Scanialara You won't be disappointed!

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

FuzzyTagz If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Nicole I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

atlasmb Per Wikipedia, "In 1779, more than 500 Haitian volunteers from Saint-Domingue, Haiti under the command of Comte d'Estaing, fought alongside American colonial troops against the British in the Siege of Savannah, one of the most significant foreign contributions to the American Revolutionary War."In later years, the destinies of the two countries would diverge. Though the United States would endure a tragic civil war, its story would be fairly stable. Haiti would suffer through colonialism, a slave revolution and untold coups.Again per Wikipedia, "In January 1914, British, German and US forces entered Haiti, ostensibly to protect their citizens from civil unrest at the time. In an expression of the Theodore Roosevelt Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine, the United States occupied the island in 1915. US Marines were stationed in the country until 1934... Haitian traditionalists, based in rural areas, were highly resistant to American-backed changes, while the urban elites wanted more control. Together they helped gain an end to the occupation in 1934"In the 1970s, "Baby Doc" Duvalier was in power. He and those close to him were alleged to have extracted hundreds of millions of dollars from Haiti's economy. It is during this time that Heading South takes place.The film primarily takes place at a beachfront hotel that caters to tourists. There we meet three women (Brenda, Ellen and Sue) from Canada, Boston and Savannah who consider the location idyllic. It is true that resorts can operate largely separate from their surrounding environments. They can feel like islands, insulated from the usual cares of the world.The hotel serves as the intersection of two cultures. Employees are Haitian, tourists are not. In fact, the three women are there specifically to enjoy what they see as the island's simpler, uninhibited way of life. A young man named Legba represents that lifestyle. Two of them spend their energies and monies on Legba to gain his attentions, sexual and otherwise. The third woman says she is "in love" with Neptune, another native who exchanges favors with her.In the beginning of the film, the viewer is confronted with questions about sexual double standards and women's liberation. Voice-overs and monologues spoken to the camera augment the action, revealing the joys these women experience in their sexual retreat. They are no longer confined by the mores of their home societies. In effect, they operate extra-culturally, unjudged (they think).As the story progresses, we are given glimpses into Legba's life outside the hotel property. We see the surrounding poverty, abuse of power and--through the eyes of an ex-girlfriend--the horrible realities of an oppressive and corrupt regime.In the end, the cultures collide and the illusory existence of the women is brutally exploded. Under tragic circumstances, we see their underlying personalities--dishonest, uncoping, self-conscious and even paranoid. Brenda chooses the only coping mechanism she can perceive--to search for another island.The voice-overs and monologues serve to break up the action of the film. Likewise, forays away from the hotel and some portions that deal with the attitudes and perceptions of the hotel manager disrupt the flow of the film. But that works. It creates a feeling of imbalance that visitors to another culture often experience, reminding us that the story of these three women is not operating in a vacuum.Filmgoers might take different messages from the narrative, which is fine. Questions are raised that the viewer must confront--a real indication that Heading South achieves its purpose.

s k The real problem with this movie is NOT that it depicts "women having fun", as another reviewer stated. It's that the women who were having the fun were disproportionately powerful in relation to the men with whom they were having the fun. The relationships were clearly exploitative, and the women were clearly lacking in awareness into their own motivations. So, for example, at least two of the three women (Ellen and Brenda) were in love, or at the very least emotionally dependent upon their relationship with the main male protagonist, Legba. Yet they seemed, for the most part, to be oblivious to their own inner workings and feelings.As such, it was impossible to feel any empathy for any of the women in this film. If that was the director's intent, then he succeeded. Furthermore, if it was the director's intent to show the power imbalance between the women and the men in this film, then I'd have to say he succeeded in that as well. But ironically, these apparent successes were achieved in spite of, rather than because of, the words the characters were saying. And that's usually a bad thing in a film. Unless, of course, that really was the director's intent from the start. In that case, he did an excellent job of portraying stupid, selfish, arrogant, Colonialist middle aged white women exploiting the poor residents of an oppressed country.

johnnyboyz If the roles in terms of gender within Heading South had been reversed, there'd surely be some sort of mass outcry. The film might've veered away from the style and study it actually encompasses and turned into a lad-orientated picture about young men abroad, treating the respective nation like it was there own. Such is a way of pointing out the little things that would make a big difference in a film like Heading South; a picture that tells the story of white, middle-aged, western women in the Caribbean nation of Haiti looking for strapping, young men whom they pay for sex but additionally trying to find some sort of solace within themselves.As it is, I found Heading South to be a border-line success, but a success regardless. The film covers Ellen (Rampling); Brenda (Young) and Sue (Portal), three women who have made regular trips to the nation of Haiti over the years for certain reasons. For the benefit of the first-time audience member, who's seeing the film for the first time, their visits are established to be sporadic enough, allowing us to consider them minute fish-out-of-their-respective-waters and thus; we can enjoy the film as a first time visitor ourselves as this strange, new world complete with those that inhabit it is unfolded before our own eyes.What strikes me on some further reading is that the film was actually written by two men, one named Robin Campillo and the other being the director himself, a certain Laurent Cantet. The film was actually based on a series of short stories by Dany Laferrière. The film isn't really about sex tourism in Haiti, or any other nation, in fact it isn't really about sex tourism at all. The film does not attempt to explore what drives people to go to these places and nor does it treat the material in any sort of ominous or sordid manner. The idea to have the action set in Haiti is a very deliberate one; Haiti mostly being put across here as a lush, colourful and tropical place with beaches and sunshine creating a fluffy, lush atmosphere. The film may have been very different in tone and study had it taken its ideas and background to do with sex tourism and shifted everything to a rainy, cold and rundown Amsterdam or in the Far East. Maybe Thailand, for example.But do not think the film is a glorification of anything in particular. Haiti and the setting of a place sex tourism is rife is used as a bedded down, and very slow, isolated area for these women to just come together and interact following a supposed shunning back home. Nobody is going to travel thousands of miles just so that they can interact with people they could interact with at home, but these women do and it's done deliberately. It is a finding of peace in some regards; a small garden of Eden in which nothing else exists or matters on the outside and somewhere in which these women can feel important.The film begins with Brenda touching down and being transported to an idyllic haven in which quality food in good restaurants; nice hotels, warm weather and quaint beaches are the order of the day. This is all shared with other women of her age and predicament, whilst young; attractive black; male locals skirt around in not much bar swimming trunks. They are not allowed near the restaurant and do not say or do much unless requested to – it is not so far from some kind of Utopian, female supremacy-driven paradise; cut off from all apart from those lucky enough to know where it is and be able to frequent it. For a male to come up with this scenario and write short stories about it only for a further two to come along and produce a film out of it is quite interesting; significantly in a sense linked to do with including real life experiences; feelings; opinions or, indeed fantasies into your own written texts.In order to get to 'Eden' however, Brenda must be transported through the slums of Port-au-Prince, a very deliberate tactic by the director as the background to the 'real' Haiti is placed just the other side of a car window, Brenda keeping her head faced front for most of the journey – ever focused on where she'll soon be. With this idea comes the slight study Heading South wants to make. One such local male whom frequents the beach goes by the name of Legba (Cesar), played by an actor of no considerable note which leaves me thinking he was indeed a local. Legba attracts the fondness of more than one woman but runs foul of another local individual that sees them play out a chase sequence. The point being that, while these somewhat pompous Western women come to Haiti for 'escape' and a little slice of heaven, given the chance, some of the more accustomed Haitians would not mind getting out.But as I said earlier on, Haiti acts as a lush and appealing place. The hard-boiled and street-level gritty stuff works on a basic level, as does the idea that below the utopia is, in fact, a dystopia. We cannot be fed an hour of drawn out, beautiful locales and then be expected to suddenly slip into dank, depressive mode when in appears one of the beach boys is living a troubled life linked to crime; often gives his earnings to his struggling mother and those that sell drinks have their business trashed. The shift doesn't work. But Heading South does on the whole, and won me over by the end with its love story involving people we do not immediately come to identify with.

roland-104 French writer-director Laurent Cantet creates films in which an intimate drama of well etched characters plays out within a broader subtext, a backdrop that focuses on some larger social issue. Heading South is about unattached white women of sufficient means to enjoy Caribbean vacations and indulge their sexual appetites with local men. This story is set against the misery of an impoverished underclass in early 1970s Port-au-Prince, Haiti.Charlotte Rampling plays Ellen, a college English teacher in Boston who's been coming to a particular beachfront hotel for years. She spends all summer. Unsentimental, lusty and outspoken, she pays for the attentions of Legba (Ménothy César) a lovely young lad of 18 who can make Ellen come when she merely thinks about him. She has no illusions about this arrangement, or so it seems for a while. She knows that Legba services many tourists like her, makes his living this way, probably supports his family as well. She's the ringleader of a circle of women, each with a favorite local gigolo in tow.Upsetting this idyllic arrangement, Brenda (Karen Young) arrives on the scene. She's the antithesis of Ellen, a mopey, sad sack of a woman, 10 years Ellen's junior but with none of the older woman's appeal. Brenda's a terminal romantic and entirely self-centered. She had in fact seduced Legba three years earlier, when he was 15, has thought of him daily since then, and, following a divorce, is now returning to find and take up with him again. She's in love.Brenda boldly lays claim to Legba, who tries to service her on the side while still maintaining his connection to Ellen. No way. Initially amused by Brenda's earnestness, Ellen gradually reveals that she is not as tough as she would have people believe. She is deeply hurt and angry in fact when Legba rejects her to spend more time exclusively with Brenda.Legba is playing his own game. He's not in love with Brenda. But she is giving him plenty of gifts. If anything, he toys with her sober infatuation, perhaps finds it a refreshing change of pace from Ellen's frankness and mock insults. But Brenda isn't playing by the rules. This throws everybody off and ratchets up tensions.We begin to see into Legba's his town life, where the picture is far from rosy. A destitute mother. An old girlfriend who has become the mistress of a wealthy gangster but begs for Legba's company. We see him interrupt a street soccer match to rescue his young sidekick Eddy from possible arrest or worse by a cop who drinks a pop from the boy's sidewalk stand without paying, and kicks over the stand when Eddy protests.Ellen learns that Legba is in trouble, hunted by a gunman who works for the gangster. She begs him to let her help, to protect him, even to go to Boston with her to live, but he won't hear of it. We can see that she cares for his welfare in a genuine sense. But the gulf between them, which Ellen had lulled herself into ignoring, is ever present to Legma.We receive a fuller, more insightful picture of Haitian sensibilities toward whites from Albert (Lys Ambroise), the chief factotum of management at the hotel. We get Albert's take through a long aside, a soliloquy spoken into the camera, directly to us. Ellen, Brenda and Sue take their turns giving us information on their backgrounds and sentiments in using the same dramatic device. Always a perilous film tactic, it works well here. Albert's contempt for the white overclass runs deep, a passion that had been passed down from his grandparents.He speaks of the power of American money over the poor local population. Where the French stole their independence, and the Duvaliers stole their worldly goods, the Americans are stealing their dignity, and right under Albert's nose. As he sees it, the young native men hustling tourist women, trading sex for money and baubles, are degrading themselves, but feel forced to do so to make a living.For his part, Legba is also deeply sensitive to these circumstances. He has little trouble recognizing Brenda as his original seducer, and is enraged when he sees her dirty dancing with young Eddy on the beach. It isn't at all clear that any of the women, not Brenda, not even Ellen, can fathom the broader context and harsher ironies underlying their connections with their boyfriends. Ellen says she has no interest in going into town, that it's a bore. We can surmise that Legba would much prefer to live his life among his own people and no longer prostitute himself. Ellen's notion of how best to help him is, for all her seeming savvy, naive.We can hope that the screenplay is authentic, for it is based on three short stories by the native Haitian novelist Dany Laferrière, who was born in 1953 in Port-au-Prince. He was a late teenager himself in the years when this script is set. He abruptly left Haiti in 1976, fearing for his life, and has lived in Montreal since (spending some time in Miami as well).Cantet never insults the viewer's intelligence by dispensing sociologic wisdom or overreaching with his chosen conceits. The characters play out their lives on vividly realistic terms. By the end some people have died, and the principal women have exchanged psychological places. Ellen, now bereft and vulnerable, goes home to Boston and, presumably, a life of embitterment. In the final scene we see a refreshed Brenda, journeying off to tour more islands, bound for new adventures, now acting the sexual predator, but dragging her wrecking ball behind her. Filmed on location in Haiti. (In French & English) My grades: 8.5/10 (A-) (Seen on 09/21/06)