Page 30 - aruba-today-20181217

A30 PEOPLE & ARTS
Monday 17 deceMber 2018
In 'Beale Street,' a radiant portrait of young black love

By JAKE COYLE that their low opinion of
NEW YORK (AP) — Barry themselves has been dis-
Jenkins years ago went on torted by prevailing racist
Etsy to have a James Bald- attitudes of appearance.
win quote embroidered "The only thing I knew right
onto his leather phone away is that on screen
case. The line so resonat- these two people are so
ed with the filmmaker that amazingly hot side by side,"
it's also spoken in Spanish Jenkins says. "The way Tish
by a character in his short remembers the romance
film "Chlorophyl." Jenkins in the film is heightened so I
no longer has the case thought, 'F--- it, they're gor-
but when the Baldwin line geous. Can't do anything
is read to him, he quickly about it.'"
takes up the reciting. The romance in Jenkins'
"Love does not begin and film is intensely idyllic, often
end the way we seem to captured in wordless but
think it does," he quotes. deeply expressive gazes
"Love is a battle, love is a between Tish and Fonny.
war; love is growing up." But after Fonny is framed
That sentiment hovered for rape — a kind of ines-
over the making of Jenkins' capable consequence of
latest film, his lyrical, mourn- This image released by Annapurna Pictures shows Stephan James, left, and Brian Tyree Henry in a the racist traps set every-
ful portrait of a young black scene from "If Beale Street Could Talk." where for black men like
love torn tragically apart: Associated Press Fonny — their scenes are
the Baldwin adaptation often shared through the
"If Beale Street Could Talk people were saying you're wars, these emotional bat- energy," James says, sitting glass of a prison's visiting
." It was there, too, in the kind of building this career tles, and the evolution that next to his co-star. "I real- center. For those moments,
anguished journey of Chi- as a chronicler of black comes out of that." ized her willingness to be Jenkins used Errol Morris' "In-
ron on Jenkins' best pic- love. And I always hear In "If Beale Street Could open and to be giving with terrotron" method of shoot-
ture-winning "Moonlight," that in the pejorative be- Talk," which opens in lim- me pretty early on. In that ing, allowing the actors to
a young man warped by cause I think people's idea ited release Friday, Jenkins chemistry read it was like: make eye contact while
the absence of affection. of love is so simple," Jenkins sought to capture an expe- I just met you five minutes looking into the camera.
In both, love is a magical, said on a recent November rience of love that has sel- ago and now we need to James drew not just on
mystical force molded by morning. "But if I go back dom been seen on screen, touch faces and I'm pro- Baldwin's words for Fonny
the obstacles of a harsh re- to that quote, yeah, of just as it had been seldom posing to you." but contemporary corol-
ality. course, because I'm mak- inked when Baldwin pub- They laugh, remembering laries — specifically Kalief
"I did an interview where ing these movies emotional lished his Harlem-set 1974 how immediately "Beale Browder, the Bronx man
novel. In bringing "Beale Street" prompted their inti- who killed himself after
Street" to screen, little was macy with each other. As spending 33 months on Rik-
more important than find- they launched into shoot- ers Island and almost two
ing the book's central lov- ing the film without the years in solitary confine-
ers: the humble but resilient benefit of rehearsal, both ment after being arrested
19-year-old Clementine actors quickly found they at age 16 for a robbery he
"Tish" Rivers and Alonzo were forging a fictional insisted he had not com-
"Fonny" Hunt, the sculptor relationship with broader mitted. "Fonny struck me as
Tish has known since child- meaning. somebody whose story was
hood. "We don't really see two bigger than just Fonny's
"When I read a book, I don't black people portrayed as story," says James. "It felt
really see faces," says Jen- soul mates," says Layne. "I like something that repre-
kins. "The hope was to find know Barry talks about that sented a whole bunch of
two young people who just a lot. These two people are voiceless young men in this
seemed so young, vibrant, meant to be together from country — African-Amer-
pure, uncorrupted by the a very, very young age and ican, Latino young men
world — who had chemis- that is powerful." who are incarcerated. It
try." "It felt like we were going just felt like Fonny was Ex-
Jenkins cast Fonny first, to be able to do some- hibit A, one of so many."
handing the role to thing for the first time, show Layne, more outgoing and
Stephan James, the Toron- people a different side of confident than her charac-
to-born, up-and-coming what it means to be black ter, initially felt disconnect-
24-year-old who played or what it means to be in ed from Tish, who leans on
Jesse Owens in "Race" and love," says James. her family's support when
John Lewis in "Selma." KiKi Both actors differed, in Fonny is sent to jail.
Layne, a 26-year-old the- ways, from Baldwin's de- "Like you see in the film ev-
ater actress who hadn't be- scriptions. In the book, eryone comes around Tish,
fore acted in a film, landed each character is labeled everyone came around
Tish after Jenkins flew her to as ugly (Fonny's skin is re- me, KiKi, as I was dealing
New York for a chemistry ferred to as "like raw, wet with all these new experi-
read with James. potato rinds"), and Tish and ences," says Layne, who
"There was just an energy Fonny see a beauty in each has since filmed an adap-
about KiKi and it's evident other that others don't. Yet tation of Richard Wright's
in the film — just a raw, pure there's also the impression "Native Son." q