Movie: Claudine (John Berry, 1974)
Some may scoff at the scene in which Claudine (Diahann Carroll), a single mother of six, and Roop (James Earl Jones), twice divorced, with kids in Ohio, furiously explain to each other why they are not respectively a welfare queen and irresponsible absent father, but it's one of the film's many great moments. This is not a film that lazily wants to teach you that not all black people fit the negative stereotypes of them, but it's about how the politics shaped by these stereotypes directly affect every aspect of their personal lives. The first time we see a social worker visit Claudine to see if she is not breaking any rules that might cut her social benefits, the slow trek through the apartment is filmed in one long take, highlighting exactly how much Claudine is forced to make even her smallest private decision, up to room decoration, fit the expectations of a political burocracy designed to impose on, and humiliate, poor and black people.
Claudine's feelings aren't safe from political incursion either. She and Roop are not necessarily made to be togethet, but they do greatly enjoy their company, and one of the film's joys is just seeing Jones and Carroll freely interact, flirt and reflect on how their love might affect their future. The camera stays close to their bodies and faces during long scenes in which they are allowed to interrogate their thoughts and feelings for as long as they can. It's as if the film wants to give them the time, the system doesn't have the patience for. Social security is dependent on one's relational status, and when a man gets into a house the social worker will want to know exactly why and who, blocking Claudine and Roop from dictating the pace of their relationship on their own terms. And even if they do make a decision about a common future they are left to navigate all the paradoxical complexities of their hellish burocracy. John Berry and his screenwriters Tina and Lester Pine deserve a lot of credit for untangling all the absurdities of the administrative rules and obligations hampering their heroes. Narratively, this makes the film and its characters' motivations and frustrations easier to follow, and politically it shows that the complex structure is a feature, not a bug. The social welfare system could look differently; making lives complicated for its beneficiaries is a political choice.
But what to do? Well, the film doesn't have any real answers for that. There is a joke (it's funny because it's true!) that a lot of contemporary leftist art criticism boils down to "The character didn't turn to the screen and proclaim himself the exact type of communist/socialist I am." John Berry's issue here is similar, desperately trying to fir the film's ideals within a specific subset of radicalism that leads to muddled politics and (especially towards the end) ill-fitting character decisions and dialogue. On the one hand it actively tries to embody a perspective that's alienating to mianstream white audiences - Claudine only decides to go out with Roop when he stands up to a rich white homeowner, while her children complain that the Tarzan movies feature the wrong hero. They also hang out with a guy who changed his birth name to Abdullah, presented here as a thing doesn't require any further explanation. On the other hand, the film is actively skeptical of Charles' (Claudine's oldest son) efforts to join a civil rights group (named after W.E:B Du Bois) that seeks to protest injustices and doesn't fear confrontations with the police. The fates of Charles and Charline (Claudine''s oldest daughter; her final scene with her mom contains some awfully unnatural writing) both play above all as a screenwriter's desperate attempt to make a larger dramatic/political point. Sometimes reality will make that point for you. Diahann Carroll is here very beautiful and very good (even getting an Oscar nomination), but perhaps convincingly playing a sympathetitc black welfare recipient is no smart career move. After Claudne, she wasn't cast in a feature film until 1990.
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