{"id":62842,"date":"2022-01-21T02:00:05","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T02:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=62842"},"modified":"2022-01-21T02:00:05","modified_gmt":"2022-01-21T02:00:05","slug":"passing-keeps-its-writing-simple-asking-viewers-to-lean-in-for-greater-understanding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=62842","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Passing\u2019 keeps its writing simple, asking viewers to lean in for greater understanding"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018Passing\u2019 keeps its writing simple, asking viewers to lean in for greater understanding<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

The Los Angeles Times<\/a>
\n2022-01-18<\/p>\n

Rebecca Hall<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/a>
Adapting Nella Larsen\u2019s slim novella<\/a> took writer-director Rebecca Hall<\/a> 13 years. \u201cUltimately, I did my best to build my script and my film<\/a>, not so much out of language as out of small moments of behavior,\u201d she says. (Myung J. Chun \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

My adaptation<\/a> of Nella Larsen\u2019s \u201cPassing\u201d<\/a> had a slow birth, even by the often glacial standards of script development. When I started writing, I was an actress in my 20s with vague but fervent aspirations to one day direct. I wrote the first draft in 10 days, immediately after first reading the novel, in something of a fugue state. I was fascinated but also mystified by that fascination, and my first draft was crude and impractical. I didn\u2019t think for a second that I would ever have the means or the courage to turn it into a film.<\/p>\n

In retrospect, I probably could never have written it otherwise. Over the years, I tinkered, adjusting it radically and then minutely and then radically again until it became something of a piece of me \u2014 not so much a project or a process as a thing that I have lived in dialogue with for the better part of my adult life.<\/p>\n

The main challenge of the adaptation revolved around the character of Irene. Contemporary reviewers often missed both Irene\u2019s centrality and her fundamental unreliability. Clare, the object of Irene\u2019s obsession, was frequently taken to be the main character, rather than one half of the extraordinary \u2014 and extraordinarily complicated \u2014 relationship that drives the action…<\/p>\n

Read the entire article here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018Passing\u2019 keeps its writing simple, asking viewers to lean in for greater understanding The Los Angeles Times 2022-01-18 Rebecca Hall Adapting Nella Larsen\u2019s slim novella took writer-director Rebecca Hall 13 years. \u201cUltimately, I did my best to build my script and my film, not so much out of language as out of small moments of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,1196,8,20],"tags":[3909,87,28879,13272],"class_list":["post-62842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts","category-literary-criticism","category-media-archive","category-usa","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-nella-larsen","tag-rebecca-hall","tag-the-los-angeles-times"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62842"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62844,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62842\/revisions\/62844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}