10
Jul
Diversity Without Pity #7 | Sapphire (1959)
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Not sure how this movie got into my Netflix queue. I guess the story of a murdered young black woman passing for white must’ve hit all my favorite points: A movie about race, colorism, and set in 1950s London. Postmodern Joan has done an excellent job highlighting some of the best aspects of the film: the London Underground film series, the murder as a framing device for how regular citizens’ bigotry comes to the surface, and cinematography that paints two different communities.
Since he did such a great job, I’ll get into the movie titles. Immediately striking, as they had the mid-century modernism reflected in work like Maurice Binder or Saul Bass.
Carmen Dillon, one of the few working women art directors in the industry, was responsible for creating a lively, yet deeply disturbed community. Beautiful-looking people who made friends and lovers based on social standing, passing, or properly code switching.
Sapphire almost didn’t make it into DWP, as it does suffer from it’s time. The English film made in 1959, suffers from soap opera reactions, and stilted staging make the movie feel like a high school play, rather than real people grappling with racialized violence. But if you come across this one on TCM, I wouldn’t fall back to sleep. It uses very frank dialogue about race, class, and gender that our modern culture — even with what we know — is still too uncomfortable saying in mixed company.
I also want to note the great move posters. Not sure who created them, but they are reflective of their pulpy, film noir style of the late 1950s.
Diversity Without Pity is a blog series from IDSL, highlighting media that uses smart design, and considers the diversity of it’s casting without selling the viewer or consumer, short.