Taglines: The picture that marches to a different drummer.
Black and White in Color movie storyline. French colonists in Africa, several months behind in the news, find themselves at war with their German neighbors. Deciding that they must do their proper duty and fight the Germans, they promptly conscript the local native population. Issuing them boots and rifles, the French attempt to make “proper” soldiers out of the Africans. A young, idealistic French geographer seems to be the only rational person in the town, and he takes over control of the “war” after several bungles on the part of the others.
Black and White in Color (French: La Victoire en chantant, then Noirs et Blancs en couleur for the 1977 re-issue) is an Ivorian 1976 war film and black comedy directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud in his directorial debut. It depicts French colonists at war with the Germans in Central Africa during World War I, and is set in the then German colony of Kamerun. The film adopts a strong antimilitaristic point of view, and is noteworthy for ridiculing the French side even more harshly than their German counterparts.
The original French title is the first four words (the first line) of the song Le Chant du départ, a French military song. It won the 1976 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film; it was submitted to the Académie de Côte d’Ivoire, resulting in that country’s first and only Oscar.
According to French director Jean-Jacques Annaud, producer Arthur Cohn never allowed him to attend to the Academy Awards ceremony and publicly receive the Oscar because he felt the American public took for granted that this film was directed by a native African.
Theatrically released twice in France, before and after it received the award, this film was a commercial disaster on both occasions.
Black and White in Color (1976)
Directed by: Jean-Jacques Annaud
Starring: Jean Carmet, Jacques Dufilho, Catherine Rouvel, Jacques Spiesser, Maurice Barrier, Benjamin Memel Atchory, Peter Berling,
Screenplay by: Jean-Jacques Annaud, Georges Conchon
Production Design by:
Cinematography by: Claude Augostini
Film Editing by: Françoise Bonnot
Set Decoration by: Max Douy
Makeup Department: Gisèle Jacquin
Music by: Pierre Bachelet
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Allied Artists (United States)
Release Date: September 22, 1976
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