“Black Love Stories in Film: Where is the Romance?”
The Kansas City public library is hosting a panel discussion with filmmakers, actors and industry insiders to discuss Hollywood’s take on black love in movies. This panel discussion draws from contemporary films as well as the earliest days of cinema history in order to provide a complete perspective on how African Americans have been portrayed in film when it comes to romance and love.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
The Kansas City Public Library
Central Library
Helzberg Auditorium
14 West 10th Street
Kansas City, Missouri 64105
Reception: 6:00 p.m.
Program: 6:30 p.m.
RSVP: kclibrary.org 816.701.3407
PANELISTS:
Diallo Javonne, French Filmmaker
Shawn Edwards, Fox 4 News Film Critic
Jenee Osterheldt, Kansas City Star Lifestyle Columnist
Damon Smith, Ink Relationship Columnist
Tasha Smith, “The Unreal Housewives of Kansas City” Actress
Sean Tyler, Hot 103 Jamz Radio Personality
MODERATOR:
Sharita Hutton Fox 4 News Anchor/Reporter
Like its winning hero, this movie wears its heart right on its sleeve. It lays it out for us right at the beginning, making it clear that “this is not a love story.” Oh, and it is a work of fiction. The usual disclaimer from the closing credits appears up front, letting us know that none of the characters should be confused with anyone in real life. Especially one named young woman in particular. Who is then described with an epithet often heard in a kennel.
It’s wrong about one thing; it is a love story. But that does not make it a happy love story. This is, as the narrator obligingly informs us, the story of Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who believes in love and believes that he will find true love and it will make him happy, and Summer (Zooey Deschanel), who does not believe in love and thinks that her 20’s should be about having fun. A match made in heaven? In the movies, maybe, but not this one.
It has been a long time, perhaps since “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” since a movie evoked the joys and pains of first love with such art and delicacy. We know from the title that the romance will last 500 days. The movie shows us that period thematically rather than chronologically so that we go from a day near the end of their relationship to a day near the beginning that explains what the later one was about. By the time we see those first, early moments of heady connection, we realize how the sweetness of those initial feelings will become almost unbearably poignant. In one encounter late in their relationship, when he comes to a party she is hosting, we see a split screen, one marked “expectation” and the other “reality.” The differences between them are subtle, but telling.
Director Marc Webb and screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber think very cinematically, using the unique attributes of film to evoke the feelings and experiences of the characters. And Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel are two of the most appealing and talented young performers in Hollywood and they create characters who are vibrant and real. We may not know whether they will stay in love with each other, but the audience will fall in love with them.
My dear friend and fellow critic Tim Gordon always has something interesting to say about movies. I love to talk to him after screenings about what we’ve just seen and how it compares to some of our favorites (and least favorites).
He has posted his list of 21 top romantic movies and it has some great choices, mixing popular classics like “Titantic,” “Love Actually,” and “Bull Durham” with neglected gems like “Love and Basketball” and “Jason’s Lyric.” Every one on the list is well worth seeing — and sharing with someone you love.
It’s wonderful to watch young people falling in love for the first time. That’s why we get to see it so often in the movies. But it is even more wonderful to see people falling in love for the last time, and that is one of the three great pleasures of this touching grown-up love story.
It’s always romantic to see first love because we can share with them — just for a moment — the belief that happily ever after means that there will never be an argument or disappointment or loss. But it is even more romantic to see older people fall in love because they know there will be all of that and they go ahead anyway. That is the story of “Last Chance Harvey,” a man who has lost his job and whose daughter asks her step-father to give her away at her wedding because she feels closer to him. Which is what gives him a chance to think about what he really wants for the rest of his life — and then he sees Kate.
Not much more happens. They walk around. They dance at the daughter’s wedding reception. They think about whether they really want to take the risk of sharing themselves knowing in a way that young people cannot what it really means. And yet in those moments, everything happens, and we know it and they know it.
The other two pleasures of the film are Dustin Hoffman as Harvey and Emma Thompson as Kate. These two actors, so perfectly at home with themselves, fearlessly give us two people who are complicated, difficult, and very, very protective of their bruised hearts. And then they let us see them bloom, not all at once, more of a two steps forward, one step back opening up of their hearts to each other. And that leaves our hearts just a little more open, too.
