Naked Blue

Naked Blue

2022 · 17 min · ★ 5.0

Naked Blue was developed through a collaboration with Oumy Bruni Garrel, the film’s protagonist, and Devonté Hynes, who composed its score (performed by the Budapest Scoring Orchestra). From this combined star power emerges a work of startling intimacy, which follows then-13-year-old Oumy’s choreographed movements through a studio set painted an underwater blue, as she dances in front of mirrors and salutes an imaginary audience. Under the blazing lights and swelling music, her performance recalls a screen test or dance film—but the resulting work breaks free from the proscenium frame typical of those genres. — Museum of Modern Art

Directed by Mati Diop

Your Rating

Cast

Oumy Bruni Garrel

Make it a double feature

2h 12m together

Naked Blue

Queens of Drama

Both from Mati Diop.

More from Mati DiopSee all →

Queens of Drama

Queens of Drama · 2024

Queens of Drama

MovieMusicRomance

It's 2055 and Steevyshady, an obsessive Mimi Madamour stan, tells us of their idol’s mad destiny from the very peak of her career in 2005, all the way down to the pits of hell, a downfall brought about by her love story with punk icon Billie Kohler. Over the course of half a century we follow these drama queens as they top the charts and set sail on the course of mad queer love.

35 Shots of Rum

35 Shots of Rum · 2009

35 Shots of Rum

A widower and his daughter witness the retirement of a colleague of his and the closing of her department at her university.

A Thousand Suns

A Thousand Suns · 2013

A Thousand Suns

MovieDramaDocumentary

In 1972, Djibril Diop Mambety shoots "Touki Bouki." Mory and Anta are in love. Two young lovers share the same dream: to leave Dakar for Paris. At the fateful moment, Anta embarks. Mory stays alone on quay, unable to tear himself away from his land. Forty years later, "A Thousand Suns" investigates the personal and universal inheritance which represents "Touki Bouki." What has happened since? Magaye Niang, the hero of the movie, has never left Dakar. And today, the old cowboy wonders where Anta is, the love of his youth. Stories about family, exile and cinema meet between the sphere of intimacy and that of myth.

Atlantics

Atlantics · 2019

MovieDramaRomance

Arranged to marry a rich man, young Ada is crushed when her true love goes missing at sea during a migration attempt — until a miracle reunites them.

Dahomey

Dahomey · 2024

MovieDocumentary

Thousands of royal artifacts of Dahomey, a West African kingdom, were taken by French colonists in the 19th century for collection and display in Paris. Centuries later, a fraction returned to their home in modern-day Benin. This dramatized documentary follows the journey of 26 of the treasures as told by cultural art historians, embattled university students, and one of the repatriated statues himself.

Atlantiques

Atlantiques · 2009

MovieDocumentaryDrama

The odyssey of Senegalese friends who attempt a life-threatening boat crossing.

Simon Killer

Simon Killer · 2012

MovieDramaThriller

A recent college graduate flees to Paris after a break-up, where his involvement with a prostitute begins to reveal a potentially dark recent past.

In My Room

In My Room · 2020

Made during confinement, "In My Room" plunges us into the poignant story of a woman at the twilight of her life, through recordings of the director's deceased grandmother. Living rooms become stages where life is performed. Windows become portals to the lives of others.

L for Leisure

L for Leisure · 2015

A dreamy, ironic comedy about a generation of hedonistic students in the 1990s. Their favourite activity: talking endlessly. During a series of vacation days filled with sun-drenched naps, squabbling, waterskiing competitions and love-making, the amateur actors discuss their concerns in dry dialogues. For instance, semi-intellectual reflections on the end of time and how Michael Jordan plays basketball.

Both Sides of the Blade

Both Sides of the Blade · 2022

Both Sides of the Blade

MovieDramaRomance

Jean and Sara have been living together for 10 years. When they first met, Sara was living with François, Jean’s best friend and an admirer from back when he played rugby. Jean and Sara love each other. One day, Sara sees François in the street. He does not notice her, but she is overtaken by the sensation that her life could suddenly change. François gets back in touch with Jean. For the first time in years. He suggests they start working together again. From here on, things spiral out of control.

A History of Mutual Respect

A History of Mutual Respect · 2010

A History of Mutual Respect

When two boys leave for a philosophical journey and only one is prepared for it, their worlds will part forever.

Hermia & Helena

Hermia & Helena · 2016

Hermia & Helena

Camila, a young Argentine theater director, travels from Buenos Aires to New York to attend an artistic residency to develop a Spanish translation of Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Upon her arrival, she begins to receive a series of mysterious postcards which set her down a winding path through her past and towards her future.

Bye Bye

Bye Bye · 2011

MovieComedyDrama

Fort Buchanan

Fort Buchanan · 2014

MovieRomanceComedy

Four seasons to tell the fluctuating moods and mores of a small community that shares its daily chores and life experiences in the military base of Fort Buchanan. In this imagined (perhaps dreamed?) location, peculiar habits respond to the needs of a peculiar environment. Roger, a fragile gay man, and his female companions, trying to cope with the absence of their husbands, go through their own brand of challenges for survival, with their own form of outdoor camaraderie, thought-occupying chat and DIY activities. Roger has a tough daughter who runs him ragged, but he has buddies willing to help: Justine, Denise, Pamela and Claudia-Joy.

Snow Canon

Snow Canon · 2011

MovieRomanceDrama

February in the French Alps. Vanina likes to hear the chalet’s parquet floor squeaking beneath her bare feet. Vanina likes to coat herself in sunscreen cream in front of the fireplace. Vanina likes the tawny fur of her rabbit. But above all, what Vanina likes is her American babysitter, Mary Jane…

Liberian Boy

Liberian Boy · 2015

MovieMusicDocumentary

Jules had been hard at work rehearsing the steps to "Billie Jean" for the end-of-the-year show. That same year, he jumped onstage in the middle of a post-rock concert, took off his shirt, leapt into the crowd. That’s when we started to film him. Then we offered to spend a day in a studio and film him dancing.

More Like This

Couldn't load this row right now.

Rate this film

Your ratings make Midnight smarter