Exclusive: On the heels of her acclaimed directorial debut Passing, Rebecca Hall has found her next filmmaking vehicle in Four Days Like Sunday, a mother-daughter drama inspired by her own history, which she’s written to direct and will star in for See-Saw Films.
Set in the mid 1990s, the film follows 12-year-old Jane as she begins to rebel against her role as proxy-carer for her mother Sylvia (Hall), a recently divorced and ever so slightly fading Broadway diva. During a long weekend break between concert dates, Sylvia hosts Benton, Chris and Rahim, three male dancers from her current tour, at her anachronistically grand country house. She is also expecting the arrival of Dale, her handsome younger boyfriend. As Jane does her best to protect her mother from everything that threatens to disturb her delicate equilibrium, she moves quietly from childhood into something else-wiser, freer, and more alone.
Four Days...
Set in the mid 1990s, the film follows 12-year-old Jane as she begins to rebel against her role as proxy-carer for her mother Sylvia (Hall), a recently divorced and ever so slightly fading Broadway diva. During a long weekend break between concert dates, Sylvia hosts Benton, Chris and Rahim, three male dancers from her current tour, at her anachronistically grand country house. She is also expecting the arrival of Dale, her handsome younger boyfriend. As Jane does her best to protect her mother from everything that threatens to disturb her delicate equilibrium, she moves quietly from childhood into something else-wiser, freer, and more alone.
Four Days...
- 5/8/2024
- by Matt Grobar
- Deadline Film + TV
Stars: Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, Alexander Skarsgård, André Holland | Written by Rebecca Hall, Nella Larsen | Directed by Rebecca Hall
After a career delivering tremendous performances, Rebecca Hall steps behind the camera for her feature debut as writer/director. Unfolding in black-and-white from the opening logos, the story begins with muffled voices and smudged visuals before things become clearer, and viewers witness Passing unfold in a 4:3 aspect ratio. While these visual choices give this film a unique identity, it also reflects the story as the boxier frame captures the characters’ constraints, while the monochrome look reflects how nothing is black and white with the characters.
In 1920s New York City, Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) has a chance encounter in a hotel dining room with childhood friend, Clare Bellew (Ruth Negga). While both are light-skinned Black women, Clare “passes” as white to the point that her wealthy white husband, John (Alexander...
After a career delivering tremendous performances, Rebecca Hall steps behind the camera for her feature debut as writer/director. Unfolding in black-and-white from the opening logos, the story begins with muffled voices and smudged visuals before things become clearer, and viewers witness Passing unfold in a 4:3 aspect ratio. While these visual choices give this film a unique identity, it also reflects the story as the boxier frame captures the characters’ constraints, while the monochrome look reflects how nothing is black and white with the characters.
In 1920s New York City, Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) has a chance encounter in a hotel dining room with childhood friend, Clare Bellew (Ruth Negga). While both are light-skinned Black women, Clare “passes” as white to the point that her wealthy white husband, John (Alexander...
- 11/14/2023
- by James Rodrigues
- Nerdly
Across much of corporate America, it’s taken almost for granted that things have been “getting better” for racial minorities: that there are more Black voices in positions of influence than there ever have been; that diversity and inclusivity are more prized than ever; that every generation of trailblazers and role models begets the next; that no matter how unjust things remain, they’re still better than they were three or four decades ago. And sure, some of it might even be true.
But there’s a special frustration to being told all this when you can see with your own eyes that it isn’t always the way things are, to being instructed to just wait your turn, to gritting your teeth in the meantime. Hulu’s The Other Black Girl, set largely in the lily-white territory of book publishing, taps into that tension with every genre in its...
But there’s a special frustration to being told all this when you can see with your own eyes that it isn’t always the way things are, to being instructed to just wait your turn, to gritting your teeth in the meantime. Hulu’s The Other Black Girl, set largely in the lily-white territory of book publishing, taps into that tension with every genre in its...
- 9/12/2023
- by Angie Han
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Few pop culture conversations feel more uninspired to me than those that start with the assertion that "the book is always better." Despite the fact that this platitude about the shortcomings of on-screen adaptations is ubiquitous, adorning countless Instagram posts and Etsy T-shirts, it's frankly not true. Film is a different medium than literature, and visual stories can often expand upon and even interrogate the texts on which they're based. The well-curated, richly researched new book "But Have You Read The Book?" from TCM and The Wrap's film editor Kristen Lopez recognizes this, and in turn starts a series of much more inspired and nuanced conversations. Sometimes, Lopez communicates through the text's 52 examples, the book and the film are both excellent, and their differences are complementary and intriguing.
In keeping with the tradition of other Turner Classic Movies-branded books like Jeremy Arnold's "The Essentials," "But Have You Read The Book?...
In keeping with the tradition of other Turner Classic Movies-branded books like Jeremy Arnold's "The Essentials," "But Have You Read The Book?...
- 2/27/2023
- by Valerie Ettenhofer
- Slash Film
Magazine Dreams.The Sundance Film Festival returned this year for its first in-person edition since the oblivious winter of 2020, when Zola was the talk of Park City and the coronavirus still seemed like something that Purell could contain. During two consecutive years of virtual iterations, Sundance managed to launch visionary, critically-praised narrative features onto dissimilar post-festival trajectories. Rebecca Hall’s Passing, a provocative adaptation of Nella Larsen’s novella, rode out awards season on the considerable strengths of its lead performances, only to fizzle out come Oscar time. Conversely, the Academy Awards triumph of Siân Heder’s Coda, now the first festival selection to win Best Picture, is surely fueling the daydreams of many past, present, and future Sundance-stamped filmmakers. Acquired by Apple for $25 million and showered with a $10 million awards campaign that equaled its production budget, Coda seems to offer definitive proof that no matter how visually flat and...
- 2/8/2023
- MUBI
‘This Is Going To Hurt’, ‘Munich – The Edge Of War’ Scribes Honored At Wggb Awards
The scribes behind This is Going to Hurt and Munich – The Edge of War were among those honored at the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Awards last night at the Royal College of Physicians in London. Best Long Form TV Drama went to Adam Kay for BBC One’s medical comedy-drama This is Going to Hurt, while Jack Rooke took away the Best TV Situation Comedy gong on Channel 4’s university-set Big Boys. Best Screenplay went to Ben Power for German-British period spy thriller Munich – The Edge of War and playwright David Edgar was presented with the Outstanding Contribution Award by his wife and sometime co-writer Stephanie Dale. Rebecca Hall won Best First Screenplay for romantic drama film Passing, which is based on Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel of the same name. Neil McKay won...
The scribes behind This is Going to Hurt and Munich – The Edge of War were among those honored at the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain Awards last night at the Royal College of Physicians in London. Best Long Form TV Drama went to Adam Kay for BBC One’s medical comedy-drama This is Going to Hurt, while Jack Rooke took away the Best TV Situation Comedy gong on Channel 4’s university-set Big Boys. Best Screenplay went to Ben Power for German-British period spy thriller Munich – The Edge of War and playwright David Edgar was presented with the Outstanding Contribution Award by his wife and sometime co-writer Stephanie Dale. Rebecca Hall won Best First Screenplay for romantic drama film Passing, which is based on Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel of the same name. Neil McKay won...
- 1/17/2023
- by Jesse Whittock and Max Goldbart
- Deadline Film + TV
Passing and Preacher actor Ruth Negga is joining Jake Gyllenhaal for Presumed Innocent, an upcoming limited series for Apple TV+. Gyllenhaal is in final negotiations to star in the project from David E. Kelley and J.J. Abrams’s Bad Robot and Warner Bros. TV. Taking inspiration from Scott Turow’s courtroom thriller, Presumed Innocent revolves around a vicious murder that sends the Chicago Prosecuting Attorneys’ office reeling when one of their representatives becomes a suspect in the crime.
Kelley’s version of the story is not the first time Turow’s tale has worked its way to screens. In 1990, a feature-length version starring Harrison Ford, Raul Julia, and Greta Scacchi hit theaters. The film, directed by Alan J. Pakula, earned 86,303,188 worldwide. Kelley’s version is said to investigate themes of obsession, sex, politics, and the power and limits of love, as the accused fights to keep aspects of their life from falling apart.
Kelley’s version of the story is not the first time Turow’s tale has worked its way to screens. In 1990, a feature-length version starring Harrison Ford, Raul Julia, and Greta Scacchi hit theaters. The film, directed by Alan J. Pakula, earned 86,303,188 worldwide. Kelley’s version is said to investigate themes of obsession, sex, politics, and the power and limits of love, as the accused fights to keep aspects of their life from falling apart.
- 1/5/2023
- by Steve Seigh
- JoBlo.com
(Welcome to The Daily Stream, an ongoing series in which the /Film team shares what they've been watching, why it's worth checking out, and where you can stream it.)
The Movie: "Passing"
Where You Can Stream It: Netflix
The Pitch: Based on Nella Larsen's slim 1929 novel, "Passing" follows two childhood friends who reunite after years apart, only to realize that one of them has been passing as a white woman while the other hasn't. Reenie (Tessa Thompson) has built a life with a Black doctor named Brian (Andre Holland), while Clare (Ruth Negga) has married a wealthy white racist named John...
The post The Daily Stream: Passing is a Deep, Dazzling Take on a Classic appeared first on /Film.
The Movie: "Passing"
Where You Can Stream It: Netflix
The Pitch: Based on Nella Larsen's slim 1929 novel, "Passing" follows two childhood friends who reunite after years apart, only to realize that one of them has been passing as a white woman while the other hasn't. Reenie (Tessa Thompson) has built a life with a Black doctor named Brian (Andre Holland), while Clare (Ruth Negga) has married a wealthy white racist named John...
The post The Daily Stream: Passing is a Deep, Dazzling Take on a Classic appeared first on /Film.
- 8/9/2022
- by Valerie Ettenhofer
- Slash Film
The USC Libraries revealed the winners for the 34th annual USC Libraries Scripter Award on Saturday as a virtual event, which honors the year’s best film and television adaptations (along with the works on which they are based). This group of academics, industry professionals, and critics is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s “The Lost Daughter” (Netflix) won the film award, while the television prize went to author Beth Macy and screenwriter Danny Strong for the Hulu series “Dopesick.”
Of the five finalist writers for film adaptation, three are also Oscar nominees. Rebecca Hall (Nella Larsen’s “Passing”) and Joel Coen (William Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth”) did not make that cut. “The Lost Daughter,” therefore, advances in the Oscar race ahead of “Dune” (Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures and Ace) screenwriters Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, and Denis Villeneuve,...
Of the five finalist writers for film adaptation, three are also Oscar nominees. Rebecca Hall (Nella Larsen’s “Passing”) and Joel Coen (William Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth”) did not make that cut. “The Lost Daughter,” therefore, advances in the Oscar race ahead of “Dune” (Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures and Ace) screenwriters Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, and Denis Villeneuve,...
- 2/27/2022
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
The USC Libraries revealed the winners for the 34th annual USC Libraries Scripter Award on Saturday as a virtual event, which honors the year’s best film and television adaptations (along with the works on which they are based). This group of academics, industry professionals, and critics is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s adaptation of Elena Ferrante’s “The Lost Daughter” (Netflix) won the film award, while the television prize went to author Beth Macy and screenwriter Danny Strong for the Hulu series “Dopesick.”
Of the five finalist writers for film adaptation, three are also Oscar nominees. Rebecca Hall (Nella Larsen’s “Passing”) and Joel Coen (William Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth”) did not make that cut. “The Lost Daughter,” therefore, advances in the Oscar race ahead of “Dune” (Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures and Ace) screenwriters Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, and Denis Villeneuve,...
Of the five finalist writers for film adaptation, three are also Oscar nominees. Rebecca Hall (Nella Larsen’s “Passing”) and Joel Coen (William Shakespeare’s “The Tragedy of Macbeth”) did not make that cut. “The Lost Daughter,” therefore, advances in the Oscar race ahead of “Dune” (Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures and Ace) screenwriters Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, and Denis Villeneuve,...
- 2/27/2022
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The top prizes at the 2022 USC Scripter Awards went to screenwriter Maggie Gyllenhaal and novelist Elena Ferrante for Netflix’s “The Lost Daughter” and scripter Danny Strong and author Beth Macy for Netflix’s “Dopesick” during Saturday’s virtual ceremony.
As in past years, the awards go to both the scriptwriters and the writers of the original source material.
“The Lost Daughter” is based on Ferrante’s 2006 novel. Gyllenhaal happily toasted the win with a glass of champagne, noting that this award “means so much to me particularly because it is chosen and voted for by writers.” The director and writer of the Oscar-nominated film described Ferrante as her “north star” for the project, adding that the author has been “a truly wise and generous guide.”
The “Dopesick” duo won for the episode “The People vs. Purdue Pharma.” Macy gave thanks to all families who helped her as well as...
As in past years, the awards go to both the scriptwriters and the writers of the original source material.
“The Lost Daughter” is based on Ferrante’s 2006 novel. Gyllenhaal happily toasted the win with a glass of champagne, noting that this award “means so much to me particularly because it is chosen and voted for by writers.” The director and writer of the Oscar-nominated film described Ferrante as her “north star” for the project, adding that the author has been “a truly wise and generous guide.”
The “Dopesick” duo won for the episode “The People vs. Purdue Pharma.” Macy gave thanks to all families who helped her as well as...
- 2/27/2022
- by Sharareh Drury
- Variety Film + TV
At the 13th Screen Actors Guild Awards ceremony in 2007, Jennifer Hudson (“Dreamgirls”) made history as the first Black winner in the supporting actress category. In the time since, five of the 11 other Black women who have vied for the same award have succeeded. Ruby Dee (“American Gangster”) prevailed the very next year and was followed by Mo’Nique (2009’s “Precious”), Octavia Spencer (2011’s “The Help”), Lupita Nyong’o (2013’s “12 Years a Slave”) and Viola Davis (2016’s “Fences”). Now, having landed a nomination for her role in “Passing,” Ruth Negga could become the lucky seventh member of this group.
Negga faces Caitríona Balfe (“Belfast”), Cate Blanchett (“Nightmare Alley”), Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”) and Kirsten Dunst (“The Power of the Dog”). Balfe, who is also up in ensemble for “Belfast,” and DeBose stand with Negga in forming the lineup’s SAG newcomer majority. Blanchett, also an ensemble contender for “Don’t Look Up,...
Negga faces Caitríona Balfe (“Belfast”), Cate Blanchett (“Nightmare Alley”), Ariana DeBose (“West Side Story”) and Kirsten Dunst (“The Power of the Dog”). Balfe, who is also up in ensemble for “Belfast,” and DeBose stand with Negga in forming the lineup’s SAG newcomer majority. Blanchett, also an ensemble contender for “Don’t Look Up,...
- 2/17/2022
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
The artists who hand out little gold men every year at the Oscars announced their nominations for the 2022 Academy Awards, and the results were the typical mishmash of predictable choices, pleasant surprises, and disturbing omissions. For every unexpectedly cool decision made by the Academy — A hat trick for Flee! The Worst Person in the World for Best Original Screenplay! The power of the Dunst/Plemons union! — there were a couple head-scratching snubs. Here were the biggest Mia absences and Wtf surprises from the Oscar Class of ’22.
Fabio Lovino/2021 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures
Lady Gaga,...
Fabio Lovino/2021 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures
Lady Gaga,...
- 2/8/2022
- by Brian Tallerico
- Rollingstone.com
There are many different types of existing works from which a film’s screenplay can be adapted, and Oscar voters have honored scripts built from just about every source material imaginable. Voters typically reveal their preferences by consistently choosing scripts based on certain source materials over others. Examining the most recent Best Adapted Screenplay lineups is the most effective way of predicting the next one. Here is a list of the category’s nominees and winners, as well as their sources of origin, from the last five years:
2021:
Winner: “The Father” – Play
“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” – Existing film
“Nomadland” – Nonfiction book
“One Night in Miami” – Play
“The White Tiger” – Novel
2020:
Winner: “Jojo Rabbit” – Novel
“The Irishman” – Nonfiction book
“Joker” – Comic books
“Little Women” – Novel
“The Two Popes” – Play
2019:
Winner: “BlacKkKlansman” – Memoir
“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” – Short stories
“Can You Ever Forgive Me?” – Memoir
“If Beale Street Could Talk...
2021:
Winner: “The Father” – Play
“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” – Existing film
“Nomadland” – Nonfiction book
“One Night in Miami” – Play
“The White Tiger” – Novel
2020:
Winner: “Jojo Rabbit” – Novel
“The Irishman” – Nonfiction book
“Joker” – Comic books
“Little Women” – Novel
“The Two Popes” – Play
2019:
Winner: “BlacKkKlansman” – Memoir
“The Ballad of Buster Scruggs” – Short stories
“Can You Ever Forgive Me?” – Memoir
“If Beale Street Could Talk...
- 2/4/2022
- by Matthew Stewart
- Gold Derby
Opportunity is everything. In life, in business, certainly, in the pursuit of artistic expression, it is the ultimate difference-maker: Who gets a chance, and who makes the most of it?
I’ve been fortunate for the opportunities that have come my way as a creator throughout 40 years in this industry. On set and on stage as an actor, behind the camera, and in the trenches as a filmmaker and producer, I’ve tried to make the most of my chances — while at the same time recognizing that the path for talents of color is and has been unduly fraught. As a result, some of our most instructive, profound, and emotional stories remain untold, which means that audiences’ perspectives on our collective existence remain tragically limited.
This was the endemic reality that my producing partner Nina Yang Bongiovi and I sought to extinguish when we formed our company, Significant Productions, over a decade ago.
I’ve been fortunate for the opportunities that have come my way as a creator throughout 40 years in this industry. On set and on stage as an actor, behind the camera, and in the trenches as a filmmaker and producer, I’ve tried to make the most of my chances — while at the same time recognizing that the path for talents of color is and has been unduly fraught. As a result, some of our most instructive, profound, and emotional stories remain untold, which means that audiences’ perspectives on our collective existence remain tragically limited.
This was the endemic reality that my producing partner Nina Yang Bongiovi and I sought to extinguish when we formed our company, Significant Productions, over a decade ago.
- 1/28/2022
- by Forest Whitaker
- Variety Film + TV
An abundance of book-to-film and play-to-film adaptations this year have connected with audiences, many of which have women either writing and directing or turning in compelling performances. From period pieces that reflect pressing issues of race or toxic masculinity, to modern-set features showcasing deaf culture or the societal mores of motherhood, these ladies’ unwavering dedication to infuse their characters with an organic, captivating sense of realism makes these conversation-stirring pictures come alive in their capable hands.
Rebecca Hall, the writer and director of “Passing,” wasn’t familiar with the history of the term, which describes covering one’s racial identity to assimilate into the majority. However, she recognized the brilliance of the character dynamics in Nella Larsen’s novel. “She takes the idea of racial passing and turns it over and over until it becomes this prism through which anyone can see the crucial truths hidden by our public selves.
Rebecca Hall, the writer and director of “Passing,” wasn’t familiar with the history of the term, which describes covering one’s racial identity to assimilate into the majority. However, she recognized the brilliance of the character dynamics in Nella Larsen’s novel. “She takes the idea of racial passing and turns it over and over until it becomes this prism through which anyone can see the crucial truths hidden by our public selves.
- 1/21/2022
- by Courtney Howard
- Variety Film + TV
USC Scripter Awards Film And TV Nominations Set; Barry Jenkins To Receive Literary Achievement Award
Nominations were revealed Wednesday for the 34th annual USC Libraries Scripter Award, which honors the year’s best film and episodic TV adaptations along with he works on which they are based. Winners will be unveiled at a planned in-person ceremony February 26 at USC’s Edward L. Doheny Jr. Memorial Library.
On the film side, nominees today included scripts and their source material from the Netflix trio of The Lost Daughter, The Power of the Dog and Passing, along with Apple/A24’s The Tragedy of Macbeth and Warner Bros’ Dune. In TV, the noms hail from episodes of Hulu’s Dopesick, Netflix’s Maid, HBO Max’s Station Eleven, Disney+’s WandaVision and Amazon Prime Video’s The Underground Railroad.
The latter was adapted by Barry Jenkins based on Colson Whitehead’s novel. Jenkins, who won the Scripter in 2017 for his eventual Oscar Best Picture winner Moonlight, will receive...
On the film side, nominees today included scripts and their source material from the Netflix trio of The Lost Daughter, The Power of the Dog and Passing, along with Apple/A24’s The Tragedy of Macbeth and Warner Bros’ Dune. In TV, the noms hail from episodes of Hulu’s Dopesick, Netflix’s Maid, HBO Max’s Station Eleven, Disney+’s WandaVision and Amazon Prime Video’s The Underground Railroad.
The latter was adapted by Barry Jenkins based on Colson Whitehead’s novel. Jenkins, who won the Scripter in 2017 for his eventual Oscar Best Picture winner Moonlight, will receive...
- 1/19/2022
- by Patrick Hipes
- Deadline Film + TV
The USC Libraries has revealed the finalists for the 34th annual USC Libraries Scripter Award, which honors the year’s best film and television adaptations, as well as the works on which they are based. This group of academics, industry professionals, and critics (for which I vote) is often predictive of the Adapted Screenplay Oscar race.
Last year’s Scripter film winners were “Nomadland” screenwriter Chloé Zhao and author Jessica Bruder (non-Scripter nominee “The Father” took home the Oscar); past winners include “Call Me By Your Name,” “Moonlight,” “The Big Short,” and “The Imitation Game,” which all won Oscars. In fact, before 2019, eight Scripter Award winners went on to win Oscars.
The finalist writers for film adaptation are, in alphabetical order by film title:
Screenwriters Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, and Denis Villeneuve for “Dune” (Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures and Ace), based on the novel by Frank Herbert
Maggie Gyllenhaal...
Last year’s Scripter film winners were “Nomadland” screenwriter Chloé Zhao and author Jessica Bruder (non-Scripter nominee “The Father” took home the Oscar); past winners include “Call Me By Your Name,” “Moonlight,” “The Big Short,” and “The Imitation Game,” which all won Oscars. In fact, before 2019, eight Scripter Award winners went on to win Oscars.
The finalist writers for film adaptation are, in alphabetical order by film title:
Screenwriters Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, and Denis Villeneuve for “Dune” (Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures and Ace), based on the novel by Frank Herbert
Maggie Gyllenhaal...
- 1/19/2022
- by Anne Thompson
- Thompson on Hollywood
The USC Scripter Awards has announced its nominees for its 34th annual ceremony, recognizing the best film and television adaptations. Netflix dominated the film category with three films making the cut, all from women screenwriters who also directed their movies: “The Lost Daughter” from Maggie Gyllenhaal, “The Power of the Dog” from Jane Campion and “Passing” from Rebecca Hall. This is the first nomination for all three acclaimed filmmakers.
Joel Coen, a two-time nominee for “No Country for Old Men” (2007), for which he won with his brother Ethan, and “True Grit” (2010), was recognized for adapting his black-and-white interpretation of “The Tragedy of Macbeth” for Apple Original Films and A24. This is a huge pick-up for the movie, as no film adaptation of the cursed play has been recognized in the screenplay category at the Oscars.
Another significant boost was given to “Dune” and its three scribes, Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve.
Joel Coen, a two-time nominee for “No Country for Old Men” (2007), for which he won with his brother Ethan, and “True Grit” (2010), was recognized for adapting his black-and-white interpretation of “The Tragedy of Macbeth” for Apple Original Films and A24. This is a huge pick-up for the movie, as no film adaptation of the cursed play has been recognized in the screenplay category at the Oscars.
Another significant boost was given to “Dune” and its three scribes, Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve.
- 1/19/2022
- by Clayton Davis
- Variety Film + TV
When Rebecca Hall came across a copy of Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel “Passing” almost 15 years ago, she immediately began picturing how she would make the film. “It just started playing in my mind,” she recalls. “Black and white, in 4:3.”
Hall, who has starred in fare as varied as “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and, more recently, “Godzilla vs Kong,” was just a few dozen pages into the novel at the time and had never previously directed. But as soon as she finished the book — about two Black women who reconnect in adulthood when one has begun “passing” as white — Hall pulled out her computer and began writing the screenplay. When she finished, she shoved it into a drawer, where it stayed for the next six years.
“I think I sort of vomited out the first draft in 10 days,” says Hall. “And then I was terrified of it. It sat on my computer.
Hall, who has starred in fare as varied as “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” and, more recently, “Godzilla vs Kong,” was just a few dozen pages into the novel at the time and had never previously directed. But as soon as she finished the book — about two Black women who reconnect in adulthood when one has begun “passing” as white — Hall pulled out her computer and began writing the screenplay. When she finished, she shoved it into a drawer, where it stayed for the next six years.
“I think I sort of vomited out the first draft in 10 days,” says Hall. “And then I was terrified of it. It sat on my computer.
- 1/13/2022
- by K.J. Yossman
- Variety Film + TV
Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2021, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.
Year Two of a global pandemic was, in many ways, more difficult than the first. As the urgency around the coronavirus died down and its novelty wore off, we each had to continue on with our lives as disease (and its repercussions) raged on about us. If 2020 was about exposing the fragility of our current systems, then 2021 was about having to live with the missteps we took to get here. It’s appropriate, then, that many of the best films of the year reckoned with the wrongdoings of the past, investigated the sins that embedded themselves in our present without our knowing, and searched for ways to extract the poison so that it could not harm our future. Some films were more optimistic than others; The Matrix Resurrections...
Year Two of a global pandemic was, in many ways, more difficult than the first. As the urgency around the coronavirus died down and its novelty wore off, we each had to continue on with our lives as disease (and its repercussions) raged on about us. If 2020 was about exposing the fragility of our current systems, then 2021 was about having to live with the missteps we took to get here. It’s appropriate, then, that many of the best films of the year reckoned with the wrongdoings of the past, investigated the sins that embedded themselves in our present without our knowing, and searched for ways to extract the poison so that it could not harm our future. Some films were more optimistic than others; The Matrix Resurrections...
- 1/10/2022
- by Jonah Wu
- The Film Stage
Editors note: Deadline’s Read the Screenplay series debuts and celebrates the scripts of films that will be factors in this year’s movie awards race.
Rebecca Hall made her directorial debut with the Netflix film Passing, which also marked her first produced screenplay. She adapted Nella Larsen’s novel about a Black woman passing for white in 1920s Harlem, and her friendship with another woman.
Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) and Clare Kendry (Ruth Negga) were childhood friends. By the time they reunite as adults, they’re living quite different lives. Irene is married to a doctor (Andre Holland) with whom she has children. Clare passes for a white woman and is married to John (Alexander Skarsgård) who not only doesn’t know his wife is Black but is racist himself.
Hall has a Black grandfather who passed for white in his day, though he died before Hall was born...
Rebecca Hall made her directorial debut with the Netflix film Passing, which also marked her first produced screenplay. She adapted Nella Larsen’s novel about a Black woman passing for white in 1920s Harlem, and her friendship with another woman.
Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) and Clare Kendry (Ruth Negga) were childhood friends. By the time they reunite as adults, they’re living quite different lives. Irene is married to a doctor (Andre Holland) with whom she has children. Clare passes for a white woman and is married to John (Alexander Skarsgård) who not only doesn’t know his wife is Black but is racist himself.
Hall has a Black grandfather who passed for white in his day, though he died before Hall was born...
- 12/30/2021
- by Fred Topel
- Deadline Film + TV
The most electric scenes in Rebecca Hall’s “Passing” are its most quiet and intimate, featuring its two stars Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga in conversation. It is only fitting, then, that both actresses are in the Oscar conversation for their nuanced and moving work in the Netflix film, which is based on Nella Larsen’s novel of the same name from 1929 and set around the same time. Thompson and Negga play Irene and Clare, respectively, former childhood acquaintances who after a chance encounter reenter each others’ lives in a complicated and ultimately tragic manner.
Both Thompson and Negga deliver beautiful, understated performances. Negga is glamorous and charismatic as Clare, a Black woman who has long passed for white, even unbeknownst to her racist husband John (Alexander Skarsgård), whose charmed life begins to show signs of her disillusionment. Thompson delivers a similarly intricate performance as Irene, a volunteer for the...
Both Thompson and Negga deliver beautiful, understated performances. Negga is glamorous and charismatic as Clare, a Black woman who has long passed for white, even unbeknownst to her racist husband John (Alexander Skarsgård), whose charmed life begins to show signs of her disillusionment. Thompson delivers a similarly intricate performance as Irene, a volunteer for the...
- 12/24/2021
- by David Buchanan
- Gold Derby
Some of the best films are about people making life-altering decisions that not only change the course of events, but also their own actions and personalities.
And this year’s films are filled with women making some doozies. From Lady Gaga’s Patrizia Reggiani taking a murderous turn to Nicole Kidman’s Lucille Ball dealing with a pivotal week for her marriage and career to Rachel Zegler’s Maria debating whether to leave her family for love in “West Side Story” to Kristen Stewart’s fictitious depiction of a Princess Diana who left it all behind in “Spencer,” it’s suggested that a different decision could have spared lives (and perhaps changed history).
Other characters, including Jodie Comer’s Middle Ages-era French wife Marguerite de Carrouges in “The Last Duel” and Penélope Cruz’s Spanish photographer Janis in “Parallel Mothers,” put themselves in jeopardy in the name of speaking up and sharing the truth.
And this year’s films are filled with women making some doozies. From Lady Gaga’s Patrizia Reggiani taking a murderous turn to Nicole Kidman’s Lucille Ball dealing with a pivotal week for her marriage and career to Rachel Zegler’s Maria debating whether to leave her family for love in “West Side Story” to Kristen Stewart’s fictitious depiction of a Princess Diana who left it all behind in “Spencer,” it’s suggested that a different decision could have spared lives (and perhaps changed history).
Other characters, including Jodie Comer’s Middle Ages-era French wife Marguerite de Carrouges in “The Last Duel” and Penélope Cruz’s Spanish photographer Janis in “Parallel Mothers,” put themselves in jeopardy in the name of speaking up and sharing the truth.
- 12/17/2021
- by Whitney Friedlander
- Variety Film + TV
“I’m endlessly fascinated with identity in general. And certainly I like to do work that I feel can contribute in some way to cultural conversations that are important,” says Tessa Thompson about starring in Netflix‘s film “Passing,” about two Black women in 1920s New York City and their very different relationships with race. Watch our exclusive video interview with Thompson above.
Thompson plays Irene, who is married to a doctor and has a comfortably middle-class life in Harlem. Then she reconnects with a childhood friend, Clare (Ruth Negga), who is living her life as a white woman, and both of their lives are upended. The film is written and directed by Rebecca Hall based on a 1929 novella by Nella Larsen, but the book was written with such “modernity,” that Thompson “couldn’t believe that it had been written so long ago.”
SEERuth Negga (‘Passing’) on dangers of a...
Thompson plays Irene, who is married to a doctor and has a comfortably middle-class life in Harlem. Then she reconnects with a childhood friend, Clare (Ruth Negga), who is living her life as a white woman, and both of their lives are upended. The film is written and directed by Rebecca Hall based on a 1929 novella by Nella Larsen, but the book was written with such “modernity,” that Thompson “couldn’t believe that it had been written so long ago.”
SEERuth Negga (‘Passing’) on dangers of a...
- 12/17/2021
- by Daniel Montgomery
- Gold Derby
As a white-passing biracial woman, I really resonated with Rebecca Hall's film adaptation of Nella Larsen's 1929 novel, Passing. The story centers on two biracial Black women, Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) and Clare Kendry (Ruth Negga), who are light-skinned enough to pass as white in 1920s New York. When Irene bumps into her old friend Clare, she almost doesn't recognize her. Unlike Irene - who is living her life openly as a Black woman despite being able to pass for white if she wanted to - Clare has accentuated her already-light features with blond hair to help her pass as white in everyday society. Taking her deception even further, she's married a wealthy white man (Alexander Skarsgard), who not only doesn't know she's Black but also holds an extreme, violent hatred toward Black people.
In some ways, I identify with Clare, particularly when it comes to how easy it...
In some ways, I identify with Clare, particularly when it comes to how easy it...
- 12/14/2021
- by Adele Stewart
- Popsugar.com
Rebecca Hall said Saturday that her mother told her Hall’s directorial debut, Passing, liberated her family, as Hall’s grandfather was a Black man who decided to pass for White in Detroit.
Hall and stars Ruth Negga and Andre Holland spoke during the panel for the Netflix drama at Deadline’s Contenders Film: New York awards-season showcase.
“She called me up in tears when she first saw it and she just said, ‘You’ve liberated us,’ ” Hall said. “I grew up observing my mother and thinking about the psychological impact of being brought up in an environment where you weren’t allowed to talk about something. To me, she always looked like a Black woman. I was saying to her, ‘Tell me about this. What are we? Tell me the story.’ She didn’t know. It’s not that she wouldn’t. She couldn’t. She was respecting her father’s wishes.
Hall and stars Ruth Negga and Andre Holland spoke during the panel for the Netflix drama at Deadline’s Contenders Film: New York awards-season showcase.
“She called me up in tears when she first saw it and she just said, ‘You’ve liberated us,’ ” Hall said. “I grew up observing my mother and thinking about the psychological impact of being brought up in an environment where you weren’t allowed to talk about something. To me, she always looked like a Black woman. I was saying to her, ‘Tell me about this. What are we? Tell me the story.’ She didn’t know. It’s not that she wouldn’t. She couldn’t. She was respecting her father’s wishes.
- 12/4/2021
- by Fred Topel
- Deadline Film + TV
In 2008 Rebecca Hall received a Gotham for best ensemble performance for her “Vicky Cristina Barcelona.” Thirteen years later she’s back with her directorial debut “Passing,” which garnered five Gotham nominations in the best feature, breakthrough director, screenplay, lead performance and supporting performance categories.
Based on the eponymous novel by Nella Larsen, “Passing,” written by Hall, takes place in the 1920s and follows the lives of two Black women, one of whom passes as a white woman, due to her light skin tone, and marries a white husband who is clueless about her race.
Did you always know that you wanted to adapt and direct Larsen’s “Passing”?
I really wrote the screenplay in an effort to just spend more time with a book because it had such an effect on me. I thought that the film that I had in my head was honestly too ambitious to be my first film.
Based on the eponymous novel by Nella Larsen, “Passing,” written by Hall, takes place in the 1920s and follows the lives of two Black women, one of whom passes as a white woman, due to her light skin tone, and marries a white husband who is clueless about her race.
Did you always know that you wanted to adapt and direct Larsen’s “Passing”?
I really wrote the screenplay in an effort to just spend more time with a book because it had such an effect on me. I thought that the film that I had in my head was honestly too ambitious to be my first film.
- 11/29/2021
- by Addie Morfoot
- Variety Film + TV
Racial passing occurs when a member of one racial group is either believed to be or accepted as a member of another. In the U.S., it generally means someone who is Black or of multi-racial heritage, “passing” as a White person. It’s the subject of Rebecca Hall’s well-received directorial debut “Passing,” currently streaming on Netflix. Hall, who is the daughter of the late director Peter Hall and opera singer Maria Ewing is of Dutch, Native American, African American and Scottish heritage. She adapted Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel about two African American friends: one (Tessa Thompson) is married to a prominent doctor and the other (Ruth Negga) has passed for white for years and is married to a wealthy racist (Alexander Skarsgard). Hall was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize dramatic at Sundance; “Passing” currently is nominated for five Gotham Awards including Best Picture and Breakthrough Director.
Racial...
Racial...
- 11/24/2021
- by Susan King
- Gold Derby
Passing Netflix Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net, linked from Rotten Tomatoes by Harvey Karten Director: Rebecca Hall Screenwriter: Rebecca Hall, based on the novel by Nella Larsen Cast: Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga, André Holland, Alexander Skarsgård, Bill Camp Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 11/12/21 Opens: October 27, 2021. Streaming November 10, 2021 Chaz Ebert, the […]
The post Passing Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Passing Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 11/17/2021
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
Adapted from Nella Larsen’s 1929 book of the same name, debutant director Rebecca Hall’s ‘Passing’, filmed in stark black-and-white tones, is a measured, quiet drama about race, identity and society in New York in the 1920s. Putting into context, ‘Passing’ means when members of a racial, ethnic, or religious group present themselves as belonging to […]...
- 11/11/2021
- by Glamsham Bureau
- GlamSham
Chicago – Rebecca Hall is not content being one of the best actors of her generation. She also has directed her first feature film, “Passing,” streaming on Netflix beginning November 10th, 2021. Set in the 1920s, the story is of two female friends who reconnect after many years, revealing secrets affecting both of them.
’Passing,’ Directed by Rebecca Hall
Photo credit: Neflix
Rating: 3.5/5.0
The film is an adaptation of a novel by Nella Larsen that was published in 1929. The two friends in the story are black – Irene (Tessa Thompson) and Claire (Ruth Negga) – who were friends as teenagers, but had lost touch as adults. On a hot New York City day, Irene spots her old friend in a hotel tea room, and finds out light-skinned Claire has been passing for white. In their reunion, Claire admires Irene’s upper middle class lifestyle in Harlem, and seeks to go back to her roots,...
’Passing,’ Directed by Rebecca Hall
Photo credit: Neflix
Rating: 3.5/5.0
The film is an adaptation of a novel by Nella Larsen that was published in 1929. The two friends in the story are black – Irene (Tessa Thompson) and Claire (Ruth Negga) – who were friends as teenagers, but had lost touch as adults. On a hot New York City day, Irene spots her old friend in a hotel tea room, and finds out light-skinned Claire has been passing for white. In their reunion, Claire admires Irene’s upper middle class lifestyle in Harlem, and seeks to go back to her roots,...
- 11/10/2021
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Ruth Negga’s radiant performance in “Passing” is almost unrecognizable from her last Oscar-nominated role. Those who only know the Irish actress as Mildred Loving, the soft-spoken, steady heroine of 2016’s romantic drama “Loving,” are in for a delightfully rude awakening when they meet Clare Bellew, the destabilizing force whirling through director Rebecca Hall’s new film.
While Mildred was resolute and composed in the face of injustice, Clare is provocative and strong-willed, a sunny seductress determined to live life exactly on her terms. Though they live in very different worlds, Clare has a lot more in common with Negga’s hot-headed “Preacher” character Tulip than she does with Mildred — and with the charismatic Negga herself.
In an interview with IndieWire, Negga explained why she embraced her latest onscreen character. “Everything about Clare for me is a fuck-you to an establishment, any kind of establishment,” she said. “A Black woman wanting something,...
While Mildred was resolute and composed in the face of injustice, Clare is provocative and strong-willed, a sunny seductress determined to live life exactly on her terms. Though they live in very different worlds, Clare has a lot more in common with Negga’s hot-headed “Preacher” character Tulip than she does with Mildred — and with the charismatic Negga herself.
In an interview with IndieWire, Negga explained why she embraced her latest onscreen character. “Everything about Clare for me is a fuck-you to an establishment, any kind of establishment,” she said. “A Black woman wanting something,...
- 11/5/2021
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
Another month, another wave of new Netflix titles hitting the platform. While you wouldn’t be wrong for chalking up the streamer as mostly a source for original binge-able TV series that go from the mind as soon as they enter it, Netflix at least tries to do some good each month with a few classic-ish movies to appeal to film fans.
But this month is also stacked with some of the homegrown Netflix movies they’re pushing into the awards fray, from rookie film director Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Jonathan Larson musical “Tick, Tick…Boom!” to actor Rebecca Hall’s luminous directorial debut “Passing,” which began its journey at Sundance 2021 back in January. While Oscar watchers are about to be up to their eyeballs in awards content — next month, highbrow literary adaptations “The Lost Daughter” and “The Power of the Dog” also drop on Netflix — there are a few bonafide...
But this month is also stacked with some of the homegrown Netflix movies they’re pushing into the awards fray, from rookie film director Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Jonathan Larson musical “Tick, Tick…Boom!” to actor Rebecca Hall’s luminous directorial debut “Passing,” which began its journey at Sundance 2021 back in January. While Oscar watchers are about to be up to their eyeballs in awards content — next month, highbrow literary adaptations “The Lost Daughter” and “The Power of the Dog” also drop on Netflix — there are a few bonafide...
- 11/5/2021
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
In “Passing,” Tessa Thompson stars as Irene Redfield, a Black woman living in Harlem amid the Renaissance, whose life with her doctor husband Brian (André Holland) and their two sons is turned upside down when she reconnects with Clare Kendry (Ruth Negga), a childhood acquaintance who’s since begun passing for white and is married to a wealthy (and racist) businessman named John (Alexander Skarsgård). The movie, which marks Rebecca Hall’s feature directorial debut, recently earned five Gotham Award nominations, including a lead performance nod for Thompson. Beyond her own acknowledgment, Thompson explains, those accolades represent something more. “It was so hard to get the film made because of the subject matter and because it’s shot in black and white,” she tells Variety. “When movies like this do well, all that does is make room for more stories like this to be told.”
“Passing” is based on Nella Larsen’s 1929 novella.
“Passing” is based on Nella Larsen’s 1929 novella.
- 11/5/2021
- by Angelique Jackson
- Variety Film + TV
Passing, the directorial debut of actress Rebecca Hall, is a film about identity — specifically, the identity of Black women living on the racial margins during the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s. It’s fitting, then, that Hall — whose multiracial grandfather passed for white — staffed her crew with such Black women as costume designer Marci Rodgers, hair department head Barbara Roman and production designer Nora Mendis, who share a personal connection to the themes, setting and original novel on which Passing is based.
The film, an adaptation of Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel, centers on the reunion of childhood friends ...
The film, an adaptation of Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel, centers on the reunion of childhood friends ...
- 11/3/2021
- The Hollywood Reporter - Film + TV
It’s an annual tradition: when the beginning of prestige movie season collides with television trying to capture the eyes of audiences retreating indoors with the arrival of colder weather there’s almost too much to watch. That’s certainly the case this November. On the movie front, the month offers everything from new Marvel projects to a hotly anticipated new Paul Thomas Anderson movie. When it comes to television, we’re getting everything from a sweeping fantasy epic to a darkly comic podcast adaptation. So let’s get into...
- 11/2/2021
- by Keith Phipps
- Rollingstone.com
Like its enigmatic leads, “Passing” wastes no time wading into thorny territory. Employing a theatrical economy of space, the film’s opening scene tumbles seamlessly into in one of its most arresting moments, one that leaves a lasting impression. After running into an old school friend Clare (Ruth Negga) while out shopping, Irene (Tessa Thompson) reluctantly visits the hotel room Clare shares with her unnervingly white husband John (Alexander Skarsgård). Though viewers may guess at the film’s premise from its plumb title (which is both ambiguous and direct), we observe rapt as Irene politely pieces together the details of Clare’s unusual lifestyle.
When John reveals the racist origins of his nickname for his blonde wife (whom he thinks is white), without the faintest hint of shame, Irene cannot stop herself from bursting out in a fit of nervous laughter. The spell goes on slightly too long for comfort,...
When John reveals the racist origins of his nickname for his blonde wife (whom he thinks is white), without the faintest hint of shame, Irene cannot stop herself from bursting out in a fit of nervous laughter. The spell goes on slightly too long for comfort,...
- 10/29/2021
- by Jude Dry
- Indiewire
As cinematographer Eduard Grau was seeking his next project after “The Way Back,” he wanted to work with a director whose vision was to elevate the material into something intellectually profound.
Actor Rebecca Hall, making her directing debut with “Passing,” proved to be the ideal partner. “She was already going in that direction, and focused on making a movie with visually striking poetry,” Grau says.
Hall decided the adaptation of Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel would be shot in black and white. At the heart of the story are two Black women, Irene (Tessa Thompson) and Clare (Ruth Negga), who can “pass” as white women but choose to live on opposing sides of the color line. With colorism as a theme, alongside sexism, race, class and gender, Hall gravitated to monochrome — in particular, to remove the idea of complexion and give greater visual freedom to the storytelling.
Hall and Grau looked...
Actor Rebecca Hall, making her directing debut with “Passing,” proved to be the ideal partner. “She was already going in that direction, and focused on making a movie with visually striking poetry,” Grau says.
Hall decided the adaptation of Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel would be shot in black and white. At the heart of the story are two Black women, Irene (Tessa Thompson) and Clare (Ruth Negga), who can “pass” as white women but choose to live on opposing sides of the color line. With colorism as a theme, alongside sexism, race, class and gender, Hall gravitated to monochrome — in particular, to remove the idea of complexion and give greater visual freedom to the storytelling.
Hall and Grau looked...
- 10/29/2021
- by Jazz Tangcay
- Variety Film + TV
First of all, I love “Passing!” It’s poetic and heartfelt featuring great performances from both Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga. Based on the beloved 1929 novel by Nella Larsen, Thompson and Negga play mixed-race childhood friends from Chicago who reunite in New York and unravels secrets kept by each other. Thompson is Irene “Reenie”
The post “Passing” appeared first on Manny the Movie Guy.
The post “Passing” appeared first on Manny the Movie Guy.
- 10/29/2021
- by manny
- Manny the Movie Guy
Elevators figure prominently in Nella Larsen’s 1929 novella Passing; they mark the moments in which the protagonist Irene Redfield passes as white. When she takes the elevator up to the Hotel Drayton’s roof, an exclusively white space, it’s “like being wafted upward on a magic carpet to another world, pleasant, quiet, and strangely remote from the sizzling one that she had left below.” Later, when Irene leaves her old friend Clare Kendry and her bigoted husband, the elevator sends her “plunging downward.”Rebecca Hall’s feature debut and adaptation of Larsen’s Passing retains the way the novel thinks about racial passing as a sort of technology that allows one to be in control of how one is seen. In Hall’s film, this technology takes the form of the camera rather than the elevator. The film begins with a tracking shot, of two women walking; the high contrast,...
- 10/28/2021
- MUBI
When Rebecca Hall signed on to direct the onscreen adaptation of Nella Larsen's 1929 novel Passing, she had one "non-negotiable" request: the film needed to be shot in black and white. Starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, Passing is set during the height of the Harlem Renaissance in 1920s New York and tells the story of two Black women, Clare (Negga) and Irene (Thompson), who can "pass" as white but lead very different lives: Irene fully embraces her Black culture with her family and friends, while Clare chooses to "pass" as a white woman. It's not until the former childhood friends have an unexpected reunion that their carefully constructed lives start to fall apart.
The project marks Hall's directorial debut, and it was important to her that it was shot in black and white with a 4:3 format so the contrast between Irene and Clare was crystal clear. "This is...
The project marks Hall's directorial debut, and it was important to her that it was shot in black and white with a 4:3 format so the contrast between Irene and Clare was crystal clear. "This is...
- 10/28/2021
- by Monica Sisavat
- Popsugar.com
Every word that first-time feature filmmaker Rebecca Hall uses to describe the genesis of her “Passing” vibrates with intensity. Her first experience reading the Nella Larsen novella she eventually adapted for the black-and-white period piece was like “being in a fever,” the pages flipping by as if she was “slightly possessed.”
More than 13 years after first reading Larsen’s book, Hall has kept up that same passion for the material, enough to propel her through years of denials from Hollywood brass and the distinct possibility that the film would never get made the way she saw it.
Much has been made of Hall’s personal connection to the material — the film, like Larsen’s seminal work, follows the fraught reunion of a pair of friends (Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga), both of whom are Black, though one of them has crossed the color line and lived her life “passing” as...
More than 13 years after first reading Larsen’s book, Hall has kept up that same passion for the material, enough to propel her through years of denials from Hollywood brass and the distinct possibility that the film would never get made the way she saw it.
Much has been made of Hall’s personal connection to the material — the film, like Larsen’s seminal work, follows the fraught reunion of a pair of friends (Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga), both of whom are Black, though one of them has crossed the color line and lived her life “passing” as...
- 10/28/2021
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Earlier this month, it was announced that Mubi was launching Mubi Go, a curated movie-going experience for $10.99 a month. A hand-picked film will be presented each week and subscribers will not only get a ticket to the selection, but also to the entirety of Mubi’s streaming platform. Set to launch in New York beginning this Friday, October 29 with Rebecca Hall’s Passing at the Paris Theater and IFC Center, we’re now delighted to exclusively announce the rest of the initial lineup, including some of the fall’s finest films from Jane Campion, Radu Jude, and more.
See below.
Passing (our review)
Available starting October 29
The first hand-picked selection for Mubi Go is Netflix’s Passing, starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, and directed by Rebecca Hall. The film premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival and was recently seen at the New York Film Festival. Adapted...
See below.
Passing (our review)
Available starting October 29
The first hand-picked selection for Mubi Go is Netflix’s Passing, starring Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga, and directed by Rebecca Hall. The film premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival and was recently seen at the New York Film Festival. Adapted...
- 10/28/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Hall’s directing debut stars Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga as friends who are both ‘passing’ for what they are not in an adaptation of Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel
Rebecca Hall makes her directing debut with this intimately disturbing movie, adapted by her from the 1929 novel by Nella Larsen. Irene (Tessa Thompson) and Clare (Ruth Negga) are two women of colour, former school friends who run into each other by chance in an upscale Manhattan hotel in prohibition-era America. They are both light-skinned, but Irene is stunned to realise that her vivacious and now peroxide blonde friend Clare is “passing” for white these days, and that her odious, wealthy white husband John (Alexander Skarsgård) has no idea. As for sober and respectable Irene, she lives with her black doctor husband Brian (André Holland) in Harlem with their two sons and a black maid that she treats a little high-handedly.
There...
Rebecca Hall makes her directing debut with this intimately disturbing movie, adapted by her from the 1929 novel by Nella Larsen. Irene (Tessa Thompson) and Clare (Ruth Negga) are two women of colour, former school friends who run into each other by chance in an upscale Manhattan hotel in prohibition-era America. They are both light-skinned, but Irene is stunned to realise that her vivacious and now peroxide blonde friend Clare is “passing” for white these days, and that her odious, wealthy white husband John (Alexander Skarsgård) has no idea. As for sober and respectable Irene, she lives with her black doctor husband Brian (André Holland) in Harlem with their two sons and a black maid that she treats a little high-handedly.
There...
- 10/28/2021
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The actor has just directed her first film, an adaptation of Nella Larsen’s 1929 novel Passing. She discusses the family story that inspired her, cultural appropriation and class in Hollywood
It would be easy to assume that Rebecca Hall has never had to fight for anything in her life. Now 39, she made her screen debut at the age of 10 in The Camomile Lawn, the 1992 TV series directed by her father, the British theatre grandee Sir Peter Hall. Her stage debut came a decade later, in his production of Mrs Warren’s Profession. There followed 15 hugely successful years as an actor, working with Steven Spielberg (The Bfg), Christopher Nolan (The Prestige), Woody Allen (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and many more. But for more than a decade she has been struggling to build a second career, as the director of a movie that some would say she has no right to make.
That movie is Passing,...
It would be easy to assume that Rebecca Hall has never had to fight for anything in her life. Now 39, she made her screen debut at the age of 10 in The Camomile Lawn, the 1992 TV series directed by her father, the British theatre grandee Sir Peter Hall. Her stage debut came a decade later, in his production of Mrs Warren’s Profession. There followed 15 hugely successful years as an actor, working with Steven Spielberg (The Bfg), Christopher Nolan (The Prestige), Woody Allen (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) and many more. But for more than a decade she has been struggling to build a second career, as the director of a movie that some would say she has no right to make.
That movie is Passing,...
- 10/27/2021
- by Ellen E Jones
- The Guardian - Film News
The Skin I Live In: Hall Formulates an Elegant, Devastating Adaptation of Nella Larsen
For those who have had the pleasure of reading either of the two works published by 1920s Harlem writer Nella Larsen, the first cinematic adaptation of her prose from her second novel, 1929’s Passing, is requisite viewing. Actor Rebecca Hall makes her directorial debut with a flawless mounting of Larsen’s poignant explorations of racial, gender and sexual identification, which is poignantly administered and elegantly portrayed through a simmering performance from Tessa Thompson. Hall’s own familial background adds a certain level of gravitas in grappling with how our continued cultural obsessions with white and lighter skin tones remains a superficial marker of privilege while remaining a continually destructive validation of socially constructed ideations about race and the resulting racism which accompanies it.…...
For those who have had the pleasure of reading either of the two works published by 1920s Harlem writer Nella Larsen, the first cinematic adaptation of her prose from her second novel, 1929’s Passing, is requisite viewing. Actor Rebecca Hall makes her directorial debut with a flawless mounting of Larsen’s poignant explorations of racial, gender and sexual identification, which is poignantly administered and elegantly portrayed through a simmering performance from Tessa Thompson. Hall’s own familial background adds a certain level of gravitas in grappling with how our continued cultural obsessions with white and lighter skin tones remains a superficial marker of privilege while remaining a continually destructive validation of socially constructed ideations about race and the resulting racism which accompanies it.…...
- 10/25/2021
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Chicago – Rebecca Hall is not content being one of the best actors of her generation, she also has directed her first feature film, “Passing.” Representing the film at the 57th Chicago International Film Festival (Ciff), she walked the Red Carpet … Joe Arce got the Exclusive Photo and Patrick McDonald got the interview.
The film is an adaptation of a novel by Nella Larsen that was published in 1929. Set in the 1920s, the story is of two black women – Irene (Tessa Thompson) and Claire (Ruth Negga) – who were friends as teenagers, but had lost touch as adults. On a hot New York City day, Irene spots her old friend in a hotel tea room, and finds out light-skinned Claire has been passing for white. As they reconnect, Claire admires Irene’s upper middle class lifestyle in Harlem, and seeks to go back to her roots, including developing a friendship with Irene...
The film is an adaptation of a novel by Nella Larsen that was published in 1929. Set in the 1920s, the story is of two black women – Irene (Tessa Thompson) and Claire (Ruth Negga) – who were friends as teenagers, but had lost touch as adults. On a hot New York City day, Irene spots her old friend in a hotel tea room, and finds out light-skinned Claire has been passing for white. As they reconnect, Claire admires Irene’s upper middle class lifestyle in Harlem, and seeks to go back to her roots, including developing a friendship with Irene...
- 10/23/2021
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Exclusive: Arthouse streamer and distributor Mubi is launching a U.S. in-theater offering this month letting members see one film a week that it selects at participating cinemas starting in New York City. It said Mubi Go will roll out nationwide in selected markets with LA next in early 2022.
Mubi Go (available in the U.K. and India) will launch Oct. 29 with Netflix’s Passing, directed by Rebecca Hall, that premiered at Sundance and screened at the New York Film Festival. Subscribers can get a free ticket during the film’s theatrical engagement at the Paris Theater and IFC Center ahead of its Nov. 10 streaming release on Netflix.
Adapted from the 1929 novel by Nella Larsen, Passing is the story of two Black women, Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) and Clare Kendry (Ruth Negga), who can pass as white but choose to live on opposite sides of the color line during the height of the Harlem Renaissance.
Mubi Go (available in the U.K. and India) will launch Oct. 29 with Netflix’s Passing, directed by Rebecca Hall, that premiered at Sundance and screened at the New York Film Festival. Subscribers can get a free ticket during the film’s theatrical engagement at the Paris Theater and IFC Center ahead of its Nov. 10 streaming release on Netflix.
Adapted from the 1929 novel by Nella Larsen, Passing is the story of two Black women, Irene Redfield (Tessa Thompson) and Clare Kendry (Ruth Negga), who can pass as white but choose to live on opposite sides of the color line during the height of the Harlem Renaissance.
- 10/19/2021
- by Jill Goldsmith
- Deadline Film + TV
An event like the Festival Lumière, with its wide remit that sees classic films and retrospectives rub shoulders with the very latest and chic-est new titles, is always going to boast a thicket of hidden connections and surprising collisions. This year, for example, you could go from watching “8 ½,” Federico Fellini’s 1963 metafiction about his relationship with filmmaking, straight into “The Hand of God,” Paolo Sorrentino’s 2021 autofiction about his relationship with (among other things) Fellini. You could gorge yourself on Francois Truffaut’s Antoine Doinel films, starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, and then find yourself watching Gaspar Noé’s “Vortex,” featuring a superb Francoise Lebrun, who is best known for her role in Jean Eustache’s “The Mother and the Whore,” where she starred opposite… Jean-Pierre Léaud.
Such coincidences and congruities are part of the joy of a film festival, but occasionally they can also point to something deeper. This edition features...
Such coincidences and congruities are part of the joy of a film festival, but occasionally they can also point to something deeper. This edition features...
- 10/9/2021
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
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