Zed
Art & Culture 52'

Boris Vian: Rage, Sex, and Jazz

Summer 1946. During a family holiday by the sea, Boris Vian wrote a fashionable noir novel full of sex, violence and rage in just two weeks. His hero is Lee Anderson, a young mixed race man out to avenge the death of his black brother. "I Spit on Your Graves" by Vernon Sullivan, supposedly a black author, came out that autumn. Vian pretended to only be the translator of the work, in an act of cultural and literary blackface. The novel still challenges and provokes readers to this day.

Direction: Natacha Giler

Production: Les Films d’Ici for ARTE France

For the 65th anniversary of Boris Vian's death on June 23, 1959

Languages: French

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