As for many other individuals of my generation 20th Century Fox’ Anastasia (1997) is a fond memory dazzled with nostalgic glitter. It is, if nothing else, an interesting attempt on 20th Century Fox’ part to capture the Disney-formula, with historical negligence, princesses, songs and all. There comes a time in every young girl’s or boy’s life where they realize that the Disney-portrayal of history is not of the highest accuracy. The historical accuracy of Anastasia, temping though it might be, is not the subject of this blog post.
The song “Paris holds the key to your heart” serves the purpose within the movie to establish Paris in the 1920s. The champagne coupes, the fashions of Gabrielle Chanel and Cancan dancing are all part of our romanticized view of this particular time and place. Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris (2011) provides some enjoyable commentary on this tendency. The creators of Anastasia also reference a lot of people present in the Parisian scene: Sigmund Freund, Auguste Rodin and maybe most interestingly Josephine Baker in a more kid-friendly version of the infamous banana ensemble (timestamp 1:08). The African American singer and dancer was propelled into fame when she made her Parisian debut in 1925 with La Revue Negre and her “savage” dancing style. Her persona has since become a part of popular culture and is often referenced, mostly visually.
“Negrophilia” was a term coined by French writers and critics of the period, describing the fascination and attraction to black media. From dance and music in Baker’s case to the visual arts like select works by Pablo Picasso, several attempts were made to satisfy the hunger for “otherness”, be that of a varying degree of accuracy. It was brought on by several factors like influences from the West-African colonies and colonialism and as a reaction to industrialization and progress, thus escaping into the “primitive”. Baker’s visit could not have been timelier, and her success made her stay in France. What Picasso described as simultaneous repulsion and attraction, this “negrophelia”, inspired writers to explain why. André Levinson’s theory was that the “rhythmic superiority”[1] and percussive nature of “the Negro dancer”, as opposed to the ballerina, was due to “an innate gift, not a conscious art”. This “gift” would have wasted away in “the cultivated human being”, and the fascination came from recognizing this yet being unable to reproduce it. We must understand Levinson as a man of his time, ethnocentric as he was. His account gives insight to the dualistic nature of Bakers popularity. She was the toast of Paris, but not due to a talent she cultivated on her own, according to Levinson.
Source:
Levinson, André. “The Negro Dance: Under European Eyes”. André Levinson on Dance: Writings from Paris in the Twenties. ed. Joan Acocella and Lynn Garafola. Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, 1991
“Josephine Baker”. Encyclopædia Britannica.2019 . https://www.britannica.com/biography/Josephine-Baker. [Accessed March 9th, 2020].
[1]Levinson 1991: p.70-71