This easygoing interracial romantic comedy never goes into the details of its numbskull title, but it does explain such things as the perfect temperature for listening to the music of Charlie Parker: 98.6 degrees, naturally. The film is a glossy satire of sexual attitudes and racial stereotypes, with a sunny disposition reflected in its protagonist: a would-be writer transplanted to French Canada from somewhere in Africa (on Thursdays he's from Madagascar) who enjoys cruising gullible white women. The scenario, not unlike that of any optimistic TV ad (in which everyone is young, attractive and single, and the weather is always warm and cloudless), is totally unreal, but the film is so cheerful and sometimes so witty that it's easy to overlook the occasional sexism and lack of any real story. All the women are strictly Barbie Dolls, regarded by the otherwise unnamed 'Man' as little more than willing sex objects, and they in turn see him in much the same light – which may be all part of the point, but it doesn't make the characters any less superficial.
6 Reviews
The biggest disappointment from Quebec in its recent film history
GMeleJr4 August 1999
HOW TO MAKE LOVE TO A NEGRO offers an even more offensive French title, where "negre", a term identical to the banned English racial slur ni... is featured, presumably since "negre" also is a pejorative slang term for writer, the occupation of one of the "negres". However, from the very beginning it is obvious that the use of "negres" was indeed intended to offend. (The English-dubbed Canadian VHS often voices the racial slur rather than the words negro or black. In fact, everything about the movie is offensive: the fatally-flawed theme, the boring plot, the amateurish acting, not to mention the inclusion in the cast of Roy Dupuis, one of Canada's great young actors in a ridiculous but mercifully small role. The blanket racial and sexual stereotypes will offend blacks, whites, men, women, sexual minorities, policemen, ... even the Chinese and the Japanese (who have no connection to the plot whatsoever) are gratuitously attacked during a conversation between a racist hyper-macho black man, and a racist white neo-colonialist white who, out of nowhere, comes to the conclusion that Chinese, Japanese, those... are all the same. Obviously, the intent of the filmmakers was to offend every possible segment of the population. Maybe Woody Allen and a few others can get away with that, but certainly not these pretentious amateurs. I'm a big fan of Canadian cinema, especially Quebecois films, and this is the only one of over a hundred or so I have found totally worthless, and indeed the only film I haver rated on this data base under 5. I give it a one, since no lower score is available as a choice.
Yikes...
queen_meow_of_ontario12 August 2015
This is one of those movies that you come across on the bottom shelf of your local video store, covered in dust from not being touched in years. You look at the title, close your eyes and open them again to make sure that you're not dreaming, and look at it again in unadulterated disbelief. You bring it to the front of the store and sheepishly present it to the video store clerk (or, in my case as I work there, hide the fact you're taking it home out of embarrassment), and pray to whichever God that the employee doesn't give you a quizzical look. But he does. After all, you're renting a movie that: a) Is called "How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired" and b) renting a movie that no one has even looked at the box since the store acquired the tape.
This is one of those movies that you bring home and you already know that it's going to be bad. Hopefully a good sort of bad? You're still praying to your God at this point that there will be at least an inkling of unintentional humour in it, and that your hard-earned money won't go to waste. But as soon as you pop the tape in to your VCR, you're already regretting it. It's too late, though. Within the first few minutes, you can't believe that you spent $5 to rent it. $5 down the drain, to watch a movie contaminated with casual slings of the "N" word by the white characters, and casual dismisses of such language by our two protagonists, who are more stale than last week's bread. You immediately notice that there isn't any attempt at even a half-baked plot, and that you're just watching a group of jackoffs ramble about jazz and stoner-quality philosophy for 90 minutes.
For some reason unbeknownst to you, however, you can't stop watching it. Maybe because you can't believe you spent $5 on it and don't want it to see it thrown in the trash? Or maybe because you want to see how prolonged this disaster of a movie can go on. Or maybe because you're watching a movie called How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired, and only for that title alone. In whichever case, your prayers to your God have gone unanswered. There is nothing of quality within this movie, and once it's finally over, and you're looking it up on the Internet, you see that the main character of Claire Denis' acclaimed film Chocolat is the star of this trainwreck, that the secondary protagonist is now a politician for the Bloq Quebecois, and that Canada's own National Film Board was responsible for it's distribution. And right there and then, you reject your religion as there is no god who would ever allow this to happen.
This is one of those movies that you bring home and you already know that it's going to be bad. Hopefully a good sort of bad? You're still praying to your God at this point that there will be at least an inkling of unintentional humour in it, and that your hard-earned money won't go to waste. But as soon as you pop the tape in to your VCR, you're already regretting it. It's too late, though. Within the first few minutes, you can't believe that you spent $5 to rent it. $5 down the drain, to watch a movie contaminated with casual slings of the "N" word by the white characters, and casual dismisses of such language by our two protagonists, who are more stale than last week's bread. You immediately notice that there isn't any attempt at even a half-baked plot, and that you're just watching a group of jackoffs ramble about jazz and stoner-quality philosophy for 90 minutes.
For some reason unbeknownst to you, however, you can't stop watching it. Maybe because you can't believe you spent $5 on it and don't want it to see it thrown in the trash? Or maybe because you want to see how prolonged this disaster of a movie can go on. Or maybe because you're watching a movie called How to Make Love to a Negro Without Getting Tired, and only for that title alone. In whichever case, your prayers to your God have gone unanswered. There is nothing of quality within this movie, and once it's finally over, and you're looking it up on the Internet, you see that the main character of Claire Denis' acclaimed film Chocolat is the star of this trainwreck, that the secondary protagonist is now a politician for the Bloq Quebecois, and that Canada's own National Film Board was responsible for it's distribution. And right there and then, you reject your religion as there is no god who would ever allow this to happen.
sarcastic multicultural clash
jpg9228 September 2005
Warning: Spoilers
If you feel that using some words is the most offensive thing ever, don't watch this movie (you probably wouldn't anyway). I wouldn't call it offensive, but sarcastic.
GMeleJr got it right in his comment about the writing term - a "n è g r e", a.k.a. slave, is someone who writes books whose writing credits goes to someone else, usually someone famous, ensuring more profits - see Stephen King's last 15 years of work, or most best-selling authors. But this word has more significance in French culture, usually as a reference to exploitation or low social status - nothing racist against black peoples. Some of the more radical nationalists used to call Quebec peoples white "N*grs". Most of these connotations apply to this movie main plot.
Although it been a while since I've seen this movie, I studied the novel in college so I have a quite different interpretation than GMeleJr.
From a strictly artistic perspective, it would be a mistake to see this movie as more than what it is: the mainstream comic adaptation of a post-modern novel. Of course it is slightly offensive, but nothing serious,especially compared to today's post south-park standards. It is some kind of auto fiction where a black unsuccessful writer fornicates with rich white girls and assigns each of em a nickname - miss something. It wisely plays out of the conservative white guy unconscious fear that any black guy could sexually please his wife better than he can. And of course, as a comic requirement, some more easy racial clichés humor occurs.
This movie (and book) artistic qualities go beyond it intrinsic ones, because it was an important symbolic part of Québec literature and cinema transition from archaic and regional to post-modernism. Before that, most of Québec cinematographic production consisted mostly of historic sagas and regionalisms, where Neo-Québécois occupied only caricatured roles. After that, things evolved a lot. But for the first time in a large audience movie, the title character was black; and it was a terribly sarcastic movie. After that, everything was permitted.
What I like most about this movie is that it contributed to social progress while being an easy-going commercial flick. Only the title was enough to publicize this movie - and have us kids laugh in the schoolyard at that time for the sex reference...
Sarcasm rules!
addendum - For those concerned by any possible redneck KKK relations or believing that a movie could become mainstream in Montréal by being Racist, Gratuitously offensive or anything like it in an non sarcastic way, suffice to say that this film was written by Dany Laferrière, an Haitian-born Canadian Living mostly in Miami and amongst Québec's intellectual elites. And the Main Actor, a Neo-Québécois born in Cameroon, later got his Canadian citizenship and is now a federal Member of Parliament for Québec Separatist Party Le Bloc Québécois. And Maybe you should read some history. I think it would settle things up.
GMeleJr got it right in his comment about the writing term - a "n è g r e", a.k.a. slave, is someone who writes books whose writing credits goes to someone else, usually someone famous, ensuring more profits - see Stephen King's last 15 years of work, or most best-selling authors. But this word has more significance in French culture, usually as a reference to exploitation or low social status - nothing racist against black peoples. Some of the more radical nationalists used to call Quebec peoples white "N*grs". Most of these connotations apply to this movie main plot.
Although it been a while since I've seen this movie, I studied the novel in college so I have a quite different interpretation than GMeleJr.
From a strictly artistic perspective, it would be a mistake to see this movie as more than what it is: the mainstream comic adaptation of a post-modern novel. Of course it is slightly offensive, but nothing serious,especially compared to today's post south-park standards. It is some kind of auto fiction where a black unsuccessful writer fornicates with rich white girls and assigns each of em a nickname - miss something. It wisely plays out of the conservative white guy unconscious fear that any black guy could sexually please his wife better than he can. And of course, as a comic requirement, some more easy racial clichés humor occurs.
This movie (and book) artistic qualities go beyond it intrinsic ones, because it was an important symbolic part of Québec literature and cinema transition from archaic and regional to post-modernism. Before that, most of Québec cinematographic production consisted mostly of historic sagas and regionalisms, where Neo-Québécois occupied only caricatured roles. After that, things evolved a lot. But for the first time in a large audience movie, the title character was black; and it was a terribly sarcastic movie. After that, everything was permitted.
What I like most about this movie is that it contributed to social progress while being an easy-going commercial flick. Only the title was enough to publicize this movie - and have us kids laugh in the schoolyard at that time for the sex reference...
Sarcasm rules!
addendum - For those concerned by any possible redneck KKK relations or believing that a movie could become mainstream in Montréal by being Racist, Gratuitously offensive or anything like it in an non sarcastic way, suffice to say that this film was written by Dany Laferrière, an Haitian-born Canadian Living mostly in Miami and amongst Québec's intellectual elites. And the Main Actor, a Neo-Québécois born in Cameroon, later got his Canadian citizenship and is now a federal Member of Parliament for Québec Separatist Party Le Bloc Québécois. And Maybe you should read some history. I think it would settle things up.
Underrated
vuktom28 September 2020
Laughing at hypocrites
okbotamo9 December 2020
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