou-Zou and Princess Tam-Tam. In 1935, Baker hesitatingly returned to the United States seeking for the success she had in France. However, American audiences weren Ts ready for a black adult female with the manner, grace, and edification that Baker possessed. Before returning to France, Baker divorced her 2nd hubby, Willie Baker, who she had married in 1920. In 1937, she married Jean Lion, a Gallic sugar agent, and became a Gallic citizen. However, the matrimony ended 14 months subsequently. With the rise of Hitler, Europe experienced a transmutation, which affected Baker in several ways. In a Europe split with hatred and intolerance, Baker engaged in clandestine work for the Gallic Resistance during World War II. She became an # 8220 ; honest letter writer # 8221 ; and became sub-lieutenant in the Women s Auxiliary of the Gallic Air Force. In 1940, Baker moved to Morocco. In 1942, she toured the part executing for the opposition. She returned to France in 1944, got married in 1947 to Jo Bouillo n, an orchestra leader, and was back in the States in 1948, where she became an militant for civil rights. Baker was back in France in 1954, with the purpose of raising a household of ethnically diverse kids that she had brought to France from her Tourss around the universe. She called them her â€Å"Rainbow Tribe.† In her last old ages, Baker suffered battles, fiscal troubles, and hapless wellness. In 1973, she married Robert Brady, an American creative person. She died on April 12, 1975, four yearss after the gap of Josephine ; a show based on her life. Her funeral took topographic point in her darling France, the state that she had adopted as her place. Although Baker # 8217 ; s life was full of battles to get the better of the troubles and restrictions, she lived her life passionately. She had four partners, adoring audiences and she closely related with famous persons such as Grace Kelly or Maurice Chevalier and of import politicians such as de Gaulle, Castro, and Mussolini. Many old ages after her decease, Josephine Baker # 8217 ; s appeal, vivacity, and fascination live on and so does her fable. The ground why I chose to make my mini-project on Josephine Baker was because I felt that she would be an interesting adult female to larn more about. She was an African American adult female, who became a celebrated terpsichorean and vocalist, while life in the epoch of racism and bias. I wanted to larn more about how she worked her manner up to the top with many restrictions because of her tegument colour. I besides wanted to larn more about how Josephine Baker kept her hopes and dreams alive to do them come true. Josephine Baker sounded like a adult female who was so determined to do the universe expression past her tegument colour and see her endowments shine through. After watching the film life of Josephine Baker, I was surprised about the manner she gained her celebrity and luck. I do hold that she does hold endowment, but I did non truly happen it appealing to see her flashing her hardly covered organic structure as a positive signifier of amusement. Besides, her endowment was non what I expected. I was anticipating to see graceful and swan-like motions, but what I saw in the film were crisp and stiff dance motions that made her signifier of amusement as running and leaping about on the phase. There was a portion in the film when she was larning how to ballet, but it was non a success because her toes bled. In my sentiment, this scene symbolized her deficiency of grace. Besides my negative sentiment on her alleged endowment in dance, I enjoyed the scene where she united African American soldiers with white American soldiers as one ground forces during her stay in Morocco. She was more than merely a terpsichorean and vocalist, she was a adult f emale with pride for her state.