Eve's Bayou (1998, DVD)

Independent Kasi Lemmon's first feature film Eve's Bayou has all the makings of a movie that will be remembered later, although ignored for the present. It is beautifully filmed, and the performances are subtle and magnificent. The movie will focus on a particular family in the deep South, and as it turns out, a very unusual family. In the time of the portrayal, it is 1962. The family is black, but well educated and aristocratic. The father is a medical doctor. The story will be told from the standpoint of a child's (Eve's) memory, as remembered by the narrator now able to verbalize. It is...

With the upcoming release of The Caveman s Valentine, I felt it only fitting to review Kasi Lemmons feature directorial debut, Eve s Bayou, which she also penned. Eve s Bayou starts with a vocal bang, as Eve describes the summer she killed her father, when she was ten years old. The opening credits are laid with sparse voiceover on black and white images of body parts as seen through young Eve s eye. These actually reveal a man and a woman having sex. The narrator, Eve as an adult, also tells how memory is really a series of selective images that come together to form a tapestry in the mind...

The emotionally powerful film, "Eve's Bayou," is the first film written and directed by Kasi Lemmons. It is a character driven story with the lead performance by ten year old Jurnee Smollett in her first major film role. It is one of the most beautiful filmed and perfectly told stories on film of recent years, and sadly it has not been seen by near enough. Set in the depths of Louisiana, it is the story of a wealthy family, descended of a slave named Eve who saved her master's life and was given her freedom for doing so. "Memory is a selection of images, some elusive, others printed indelibly.

Set on the bayous of Louisiana, Eve's Bayou is about a family with many hidden secrets. The Batiste family strive to survive the family secrets they have kept and the betrayals they have endured.Lynn Whitfield, the mother tries to keep her family together against all odds. Her biggest problem, her wandering husband (Samuel L. Jackson). The youngest daughter, Eve, witness her father with another woman. She struggles with this and turns to others in the family for help. Finding none, she takes matters into her own hands. If you want voodoo and sensual scenes, watch this move. Please don't allow.