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lb_leeRogan: I found a copy of Charles Chesnutt's The Wife of His Youth in a free box a while back, and had no idea the gem I had found.
Charles Chesnutt was a black writer at the turn of the last century who refused to pass for white though he could've; The Wife of His Youth is from 1899, a short story compilation focused mainly on the vagaries of racial passing, the black middle class, and racism from both within the black community and without. Those kinds of stories are of interest to me, and I was like, sure, I'll give it a shot, even though I'm generally not a big fan of 19th century literature.
I am so glad I stretched my tastes, because I loved it. There were moments where I choked up ("This is the woman, and I am the man"), moments where I laughed with delight ("The rules of the telephone company did not permit swearing over the line. Mr. Clayton broke the rules."), and at least twice where the story went in a direction I truly did not expect, where I gasped and HAD to know what happened next. I feel like it takes a talented writer to be able to make someone laugh and relate after a hundred years of cultural drift. There was only one story in the collection that left me cold, which is a great shit-to-Shinola ratio.
Since I had never heard of Chesnutt, I looked him up on Wikipedia, where I discovered that three movies had been made of his work, all by Oscar Micheaux. Two of them, the silents, are totally lost... but the third, the last one, the TALKY? It's called Veiled Aristocrats, and though only an incomplete version exists, it is completely watchable and tells a complete story. And it's on YouTube! (It's also on Archive.org, but the Youtube one has been remastered and is of way better quality.)
I didn't actually want to read Chesnutt's original story for that one, because it has a tragic ending. But Micheaux changed the ending for Veiled Aristocrats. And by god, I wanted this happy ending, so I watched it, and I really, REALLY loved this film.
The premise is such: a white-passing black man, who's had to completely separate from his family and hide his origins, returns home to bring his sister (similarly white-passing) into the white world for more opportunity. Little sis, however, doesn't want to go! She's happy in black society, has a boyfriend she loves dearly... but he is dark, and Big Bro and Mother don't approve. What does she do?
From here on out, it's spoilers for a 1932 black and white (ha!) movie.
Wikipedia made me think that maybe Little Sis sorta wants to go, but that's not actually what happens! She and Boyfriend talk about it, and she is adamant all the way: fuck white society, she wants to marry her sweet, virtuous boyfriend, because he's very obviously a great guy and that her family can't see past his color is their problem. I expected some sort of manufactured conflict ("I must go! You just don't understand me!") but no, they just talk about it like fucking adults! She ONLY goes because Boyfriend is like, "You know, let's just give it a shot. We can at least try. And if you hate it, just give me a ring and we'll get you out of there!" And that's EXACTLY what happens! She tries white society, she's utterly miserable, she hates hiding and pretending to be what she's not, so she says FUCK IT, calls up Boyfriend, and they smooch and drive off into the sunset together, happily ever after. (And then there are dances and musical numbers because it's a talky from 1932.)
Obviously, I am a total sucker for "be true to yourself, be true to your love" stories just on principle, and I am also a sucker for lovers who talk about things like adults, so it wasn't hard for me to like this movie. It scratched an itch I didn't even know I HAD. But there's also another angle that's interesting: it's an all-black cast. I mean, that's not a huge surprise, since Oscar Micheaux was a black filmmaker, but this means that black actors are playing all the roles... ALL, including that of the white suitor who tries to woo Little Sis (unsuccessfully--she is not even tempted and is clearly very D8 about the whole thing).
It feels like the racial equivalent of the genderbendery of Shakespeare. You have a white-passing black actor playing the role of a white man who is attempting to woo a black actress who is passing for white in the story. I feel like there's multiple layers of passing commentary going on here, and it FASCINATES me. (And there are multiple instances of stuff like that. For instance, Little Sis and Big Bro, as part of their performance of wealthy whiteness, have black hired help, darker-skinned. And that help gets suspicious, because Little Sis feels WEIRD about the whole thing, for obvious reasons, and isn't able to perform whiteness to the level demanded. If I understood the very old audio correctly, when she gets out, the help is happy for her and have a little celebratory dance party while Big Bro is gone and can't badger them about it. Some reviewers on YouTube clocked the colorism of the movie and didn't care for it, but I felt like Micheaux was making a COMMENTARY on it. Like yes, the wealthy people in this movie are all light-skinned, all the "lower-class" darker... and I feel like that's on purpose. That's the point. It's all about how shitty and unfair this whole system is!)
There's also the fact that the actor playing Big Bro was apparently known as sort of a heartthrob type, but in this movie, he's a CREEP! He's the closest thing to a villain the story has, even though he's handsome, prosperous, and has created a life that, on the surface, looks great (and white)! And I find that role reversal so interesting, that his role would normally be aspirational, but he's clearly NOT the hero of this story. Maybe the actor was excited to play a heel role for once!
Anyway. That's how a random freebox find led me to a book I loved, which led me to a movie I loved, even though they were of an age and style that normally I wouldn't be into. And now I've saved Veiled Aristocrats to my hard drive so I can burn it to DVD and watch it whenever I damn well please!
Charles Chesnutt was a black writer at the turn of the last century who refused to pass for white though he could've; The Wife of His Youth is from 1899, a short story compilation focused mainly on the vagaries of racial passing, the black middle class, and racism from both within the black community and without. Those kinds of stories are of interest to me, and I was like, sure, I'll give it a shot, even though I'm generally not a big fan of 19th century literature.
I am so glad I stretched my tastes, because I loved it. There were moments where I choked up ("This is the woman, and I am the man"), moments where I laughed with delight ("The rules of the telephone company did not permit swearing over the line. Mr. Clayton broke the rules."), and at least twice where the story went in a direction I truly did not expect, where I gasped and HAD to know what happened next. I feel like it takes a talented writer to be able to make someone laugh and relate after a hundred years of cultural drift. There was only one story in the collection that left me cold, which is a great shit-to-Shinola ratio.
Since I had never heard of Chesnutt, I looked him up on Wikipedia, where I discovered that three movies had been made of his work, all by Oscar Micheaux. Two of them, the silents, are totally lost... but the third, the last one, the TALKY? It's called Veiled Aristocrats, and though only an incomplete version exists, it is completely watchable and tells a complete story. And it's on YouTube! (It's also on Archive.org, but the Youtube one has been remastered and is of way better quality.)
I didn't actually want to read Chesnutt's original story for that one, because it has a tragic ending. But Micheaux changed the ending for Veiled Aristocrats. And by god, I wanted this happy ending, so I watched it, and I really, REALLY loved this film.
The premise is such: a white-passing black man, who's had to completely separate from his family and hide his origins, returns home to bring his sister (similarly white-passing) into the white world for more opportunity. Little sis, however, doesn't want to go! She's happy in black society, has a boyfriend she loves dearly... but he is dark, and Big Bro and Mother don't approve. What does she do?
From here on out, it's spoilers for a 1932 black and white (ha!) movie.
Wikipedia made me think that maybe Little Sis sorta wants to go, but that's not actually what happens! She and Boyfriend talk about it, and she is adamant all the way: fuck white society, she wants to marry her sweet, virtuous boyfriend, because he's very obviously a great guy and that her family can't see past his color is their problem. I expected some sort of manufactured conflict ("I must go! You just don't understand me!") but no, they just talk about it like fucking adults! She ONLY goes because Boyfriend is like, "You know, let's just give it a shot. We can at least try. And if you hate it, just give me a ring and we'll get you out of there!" And that's EXACTLY what happens! She tries white society, she's utterly miserable, she hates hiding and pretending to be what she's not, so she says FUCK IT, calls up Boyfriend, and they smooch and drive off into the sunset together, happily ever after. (And then there are dances and musical numbers because it's a talky from 1932.)
Obviously, I am a total sucker for "be true to yourself, be true to your love" stories just on principle, and I am also a sucker for lovers who talk about things like adults, so it wasn't hard for me to like this movie. It scratched an itch I didn't even know I HAD. But there's also another angle that's interesting: it's an all-black cast. I mean, that's not a huge surprise, since Oscar Micheaux was a black filmmaker, but this means that black actors are playing all the roles... ALL, including that of the white suitor who tries to woo Little Sis (unsuccessfully--she is not even tempted and is clearly very D8 about the whole thing).
It feels like the racial equivalent of the genderbendery of Shakespeare. You have a white-passing black actor playing the role of a white man who is attempting to woo a black actress who is passing for white in the story. I feel like there's multiple layers of passing commentary going on here, and it FASCINATES me. (And there are multiple instances of stuff like that. For instance, Little Sis and Big Bro, as part of their performance of wealthy whiteness, have black hired help, darker-skinned. And that help gets suspicious, because Little Sis feels WEIRD about the whole thing, for obvious reasons, and isn't able to perform whiteness to the level demanded. If I understood the very old audio correctly, when she gets out, the help is happy for her and have a little celebratory dance party while Big Bro is gone and can't badger them about it. Some reviewers on YouTube clocked the colorism of the movie and didn't care for it, but I felt like Micheaux was making a COMMENTARY on it. Like yes, the wealthy people in this movie are all light-skinned, all the "lower-class" darker... and I feel like that's on purpose. That's the point. It's all about how shitty and unfair this whole system is!)
There's also the fact that the actor playing Big Bro was apparently known as sort of a heartthrob type, but in this movie, he's a CREEP! He's the closest thing to a villain the story has, even though he's handsome, prosperous, and has created a life that, on the surface, looks great (and white)! And I find that role reversal so interesting, that his role would normally be aspirational, but he's clearly NOT the hero of this story. Maybe the actor was excited to play a heel role for once!
Anyway. That's how a random freebox find led me to a book I loved, which led me to a movie I loved, even though they were of an age and style that normally I wouldn't be into. And now I've saved Veiled Aristocrats to my hard drive so I can burn it to DVD and watch it whenever I damn well please!
