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Passing

Posted on December 5, 2021 by Village Vidiot

“Passing,” November 10, 2021 (Netflix).  Written and directed by Rebecca Hall (first film) from a novel by Nella Larsen, this black-and-white film charts the arc of reconnection between Irene, “Reenie,” (Tessa Thompson), and Clare (Ruth Negga) in Harlem Renaissance Harlem.  These former childhood friends, mixed race and beautiful,  meet again by chance on the street in NYC where Irene has just passed for white for the first time.  Clare, lighter skinned, is fully immersed in passing.  She’s married to a bigot named John (Aleksander Skarrsgard) and lives in Chicago.  Reenie is part of the established talented tenth.  Her husband Brian (Andre Holland) is a doctor serving the Harlem community.  Clare sends her daughter to a Swiss boarding school, Reenie works for Negro Improvement with sympathetic and voyeuristic white supporters like Hugh, a renowned and closeted white author.  Yet Clare wants into that world at the same time she needs/wants to stay out of it to retain her ‘whiteness.’  Brian, on the other hand wants out of the US entirely.  Racism is the disease that’s killing.  The injuries of passing get played out as one might expect.  The tone and writing is, in all, a bit too sincere.  But it’s an interesting look at this subject and worth the watch.

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