Eve's Bayou (Signature Series)
June 2003 Reviewed by: Rad Bennett Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Memory is a selection of images, some elusive, others printed indelibly on the brain. The summer I killed my father, I was 10 years old.
-- Eve Batiste

The adult voice of Eve Batiste intones these quixotic lines at the beginning and end of this exquisite film. The rest is a memory piece worthy of joining the ranks of such great examples of the genre as To Kill a Mockingbird and The Glass Menagerie.

Eve, ten years old in the past, is the daughter of a well-off African-American, Louisiana-Bayou couple, Louis and Roz Batiste. They named Eve after an ancestor, a slave who was freed and given land when she cured her master’s mysterious disease. Louis is the town doctor, who administers more than comfort to his attractive female patients. Roz, a woman with fashion-model good looks, is in denial over her husband’s philandering because she needs him so much. The family is completed by Eve’s older sister Cisely, who is right at the age of puberty, and her younger brother Poe. It is a family, picture perfect on the surface, but smoldering on the inside with potent change and potential tragedy.

The film begins as Eve, escaping the noise and excitement of a party in her parent’s house, seeks refuge in the carriage house. She falls asleep and awakens to hear her father having sex with one of the guests at the party, a local woman, whose husband is out of town too much. They hear Eve and there is a dynamic bonding scene between father and daughter. But wheels have been set in motion, and must ultimately come to rest at a resolution.

Can we revisit past years to give Oscars to African-American actresses? This movie was released before Halle Berry broke the color barrier. If it had been released this year, it would be up for Oscars all over the place. The performances from the entire cast are rich and layered with finite meaning. Lynn Whitfield, one of the most elegantly beautiful women in the world, is excellent as the suffering wife who tries to put on a brave face every day. Jurnee Smollett is that rare find: a child actor with tremendous depth of expression. Diahann Carroll discreetly chews up the scenery in her small role as the local voodoo leader. But it is Debbi Morgan, as Eve’s eccentric aunt, Mozelle Batiste Delacroix, who is most memorable of all.

Mozelle is a clairvoyant who is never wrong at predicting the future for others, but cannot tell her own. She has been married three times, and each husband has suffered an untimely and violent death. In one of the most memorable scenes in this movie full of striking visuals, Mozelle gazes in a mirror as she tells the story of the death of one of her husbands, who was confronted by her lover. The two men appear in the mirror in the background, then at a climactic point Mozelle leaves the foreground and enters the past to interact with her quarreling suitors. It is a magical and powerful scene.

The DVD is in the new "Signature Series" from Lions Gate. This label implies something along the lines of Criterion, but the extras do not quite merit that company. The transfer is rich in color and detail. Though the film is Tennessee Williams in style, it looks more like Ingmar Bergman. Almost all of the scenes have dark shadows and violent contrast. This aspect is captured very well in the video, but I felt that in a few scenes the color might be just a bit off. The sound is rich and full and does justice to the remarkable score by Terence Blanchard. Surround is used effectively, especially in the scenes where Mozelle experiences "visions."

There is one major extra, and that is the short Dr. Hugo, which was produced as a study film to raise money for Eve’s Bayou. The print for it is gorgeous, perhaps a touch better than that for the feature. A commentary from the director and cast accompanies it.

There are two commentary tracks for the feature. One partners director Kasi Lemmons with the cast members. This is largely a party affair, with Samuel L. Jackson leaving no frame unturned to make a joke. Far more substantial is the second commentary, in which Lemmons and her production crew reveal their techniques, problems, and solutions for filming this masterpiece.

Approach this movie when you have time to relax. It never drags, but its pace is leisurely. If you give it a chance, viewing it will prove a rich and worthwhile experience.

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