Louisiana Story

Louisiana Story is a 1948 American black-and-white drama film directed by Robert J. Flaherty. Although the events and characters depicted are fictional and the film was commissioned by the Standard Oil Company to promote its drilling ventures in the Louisiana bayous, it is often misidentified as a documentary film when in fact it is a docufiction. Its script was written by Frances H. Flaherty and Robert J. Flaherty.

Louisiana Story
Theatrical release poster
Directed byRobert J. Flaherty
Produced byRobert J. Flaherty
Written byRobert J. Flaherty
Frances H. Flaherty
StarringJoseph Boudreaux
Lionel Le Blanc
E. Bienvenu
Frank Hardy
Oscar J Yarborough
Music byVirgil Thomson
CinematographyRichard Leacock
Edited byHelen van Dongen
Production
company
Robert Flaherty Productions Inc. for Standard Oil Co. of New Jersey
Distributed byLopert Films
Release date
  • September 28, 1948 (1948-09-28) (U.S.)
Running time
78 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
French

Plot

The film deals with the adventures of a young Cajun boy and his pet raccoon, who live a somewhat idyllic existence playing in the bayous of Louisiana. A sub-plot involves his elderly father's allowing an oil company to drill for oil in the inlet that runs behind their house. A completely assembled miniature oil rig on a slender barge is towed into the inlet from connecting narrow waterways. Although there is a moment of crisis when the rig strikes a gas pocket, most of this is dealt with swiftly and off-camera, and the barge, rig, and friendly drillers depart expeditiously, leaving behind a phenomenally clean environment and a wealthy Cajun family.

Conflict and action for the plot is provided by the presence of a giant alligator in the area, which is believed to have eaten the pet raccoon and which is hunted in revenge. There is no individual or organized resistance to the incursion of the oil seekers, even after the (brief, offscreen) disaster, who are unequivocally portrayed as friendly, progressive humanitarians.

The boy, named in the film as Alexander Napoleon Ulysses Le Tour, but in the credits just identified as "the boy", was played by Joseph Boudreaux. The film was photographed by Richard Leacock and edited by Helen van Dongen, who were also the associate producers. Its original release was through independent film distributor Lopert Films.

Production

The film was shot on location in the Louisiana bayou country,[1] using local residents for actors. However, none of the members of the Cajun family (boy, father and mother) were related, and the film does not deal with Cajun culture, the reality of the hard lives of the Cajun people, or with the mechanics of drilling for oil. The story is completely fictional.

In 1952, it was reissued by an exploitation film outfit with a new title, Cajun, on the bottom half of a double-bill with another film titled Watusi.[2]

Reception and awards

The film was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Writing, Motion Picture Story in 1948.[3] In 1949, Virgil Thomson won the Pulitzer Prize for Music for his score to the film (which is based on a famous field tape of indigenous Cajun musicians and was performed by the Philadelphia Symphony). Through 2016, this has remained the only Pulitzer Prize awarded for a film score.[4][5] In 1994, Louisiana Story was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". The movie was also in the top 10 of the first British Film Institute's Sight and Sound poll in 1952.

The film is recognized by the American Film Institute in these lists:

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See also

References
  1. LIFE. Time Inc. 2 May 1949. p. 137. ISSN 0024-3019.
  2. Calder-Marshall, Arthur; Rotha, Paul; Wright, Basil (1963). The Innocent Eye: The Life of Robert J. Flaherty. Harcourt, Brace & World. p. 224.
  3. Gevinson, Alan (1997). Within Our Gates: Ethnicity in American Feature Films, 1911-1960. University of California Press. p. 614. ISBN 978-0-520-20964-0.
  4. McLane, Barbara A. (2012). A New History of Documentary Film: Second Edition. Bloomsbury Academic. p. 68. ISBN 978-1441124579.
  5. Wikipedia list of Pulitzer Prizes for Music
  6. "AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores Nominees" (PDF). Retrieved 2016-08-06.
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