PASSING (Rebecca Hall 2021)

[oscar jubis]

(SPOILERS)

The climactic death of Clare (not "Claire") in Passing, both novel and film, is ambiguous. Three characters bear possible responsibility for this tragedy, Clare included. The deservedly famous endings of several Alfred Hitchcock films are precursors to the scene in which Clare falls from a window to her death. These include, most prominently, Madeleine's fall from a church tower in Vertigo and Uncle Charles' fall from a moving train in Shadow of a Doubt. These death scenes find the right balance between what is revealed explicitly, what is suggested, and what is left out. The scene of Clare's death manages to be just as remarkable. Rebecca Hall (in collaboration with Spanish D.P. Eduard Grau) first establishes the indoor area near the window and then shows the distance to the ground by having Irene, the protagonist, lean over the window as she smokes, look down, and flick ashes from her cigarette. Then we see her former classmate Clare near the window, positioned next to Irene as we hear her husband offscreen, loudly demanding to see his wife. There's a cut to a reverse shot where we see enraged husband insulting Clare and then making a brusque movement forward, in her direction. A brief but critical insert shot: Irene puts her outstretched hand on Clare's belly and pushes back, as if she intends to shield her from her husband but instead, perhaps, ironically, causing her to fall to her death. The power of Passing to elicit compelling emotions and focused, thoughtful engagement is largely predicated on showing and telling enough but not too much. For instance, the film merely suggests Clare's suicidal ideations and the possibility of a kind of intimacy, not necessarily physical, between Clare and Irene's husband as well as Irene's developing awareness of it. One has to pay close attention to the moods and gestures and words and come to personal conclusions about aspects of the nature of the characters and their relationships. Often one's own thoughts about characters in movies don't coalesce into consciousness until one strings together a few words and thus conducts an act of criticism.

I had a very rich experience watching Passing and pondering its revelations and mysteries afterwards. The three main characters are fascinating (unlike Clare's husband who is nothing but a "white devil"). Rebecca Hall's debut film is a demonstration of how in movies depth of character, so to speak, is a function of the combined effects of script and performance transfigured by the camera. "Passing" is also a demonstration of the allure and deep thrills of mystery and ambiguity in storytelling.

[Chris Knipp]

Thanks for these interesting comments. I've corrected the misspelling of "Clare" in my review of PASSING.