My Review - Passing streaming on Netflix
My Rating 8/10
Passing is a very unusual story which I thought was fascinating, educational and quite beautiful to watch.
The film is based on the 1929 novel of the same name by Nella Larsen, and its title refers to African-Americans who had skin color light enough to be perceived as white, referred to as "passing."
I was fascinated from the opening scene when we see Irene Redfield, a refined, upper-class 1920s woman, finding a breezy refuge from a hot summer day in the grand tearoom of New York City's Drayton Hotel. Across the room, she spots a blond woman staring her down, Clare.
Irene who is obviously "Passing" just for the day at first is alarmed that she may have been sprung until Clare approaches and she recognises that Claire who is now blonde and obviously passing unrecognisable as Afro American is her childhood friend so they reminisce and bring each other up to date on their new middle to upper class lives .
Clare invites Irene back to the hotel where she is staying with her husband, John, on his business trip. Clare explains that after her father died, she was raised by two white aunts and married him very young. They are interrupted by John, who openly despises and degrades African-Americans, unaware of his wife's racial background or that Irene is "passing" for the day.
Clare is determined to re enter her friend Irene's life as she longs for contact again with her race and Irene who is married to Brian a successful Doctor and living in relative splendour in Harlem has social contacts with the community she has hidden from since her marriage to John.
That's enough no spoilers the story takes off in directions that are surprising.
The two actresses in Passing are both beautiful and talented Tessa Thompson as Irene is so elegant and understated and Ruth Negga as Claire is a jazz baby of the 1920's both wear some beautiful fashion by costume designer Marci Rodgers.
Filming began in November 2019 written and produced, and directed by Rebecca Hall in her feature directorial debut.
With less than a month to go before filming production was set to begin, Rebecca Hall was still $500,000 short on her desired $10 million budget, and had to apply for two grants to cover the difference.
The film is in monochrome. Benjamin Lee of The Guardian praised the use of a 4:3 aspect ratio as in this film it was "both fitting and practical given a smaller budget.
I think what I found most interesting in Passing was the unusual aspect that's not often depicted that of wealthy middle class Afro Americans set in my favourite era the 1920's and living lives of privilege while on the other side of town the contrast of the poorer members of their community live in relative poverty.
Their affluent lifestyles mirrored the wealthy white families they also employed black servants and attended charity functions , their homes were stylish and they dressed beautifully.
I had to research a little more after watching Passing and found a few interesting pieces about the African American society in the 1920s that expressed a strong sense of cultural identity. The Harlem Renaissance was the center of African American literary and artistic activity during this period.
W. E. B. DuBois. The American sociologist, historian, civil rights activist and author. Wrote an essay in 1903 called "The Talented Tenth."
The black elite in New York were educated men and women who "aspired to an identity that reached beyond the local and the national to a cosmopolitanism that would distinguish them both from the mass of impoverished black New Yorkers and also from the wealthy, educated- but racially estranged - white men and women with whom they otherwise shared much" It is ironic that the black elite wanted to both distinguish themselves from their poor brethren and also uplift the poor blacks.
I really enjoyed Passing and definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys an original and unique experience in Cinema.
