Plot
Eve Batiste, a 10-year-old girl, lives in a prosperous Creole-American community in Louisiana with her younger brother Poe and her older sister Cisely in the 1960s. Their parents are Roz and Louis, a well-respected doctor in Louisiana's African American community who claims descent from the French aristocrat who founded the town of Eve's Bayou. One night after a raucous party, Eve accidentally witnesses her father having sex with Matty Mereaux, a family friend. However, Cisely, who has a very affectionate relationship with her father, convinces Eve that she misinterpreted an innocent moment. The unreliability of memory and observation remain important themes throughout the film.
The summer quickly becomes a chaotic and stressful one for the Batiste family. Eve's relationship with her parents becomes more strained as she discovers more evidence of her father's serial infidelity. Cisely comes into conflict with both her sister and mother as she enters puberty and tries to navigate the difficult transition to adulthood, particularly with regard to her appearance and sexuality. Roz eventually begins to suspect her husband's infidelity, prompting conflict between the two as well.
Throughout the duration of the film, Eve often seeks refuge with her Aunt Mozelle, who works as a Hoodoo Practitioner with a neighborhood reputation as "The Black Widow". Eve, who also has the Spiritual gift of sight, has a premonitory dream shortly before an accident occurs, claiming Mozelle's third husband.
Mozelle's gift also brings her into direct conflict with Elzora, a fortune teller and possible witch with similar abilities. When asked for a reading by Roz, Elzora implies that an unexpected "solution" to her problem will arise, but to wait and look to her children in the meantime. When Mozelle grudgingly makes a similar request, Elzora forces her to look and address the truth she refuses to see. Meanwhile, Eve, frustrated by her father's infidelity, begins to act out, bringing her into conflict with the other members of her family. Cisely begins to behave strangely as well, isolating herself from the family after experiencing her first period.
Cisely later confides in Eve the secret behind her strange mood. She tells her that one night, after their parents had a vicious argument, Cisely went to comfort her father and he, while drunk, attempted to molest her. Enraged, Eve seeks out Elzora to commission a voodoo spell to put a fatal curse on her father. While on her way to visit the witch, Eve runs into Lenny Mereaux and questions him about his teaching job that keeps him away from home. In the conversation, she alludes to a possible tryst between his wife, Matty, and her father.
When Eve finally arrives to Elzora's home, she finds her to be not as scary as she expected but rather normal instead. While her expectation is to receive a voodoo doll of her father, she is simply told that the curse has been placed per her request. With regret, and in an attempt to save her father, Eve rushes to bring him home after finding him in a bar chatting with Matty Mereaux. At the same time, a drunken Lenny arrives to take Matty home. After a confrontation, Lenny and Matty leave the bar, and Lenny tells Louis that he will kill him if he talks to Matty again. After Louis says goodbye to Matty, Lenny shoots and kills Louis.
After her father's funeral, Eve soon finds a letter which her father wrote to Mozelle, disputing the accusations. In it, he claims that Cisely had come to him that night and kissed him, first as a daughter and then as a lover. In his drunken state, he reacted violently, slapping her and pushing her to the ground, which made her angry with him. Eve confronts Cisely and uses her second sight to discover what really happened. It ends with the sisters holding hands, gazing at the sunset.
Production
Development
Kasi Lemmons first wrote the screenplay in 1993. [10] Lemmons said the screenplay "originated as a series of short stories, and the children were the first layers in the short stories." [11] Lemmons was inspired by childhood trips she took to Louisiana, saying she "wanted to write a story about people who were like royalty in a small town. Louisiana has a unique history in the U.S. It was one of the only places where slaves could buy their freedom. Even in the 1700s, there were free people of color who had citizenship because the state was owned by the French." [3]
Though the story is not autobiographical, Lemons said "there are definitely pieces of my family in it", [10] and that the writing process was therapeutic, as it allowed her to process "things that happened to me—things that I was still wrestling with...At the core of Eve, it’s me and my childhood and wrestling with how powerful I was as a child. How did I fight my way through uncomfortable situations and the distress that I felt?” [11]
When Lemons and producer Caldecot Chubb could not find interest from studios to finance the film or potential directors to helm the production, Lemons decided to direct it herself. [10] After reading the script, Samuel L. Jackson came on board as both a producer and lead actor. [5] [12] Jackson said, "Louis Batiste was definitely someone I hadn't seen before. A family man with interesting conflicts and a romantic and glamorous life. I don't get to play those kinds of guys." [10] In 1996, the independent company Trimark Pictures agreed to finance the film. [10]
Casting
Lemmons had known many of the film's principal actors from her days acting in New York theatre. [10] Meagan Good was originally cast as 10-year-old Eve Batiste, but by the time the film's financing came together, Good had grown out of the role and was instead cast as Eve's older sister Cisely. [3]
Reception
The film received positive reviews, with the Chicago Sun-Times ' Roger Ebert naming it the best film of 1997. [13] [14] [15] CNN's Paul Tatara, [16] Empire , [17] Entertainment Weekly , [18] the Los Angeles Times , [19] The New York Observer , [20] The New York Times , [21] Time , [22] Variety , [23] and The Washington Post [24] also enthusiastically praised the film and its performances.
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 83% based on 129 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "Eve's Bayou marks a striking feature debut for director Kasi Lemmons, layering terrific performances and Southern mysticism into a measured meditation on disillusionment and forgiveness." [25]
In a 2017 retrospective essay for Vulture , Angelica Jade Bastién wrote, "The film operates deftly on multiple levels: It’s a stunning coming-of-age tale (an exceedingly rare example of one that privileges the experience of young black girls); an honest, hyperspecific portrait of black life in rural Louisiana; and one of the greatest writer-director debuts in American cinematic history." [26]
The film received multiple accolades, including Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards and Outstanding Directorial Debut for Kasi Lemmons from the National Board of Review Awards. [27] [28] Debbi Morgan's performance would be her most honored film role to date, with awards for Best Supporting Actress from the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards [29] and the Independent Spirit Awards, [27] alongside four other nominations. The film is also seen as a breakthrough for Jurnee Smollett; up to that point, she had primarily worked as a TV actress. [30] For her performance, Smollett won a Critics' Choice Award [31] and a San Diego Film Critics Society Award.
