Death of Alphonse Beni, Cameroonian actor and director with a singular career
The poster for the film "Cameroun Connection" by Alphonse Beni.
© Les Films de la Rose
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
Cameroonian actor and director Alphonse Beni, nicknamed the "black ninja", died on March 12, 2023 at the age of 77.
Two years ago, he was rewarded for his entire career at the Festival Ecrans Noirs.
A pioneer, passionate and prolific with a singular career.
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In the 1970s, it was in France that Alphonse Beni made a lot of films as an actor, films between eroticism and soft porn.
Then, he returned to Cameroon and multiplied the productions he produced and in which he was also on the bill.
There, it is the period musical films and especially films of action.
Cowboy movies, lookalike of Bruce Lee and Paco Rabanne
One of his biggest successes is
Cameroon Connection
, in 1985. He is Inspector Baïko who investigates a murder and goes to meet Bruce Le.
Not Bruce Lee, the martial arts movie legend who died a decade earlier, but one of his best-known lookalikes of the period.
A film in which even appears Paco Rabanne,
famous Spanish fashion designer who died on February 3
.
Alphonse Beni is also the one who brought to Cameroon Richard Harrison, American icon of b series, these low budget feature films, peplums, historical fiction and cowboy films.
This is the time when Cameroon has dozens of cinemas.
Black Ninja
in Hong Kong
Then, Alphonse Béni exports himself again and leaves to shoot martial arts films in Asia, in particular with the Hong Kong director Godfrey Ho with whom he participates in
Black Ninja
, the black ninja.
A calmer period follows.
In 2005, he released a new feature film,
La Déchiure
.
Figure of popular cinema, Alphonse Béni assumed his taste for so-called “ commercial
” films
.
His friend and colleague Jean Roke Patoudem, very moved, confided to RFI the day after his death, that Alphonse Béni was an enthusiast, who lived, dreamed, thought only of cinema.
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