"Paris a tout prix": a cinematic experience

saw a movie tonight at the university of yaounde's amphitheater. only $1 (500cfa), sponsored by the sociology department and the european union (interesting in itself?), "paris a tout prix" ("paris at any cost") is a film directed, written by and starring a cameroonian actress. the film portrays the main character's life of poverty in yaounde; her struggle to get out of it through escape, betrayal and prostitution; her success and arrival in paris; and finally, her misfortunes and return home. the amphitheater was pretty full -- films aren't shown that often on campus, maybe once every three months according to my friend aziz, a soc. major. the sociology dept. has been promoting this for a while, but it's not a campus-wide event. we got seats on the wooden benches and listened to an announcer ask trivia questions while music blared behind him. as soon as the lights went down, a big round of applause went up, only to become wild appreciation when the first frame of the intro credits came on the screen -- overhead helicopter shots of yaounde! our town! for the first ten minutes, almost every new camera angle got applause and whoops of laughter: a nicely dressed young woman walking through her slummy neighborhood, calling a motorcycle over to get to work, arriving and interacting with her boss, a customer in a business suit buying johnnie walker whiskey. the entire two hours were spent in fits of hilarity, confusion, agreement or disagreement, anger, frustration when the projector image broke up or the sound cut out, all at the decibel level of a lively american basketball crowd. it was a truly collective experience in a way that film is not in the states. such unabashed passion from all members of the crowd! man, what a trip. i cant wait to go to the theater next time i get a chance.