Post by Dracula on Jan 11, 2022 0:05:36 GMT -5
Passing(1/5/2022)
In my junior year of college while taking an American literature course as part of my English minor I was assigned to read Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel “Passing” and, well, one thing led to another and I needed to prioritize other assignments and I ended up using Sparks Notes to fake having read it instead of actually reading it. I always felt guilty about that, especially now that there’s a well-regarded film adaptation of the novel out, and having seen the film I think that novel was almost certainly a fascinating read I missed out on. The story concerns a light skinned black woman living in 1920s Harlem having a chance encounter with a childhood friend, who she learns has been “passing” for white and is married to a racist white man who doesn’t know about her actual ethnicity. The original novel is considered a major work of the Harlem Renaissance and even setting aside the film’s titular theme the most is more than worth seeing for a glimpse into upper middle class African American life during this time period, which is not something we see dramatized all that often. Director Rebecca Hall (who is apparently a quarter black and has herself sort of been unintentionally “passing”) shoots the film in black and white in order to invoke the time period and this also allows her to light Ruth Negga in such a way as to make her “passing” more plausible though the possibility that Tessa Thompson could do the same is perhaps a bit more questionable. The film is generally pretty low key, mostly in a way that I like but at times feels like it could use a touch more flavor, and I also think Nella Larsen’s forces an ending on the film that’s kind of tough to dramatize and I’m not sure the film entirely pulls it off. Still, the film has some really fascinating moments in it and is definitely worth checking out.
**** out of Five
In my junior year of college while taking an American literature course as part of my English minor I was assigned to read Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel “Passing” and, well, one thing led to another and I needed to prioritize other assignments and I ended up using Sparks Notes to fake having read it instead of actually reading it. I always felt guilty about that, especially now that there’s a well-regarded film adaptation of the novel out, and having seen the film I think that novel was almost certainly a fascinating read I missed out on. The story concerns a light skinned black woman living in 1920s Harlem having a chance encounter with a childhood friend, who she learns has been “passing” for white and is married to a racist white man who doesn’t know about her actual ethnicity. The original novel is considered a major work of the Harlem Renaissance and even setting aside the film’s titular theme the most is more than worth seeing for a glimpse into upper middle class African American life during this time period, which is not something we see dramatized all that often. Director Rebecca Hall (who is apparently a quarter black and has herself sort of been unintentionally “passing”) shoots the film in black and white in order to invoke the time period and this also allows her to light Ruth Negga in such a way as to make her “passing” more plausible though the possibility that Tessa Thompson could do the same is perhaps a bit more questionable. The film is generally pretty low key, mostly in a way that I like but at times feels like it could use a touch more flavor, and I also think Nella Larsen’s forces an ending on the film that’s kind of tough to dramatize and I’m not sure the film entirely pulls it off. Still, the film has some really fascinating moments in it and is definitely worth checking out.
**** out of Five
