Ordinary Lady Passes for White

 A few weeks ago, we saw Cary Grant as the (slightly reluctant) Ordinary Lady of I Was a Male War Bride; Howard Hawks' comedy of bureaucracy and gender identity. This week's film looks at a very different kind of identity.


Nella Larsen's novel Passing was originally published in 1929 and tells the story of two African American childhood friends (Clare and Irene) who re-connect as adults following a chance encounter in the city. Irene has settled down to (apparently) happy married life in Harlem with a successful doctor, while Clare is "passing" as a white woman. She is married to an openly racist white man who has no idea that his own wife is actually black.


We may be currently living in an age where people are increasingly "choosing" their gender (you must have noticed that one of the unlikeliest weapons in the modern Culture War is the humble pronoun) but the practice of choosing your race is historically much more complicated and socially treacherous. 

It is, I think, very significant that while Nella Larsen's novel is considered one of the definitive works on the subject, it has taken 92 years for anyone to attempt a cinematic adaptation of it.

It is that adaptation that we are planning to show on Thursday: Rebecca Hall's 2021 film version starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga as Irene and Clare, respectively. This is Rebecca Hall's first film as a director, and one that was very personal for her. She is the daughter of the British director Peter Hall and the American opera singer Maria Ewing, who is herself of mixed race.


Racial identity has a very complicated history in the US, and a film like this one is almost as controversial now as the novel was in 1929. Significantly, one of the most oft-repeated criticisms of the film (from certain quarters) was that -according to some- neither actress could plausibly pass for white (glossing over the fact that only one of the characters is actually trying to). 

Consider also the anger and abuse levelled against Disney studios recently when they announced a live-action remake of their animated classic The Little Mermaid, starring newcomer Halle Bailey:

Quite apart from the racial issues at the heart of the story, Passing also deals with the social realities of two women attempting to navigate the double minefield of race and gender in 1920s America. We will be screening Passing at 7.30 on Thursday, the 20th of October at the Victoria Park Baptist Church.

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