Passing (2021) on Netflix
In 1920s Harlem, Irene Redfield runs into a childhood friend, Clare, at a hotel. Clare passes as white and is married to a wealthy white man from Chicago.
- Netflix2.6/5
- IMDb6.6/1017,873 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes90%
Trailer
Plot summary
Irene Redfield lives in Harlem with her husband Brian, a doctor, and their sons. At a hotel dining room she meets Clare Bellew, whom she knew as a child. Clare has spent years passing as white and is married to John Bellew, a wealthy white man from Chicago who has no idea of her background. Clare brings Irene up to her room to explain how her father died when she was young and how her white aunts raised her. John interrupts them, voicing his contempt for Black people without suspecting either woman's race. Irene leaves angry and ignores Clare's letters. When Clare appears at her home to apologize, the friendship resumes. Clare, missing the Black world she gave up, joins the dance party Irene is planning and charms the guests, including Brian.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Passing (2021)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Rebecca Hall began writing the screenplay a decade before the film, drawing on her own family: her mother, opera singer Maria Ewing, was of mixed race, and some of Ewing's relatives passed as white.
- Into the third week of filming, the Hugh Wentworth role, written for Benedict Cumberbatch, was still uncast; Bill Camp took it on November 21, and the shoot wrapped in December after 23 days.
- With less than a month before filming began, Hall was still $500,000 short of her $10 million budget, and she applied for two grants to cover the difference.
- Cinematographer Eduard Grau shot the film with an anamorphic Lomo lens, which he said gave a softness around the edges and an almost impressionistic, painterly quality to the frame.
