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Clip description
The rough, smoky, communal conditions inside the teepee where Daniel (Aden Young) first makes eye contact with Chomina’s daughter, Annuka (Sandrine Holt), are contrasted with a flashback to a French cathedral. This is where Father Laforgue (Lothaire Bluteau) met a priest who explained that his hideous head scars and missing ear were the result of an attack by native Americans during his missionary work.
Curator’s notes
Black Robe's first flashback to France strikes with the force of a dramatic revelation, reinforcing one of the central themes – that the cultures of the native Americans and the European missionaries are so different that they are destined not to understand one another. Note that the high angle of the final shot inside the teepee matches the first shot of the flashback inside the cathedral. This reinforces the sense of space and architectural grandeur of western culture, so different from the overcrowded teepee.
The flashback also communicates a sense of the extreme dangers ahead, as well as the paternalistic attitude of the European churchmen towards the ’savages’ whose souls they want to save.
In the teepee, note the paternalistic way Laforgue takes the wooden flute off the Algonquin tribesman, the eye contact between Daniel and Annuka, and the comical flatulence of one of their sleeping partners.
