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The Yellow Cruise

Name: The Yellow Cruise
Director: Léon Poirier, André Sauvage
Released: 1934
Duration: 90 min

Representation Score

1.9/10

Minimal

1934

Director

Léon Poirier, André Sauvage

Runtime

90 minutes

Average Rating

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New Showbiz Analysis

The Yellow Cruise mainly serves as a testament to Western technological prowess and early 20th-century exploration. Although it offers extensive visual documentation of Asian geography and populations, the narrative focuses on the exploits of a homogeneous group of Western men. The film's structure, centered around showcasing the technical achievements of the Citroën vehicles, highlights the logistical success of the French expedition. This focus often overshadows the lived experiences of the local populations encountered during the journey along the Silk Road. Overall, the film upholds the era's emphasis on industrial progress and the dominance of Western expeditionary culture without questioning established social hierarchies.

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Category Breakdown

Does The Yellow Cruise have LGBTQ+ representation?

Minimal

The film does not include any LGBTQ+ characters or stories that go beyond the assumption that everyone is straight or cisgender.

How does The Yellow Cruise portray gender?

Limited

The story focuses solely on male characters and reinforces traditional ideas about masculinity and control over technology. Women play no significant role in driving the plot.

How racially and ethnically diverse is The Yellow Cruise?

Fair

The film captures a variety of ethnic groups along the Silk Road but tends to highlight Western achievements rather than the lives of local people.

How does The Yellow Cruise represent religion and culture?

Limited

The movie emphasizes Western industrial advancements and modernization, focusing on the success of Western machines over local cultural viewpoints and traditions.

Does The Yellow Cruise include disability representation?

Minimal

There is no specific information about how the film portrays people with disabilities.

Present on Screen

It provides extensive visual documentation of the diverse landscapes and populations along the Silk Road.
It offers a detailed historical record of early 20th-century travel and geography in the Middle and Far East.

Limited or Absent

The Eurocentric viewpoint minimizes the ability to act of non-Western populations, presenting them as background rather than main characters.
The all-male cast of the expedition excludes gender diversity and female involvement.
The narrative prioritizes Western industrial success over local cultural nuances and perspectives.

Official Synopsis

The Yellow Cruise is a French documentary film initially directed by André Sauvage and taken over by Léon Poirier following the intervention of André Citroën. The film was presented in Paris in 1934. André Sauvage was hired by the Pathé-Natan company to follow the yellow cruise through Asia. In 1931 and 1932, forty-two men, including Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, scholars and doctors traveled thirty thousand kilometers on the Silk Road through the Middle and Far East, in caterpillar propellants. Together, despite the bad weather, the difficulties of the terrain, the mechanical failures and the political conflicts, they reached Beijing on February 12, 1932. André Citroën who asked to see the film, dissatisfied with the result, bought it from Bernard Natan and entrusted the editing by Léon Poirier, who had filmed La Croisière Noire in Africa in 1926. This film will mark the break in the film career of André Sauvage.

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