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one as he approaches. A little coon high up in the crutch of an old oak peers down at him. The boy smiles up at the coon. We cut back and forth from the coon to the boy, until the boy resumes his paddling and goes on through this wonderful scene. A water moccasin slithers out of his way ; he pays it not the least attention.
We keep following close behind the little boy. He is as appealing a lad as we could wish to look upon— alert, graceful, ready for any adventure. He is not too old, an off-stage voice tells us, to believe in fairies, in charms, and the mermaids that swim up into the bayous from the sea. He can tell the weirdest stories of the loupsgarous, the werewolves that on dark, moonless nights dance in the marshes. He'd never think of going out on these moonless nights without a bag of salt or a live frog, never. But there is one night when the werewolves from every nook and corner of Louisiana foregather in the marshlands for their annual ball, and all the live frogs and salt in the world would not save him then.
Robert Flaherty was a born story-teller, one of the greatest story-tellers, said John Grierson, he ever knew. I think his friends were puzzled that his films were never stories. They would gather around him at his club ; when the club was closed they would adjourn in a body to the nearest restaurant, and when that closed, go on to their favorite pub until way into the morning hours, just Ustening to Bob's stories. The stories that Bob loved to tell, that held us all spellbound, would so often have a touch of fantasy about them. He would end them with a final "twist," like a chuckle or a smile, as much as to say, "This is just a story I've been telling you, make no mistake. It may be true— I venture to say it is true— but, all the same, I have made a story of it. That is all it is."
Louisiana Story is autobiography. It is Bob remembering his childhood with his father, a mining engineer, on the Canadian frontier searching in the earth not for "black gold," that is, oil, but for the true shining golden metal itself. The wonder of this world in the mind and heart of a boy is the truth of the film and its enchantment. Also it is accompanied by a miraculous story
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