If Beale Streets Could Talk, written and directed by Barry Jenkins, based on the book by James Baldwin - Nine out of 10

If Beale Streets Could Talk, written and directed by Barry Jenkins, based on the book by James Baldwin

Nine out of 10

James Baldwin is the magnificent author of Go Tell It on the Mountain - http://realini.blogspot.com/2019/08/go-tell-it-on-mountain-by-james-baldwin.html - included on The TIME Magazine’s and modern Library’s Best 100 Novels lists and The Guardian’s 1,000 Novels Everyone Must Read list, as well as the appreciated Giovanni’s Room - http://realini.blogspot.com/2016/04/giovannis-room-by-james-baldwin-unusual.html

If Beale Street Could Talk is another remarkable work and as adapted for the big screen it been nominated for three Oscars (for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role – which the brilliant actress has won) and three Golden Globes, winning for Supporting Role for Regina King, among other trophies and prizes…

Tish Rivers aka remarkable Kiki Layne seems to be the most important character in this narrative that has racism, the associated injustice, but also love at the core, and she is an extraordinary Wonder Woman, capable of deep, true feelings, resilient, brave, loyal, kind and at the same time fierce, in love with the sculptor Alonzo ‘Fonny’ Hunt aka formidable Stephan James, creator of abstract works – his friend, Daniel Carty aka charming Brian Tyree Henry, speaks about the sculptures and laughs – ‘heavy stuff’.

One first severe, terrible trauma is the abusive, wrongful abhorrent arrest of Fonny, just because he is African American, for a rape he has had nothing to do with – he was at the time with Tish, but as the lawyer points out, her testimony does not count, and his friend Daniel, but the latter has a criminal record, has been to jail, where he has suffered unimaginable torments as he tells it ‘because they can do anything to you in there’

The victim of the rape has identified the innocent as the attacker because the police had told her to do so, she is in shock and would disappear, making the task of defending the depressed, terrorized innocent man ever more difficult, even if the white lawyer – somewhat rejected by the family of the imprisoned man – tries his best and seems a world apart from the racist police, that have been against Alonzo before – in one incident, Tish had been harassed by a white man and when her boyfriend tried to intervene, a white officer was willing to take him in, instead of seeking justice, up to the point where the owner of the shop takes the young man’s defense and saves him from jail, albeit only temporarily…

Alas, this is not the only adversity that the heroine has to cope with, for she has to announce that she is carrying the child of the imprisoned man, they invite his family over, but while his father is ebullient to hear the news, the mother, impressive Aunjanue Ellis, is more than offensive and actually speaks about the curse on the unborn child, the sin and the wrath of Jesus, God or both and does not stop until her husband hits her so bad, she falls on the ground and has her two equally fanatic daughters take up the task of confronting their hosts, up to the moment where the sister of the protagonist says something like ‘from the start I did not know how to get your Adam’s apple out, with my fingers or my teeth, but if you touch my sister, I will have to decide quick…’

Fonny is desperate in prison and perhaps only the strong, tenacious, sustained support offered by his lover would keep him together, allowing him to survive Hades, helped by her family as well – Sharon Rivers, the mother aka Regina King, winner of the Oscar, Golden Globe and many other awards for her memorable performance, travels to Puerto Rico to speak first with a relative of the rape victim and has a heavy task convincing him to allow a conversation with the woman, but when she tries to speak about her would be son-in-law, his innocence and upcoming conviction, the woman has a breakdown, so bad that she starts howling.

Indeed, before this ghastly injustice, Alonzo had been talking with his recently released from jail friend, Daniel, and the latter was very upset by the fact that he had done nothing to be convicted and Fonny recalls what had happened to him recently, when Tish had tried and thought she had managed to find a place to rent in town, but the landlord was only interested in sex and had had in mind only his perverted ideas, therefore, when he would see Fonny with her, would immediately speak of the tenants from…Romania, that would be coming in the next half an hour, provoking a severe reaction – ‘you are full of shit’ and the threat that the police would come.

Alonzo would like to leave this racist country, but he jokes that Tish cannot swim, so they have to stay and very soon he is taken in, placed in a line up and the raped woman is told to identify him, even if she had never seen him before and the pressure would soon be on Daniel, as the only admissible witness for the alibi – the lover’s statement would not count – and soon the victim would be convinced to disappear.

It is a narrative about injustice, the sufferings of the Black Americans in a society dominated by whites – indeed, in the present America seemed to have come a long way, but on the other hand, if we consider that Trump has won the elections and not only that, but may win the next ones as well, in spite of the fact that he is a racist, idiot, sexist and the list is too long to insist, then we wonder how much progress they have really made.

Furthermore, if that is what the most advanced democracy in the world has produced such a ridiculous leader – “parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus” – then what can we expect from our own efforts to advance, transcend the inheritance that the Soviet Union has left us?