Clair-obscur

Greetings again from the darkness. "We're all passing for something or other." Irene (played by Tessa Thompson) speaks the line that cuts to the quick of Nella Larsen's 1929 novel, adapted here by first time writer-director Rebecca Hall. We are familiar with Ms. Hall's many film projects as an actor, and her debut as a director shows immense promise. Ms. Larsen's novel was inspired by her own life as a mixed-race woman.

It's Irene whom we first see as 'passing' as white as she visits a retail store and takes tea at a fancy restaurant that most assuredly would not serve her if her light complexion and drawn-down hat were not hiding her true self. Cinematographer Eduard Grau has the camera track Irene's darting eyes that are trained to notice potential trouble. Her gaze stops on a woman seated alone. There is a familiarity between the two and soon, Clare (Ruth Negga) has joined her long-ago childhood friend, Irene, at her table. While Irene "passes" when it's necessary, she clearly identifies and lives as an African-American - married to Harlem doctor Brian (Andre Holland). Clare, on the other hand, is living a lie. She has permanently "passed" as a white woman, marrying John (Alexander Skarsgard).

The film's best scene occurs when Clare takes Irene home and introduces her to husband John. His vile, racist nature immediately shows, creating a tense moment filled with excruciating and subtle exchanges of knowing glances between Clare and Irene. It's a dangerous moment and we aren't sure where it's headed. What is clear is that a childhood bond may exist between the two ladies, but there is now a void that can never be filled. But what happens is that Clare finagles her way into the lives of Irene and Brian (and their kids). What we see is that Clare finds the 'honest' life quite enticing. Allowing herself to be who she is ... dropping the façade ... energizes her. Racial identity and sexuality are at stake here, and so are class and culture.

Bill Camp plays a pompous writer named Hugh who always seems to be hanging around the parties and events of Irene. One of the best lines of the film occurs after Bill asks someone why they are hanging around. The answer is brief and insightful, and cuts to the quick. It's a strong debut film from director Hall. It has a dreamlike look and excellent performances from the two leading ladies. The grey area in life is teased, and we do wish the dive had been a bit deeper on Irene and Clare, but that ending is one that will stun you - even if you're expecting it.

Streaming on Netflix.

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.

I am a ethnically ambiguous latina. I am half Mexican, half Costa Rican, but always get mistaken for middle eastern so this premise intrigued me. Right away though, this film is a mess. I commend Rebecca Hall's efforts to honor her own history in wanting to acknowledge the black in her family but if you're gonna cast black actresses that pass for white, these two ain't it. You need a meghan markle type, ESPECIALLY for the Tessa Thompson role. Thompson is CLEARLY black. I can't blame Hall for the story. She's working off a book, but it was just silly. All of it. It didn't make sense, it felt disjointed. It felt like two different movies. If that was the point, congrats. If not, whoops!

"We're all passing for something or other, aren't we?" Irene (Tessa Thompson)

Director Rebecca Hall's successful full-length debut, Passing, shows her artistic inclination to depict women on the verge of breaking away. Irene is a Black woman in the 1920's who could "pass" for white but just spends some time in the white world, being served and accepted in part because she is light skinned.

Now, her friend from her youth, Clare, consciously passes for white, and marries a racist who would kill if he knew his wife were Black. Although nothing shattering happens through most of the story, the racial divide is pronounced between white uptown and Harlem, where Irene and her husband, Brian, a doctor, live in a brownstone with a black maid and the two children he tries to prepare for a racist world they have yet to overcome.

As Clare continues to mingle with Irene's Black social life, Irene quietly assesses Clare's free-spirit and seems gently attracted to Clare. Yet, those feelings are Hall's quiet way of emphasizing the multifaced societal changes in a now truly reconstructed way.

Hall uses a crisp black and white image to accentuate the stark racial differences and the sterile laboratory-like world of incremental societal change. It's also an effective period enhancer. The title "Passing" carries multiple meanings fraught with the dark and light of good clashing with evil.

I couldn't help thinking of Fitzgerald's Gatsby, himself an interloper having romantic notions ill-suited to a society he crashes with dire consequences. Hall has caught the ironies and ambiguities of a society in change.

It isn't all pretty but generally a gorgeous palette with which promising neophyte Hall paints. Isn't it the truth: "I'm beginning to believe that no one is ever completely happy, free, or safe"? Irene

One of the best movies of the year.

"Passing" is an admirable freshman directorial effort from actress Rebecca Hall, but the film feels too tightly controlled to ever fully come alive.

Ruth Negga (looking a bit like Joan Blondell) and especially Tessa Thompson give strong performances as two old friends and maybe more who run into each other again in New York City after years apart. Negga's character is passing for white and has married a vile biggot. Thomspson's character is in a sexless marriage with a doctor and is living a well to do life in Harlem. The act of passing in a racial context is the catalyst for the movie's plot, but the film explores the ways in which all of us are passing for something. It asks the question: Can those we love ever truly know us, and further, can we ever truly know ourselves?

A large number of Americans right now seem to be having trouble dealing with reality as it actually exists, so I thought a movie about people creating their own realities in an effort to make their lives better, or at least more comfortable, would feel more immediate and tuned in to the times. But Hall keeps such tight control of the reins that the film can't breathe. It's like she wanted so much to avoid any missteps with this sensitive issue that she inadvertently sucked the life out of it.

Still, the movie does have some things to recommend it. I've mentioned the performances, but it also looks gorgeous, filmed in pristine black and white by Eduard Grau. I'm excited to see what Hall does next, because she has a terrific eye. She just needs to relax.

Grade: B.