If Beale Street Could Talk

If Beale Street Could Talk - Love as Resistance Against Hatred

"I hope that nobody has ever had to look at anybody they love through glass."

 In a world that is so violent against us, what is there to keep us whole? In a world that is so deeply and systematically set against you, how do you save yourself from being taken down by it? Is it possible? Is there any hope? Through a beautifully poetic love story adapted from a novel from one of the greatest thinkers of the 20th century - James Baldwin - Barry Jenkins explores and shows us the African-American experience of our society. He shows us through one of the most gorgeously shot films of our time the reality of black people in America with such sensitivity and powerful visuals, being arguably the best film about this issue that came out this year and one of the best of all time (probably only behind his previous achievement, Moonlight). He asks us these questions, showing us everything that is at stake in order to answer them. And, although those questions are complex ones and rise from an even more complex situation, the answer may be as simple as the cause of death of so many African-Americans every year. For the answer to those questions is the opposite of hatred. And the opposite of hatred is love.

 From even before the first image lights up on the silver screen, we are immediately drawn into the atmosphere of the film as we are enveloped by the brilliant and radiant score by Nicholas Britell, which is more a materialization of love into music than a score. And then comes the image, the colors, bright and pulsing with love. And we see a man and a woman, walking down a path while holding hands. The mixture of the score and the cinematography makes us feel a deep warmth, a love - the love that these two people who we are seeing feel toward each other. These two people are Tish and Fonny, a couple from Harlem. He is 22 and she is 19, and they've known each other for all their lives. They are played by Kiki Layne and Stephan James, both doing two f the most powerful performances of the year. Kiki Layne is the biggest break-out in this film, revealing an immense talent in her portrayal of a fragile yet strong character that makes her performance so compelling, passionate and intense. As they walk down the path, they stop. They look at each other. In this sustained look they give each other, there's a powerful emotion that rises in us that is so brilliantly enhanced by Barry Jenkins' already signature style - making the actors look directly at the camera, which, by extension, means that they are looking into us. By having the actors doing this, Jenkins makes us, the spectators, become involved in this story - we cease to be mere voyeurs watching the suffering of these people. We see Tish and Fonny looking at each other with such tenderness and affection, the way that only people that are truly in love look at each other, but they also look at us, and so that love is also passed on to us. And so, we can no longer be passive towards this very real tragedy. We are forced to be involved in their story, that is the same as so many stories that happen every day in our world.

 The fact that we are experiencing that love so directly makes the transition into the present reality of the film all the more painful - we see Tish waiting for Fonny behind a glass - he's in prison, for a crime he did not commit - a woman has accused him of rape, even though, logistically, that is simply not possible. They are separated by outside forces - forces of hatred - materialized by the glass between them. In these scenes, the colors no longer pulse with love. They are washed out, ugly, and mostly blurred, and the score dies out. The only thing that is in focus is the faces of both Fonny and Tish, in a certain desperation. However, in this first scene, something happens that makes this scenario not entirely hopeless. Tish is pregnant and she tells that to Fonny. After a first moment of impact, Fonny laughs. Despite all the sadness and oppression, Fonny laughs. And that's because there's something more powerful that holds these two people together. And that is love. And that love is materialized into that baby inside Tish's womb. And that love gives them a purpose - a purpose to live, a purpose to fight, a purpose to survive.

 As they say farewell to each other, they touch each other's hands with the glass between them. This is an extremely powerful image, and that's because, despite their separation by a discriminatory system, they still fight it and challenge it by trying to connect. And they have that connection - through love - and the system, no matter how much it tries, will never be able to take that away from them.

 All throughout If Beale Street Could Talk, we are explained what happened to Fonny and why it happened. We are explained how the African-American experience is an experience of constant fear, of hopelessness. And how those feelings are fed by a system that is set to keep them that way, that tells them that they aren't good enough, that they deserve to be treated that way. The importance of this love story between Tish and Fonny is how it tries to fight and challenge the system - how its characters try to fight it. Because these characters have something that the system can't take away from them.

 And one of the things that protects them is the family. The power of the family is something strongly present in If Beale Street Could Talk - after all, the family is a source of much love. The first member of Tish's family that we meet is her mother - played brilliantly by Regina King, in one of the most incredible performances of the year. As Tish prepares to tell her that she's pregnant with Fonny's child, we see in her eyes that she already knows and understands - which is an example of the absolutely outstanding performance of Regina King. After that, Tish's pregnancy is revealed to both the rest of her family and Fonny's family. Their reaction is extremely important and ought to be given some thought. Both the rest of her family and Fonny's father take the news very well, being thrilled with the news and immediately giving support. The reaction of Fonny's pious mother and his two sisters is very different. The first thing his mother asks Tish is who is going to be responsible for the baby. This is asked in an extremely aggressive and condescending way. It's important to note that both his mother and his sisters are religious women, which does not happen with his father and Tish's family. This is obviously not an anti-religious message. What I think this has to do with is to how Christianity has been used to make black people compliant with the system that oppresses them, and so, what I think this means is that Fonny's mother and sisters are "tainted" by a "white ideology", and therefore have themselves become the oppressor and have an oppressive reaction to this news. This is especially clear in the way that they blame Fonny for him being in jail and not the racist system that put him there.

 What happens next is that the other family members start working together to take Fonny out of jail. While this is happening, we see beautiful flashbacks of Tish and Fonny together before he was arrested, in imagery so full of love, with the score making it almost seem that they are pulsing with a certain power. These flashbacks are the most beautiful and poetic moments of the film, and I believe that they are some of the finest depiction of love in film. The importance of these flashbacks is not only to understand Tish and Fonny's past but also to understand why she keeps going. It's these memories of such deep love trhat keep her purposeful because it's love that gives us purpose in such an oppressive and ugly world. It's love that keeps us from faltering and it's love that saves us in the end.

 There is an extremely important character that makes us understand this even more - Daniel, an old friend of Fonny that he runs into one day - played heartbreakingly by Brian Tyree Henry. As they talk about each other's lives there is a clear difference between the two. While Fonny has Tish's love and a purpose in his sculptures, Daniel has nothing. He has no love and no purpose in life. And that's why he is already lost. He has already been overtaken by the fear stoked by the system represented by the "White Man". He is completely alone in this world and is a perfect target to the racist predatory system that rules America - the reason why he has already been in prison and why he is eventually going to be arrested again. And as we see Fonny in his jail cell, we realize that the only thing that is keeping him from falling apart and collapsing is his love for Tish and his purpose as an artist. It's love that is keeping the system from completely destroying him. It's both Tish and the child in her womb that is saving him. Love is his resistance.

 And after so much is done - their fathers start to steal things to sell in Harlem and Tish's mother goes to Puerto Rico to try to contact the woman accusing Fonny of rape, a part of the film that deserves more attention than I'm going to give it here - they must concede to the system - but not completely. There is something that makes them still stand on their feet: their child,«. In the final scene, we see Tish, Fonny and their son in a visiting room, no longer with glass between them. The fact that there is no longer a glass between them is extremely important. Now what is between them is no longer a barrier, it's their son - it's love. There is nothing else separating them. Even though Fonny still has some time behind bars, they haven't been completely brought down - although they had to concede. They were able to hold their integrity and dignity and they were able to bring to this world a child that represents love. And because of that, although bittersweet, this ending is also hopeful. Love is the hope in a world that possesses such institutionalized hatred. We can't bring it down alone, but we can resist through love.

 What is so powerful in this film is the realization that this isn't mere fiction nor something that belongs in the past. And maybe that is what is so shocking. Even though this is a story that is set in the seventies, nothing has really changed in the African-American experience. Black people are still killed by policemen in the dozens every year. Black people are still disproportionally incarcerated, mostly for unjust reasons like it happens with Fonny and Daniel. And, most importantly, black people still live in constant fear - because how can you live in peace when you know that the people who are supposed to keep you safe have such deep hatred for you and could kill or arrest you for the slightest of reasons. And this is why If Beale Street Could Talk (both the book and the film) is so important today. It's a way to understand our society and a way to give us hope for resistance and change.

 If Beale Street Could Talk is Barry Jenkins' In the Mood for Love, with the way that he so perfectly and beautifully portrays love in it. Every image pulses with such love, thanks to the brilliant use of a beautiful score and cinematography filled with warm and strong colors. Through poetic imagery, Jenkins shows us the reality of the hate present in our society and shows us that to resist and to continue to be whole in such a world we must have love. If we don't have love in our lives, we are alone. And, if we are alone, we are nothing but helpless prey. Love is resistance against hatred. We must have bonds, we must have a family (which doesn't necessarily have to be a blood family) if we want to resist and fight back. Love is the only thing that can fight hatred. And love always wins.