Monday 17 August 2009

Chien Blanc/White Dog




Chien Blanc, is an autobiographical novel written by Romain Gary. It is a fictionalised memoir set in both the United States and France during the American civil rights movement in the 1960s. Chien Blanc focuses on the events that occur after Gary and his then-wife Jean Seberg, an actress and an activist, find a seemingly lovable stray German Shepherd dog they name Batka. At first, the dog is an ideal new member of the family: intelligent, devoted, and quickly befriending the couple's assortment of other animals. To their dismay, they discover that the dog, a former Alabama police dog, was trained to attack African Americans on sight. Although they are told the dog is too old to be retrained, they take him to a black dog trainer in an attempt to retrain him. The man trains the dog to attack white people, including Gary himself. White Dog quickly became a bestseller in the United States after its release in English. The story was purchased for use by Paramount in 1975, with Curtis Hanson ( LA Confidential, entre autres ) selected to write the screenplay and Roman Polanski hired to direct. However, Polanski was charged with statutory rape and fled the country, leaving the production in limbo. White Dog became a 1982 American drama film directed by Samuel Fuller.
I have not read the book and have not seen the film. Hence I do not know how it ends. Somehow , I feel the dog does not fare well.
Does anybody know?

2 comments:

Whispering Walls said...

We may need a glass of Chenin Blanc to recover from this story

Eurodog said...

Yes, WW, good one!