Since I moved out of the centre, I noticed that my perspective has changed and suddenly I dislike the idea of just popping out somewhere for a drink or a walk, like I used to do when I was in the heart of town and it was the most natural thing to do. Now, when I'm back, I'm really back and wild horses can't make me go back to town again - which is a pity since I neglected something nice as for example cinema treat. Well, to go back to that frame of mind, I decided to simply stick around after work and make it to the cinema in the evening, even though it was a bit challenge since the Spring in Amsterdam means storms, rain and hail + until evening I was quite tired but it was definitely worth it.
"Green Book" was suggestion from my work colleague, who somehow became my cinema buddy - we really enjoy going to the movies together and discussing everything later. Perhaps I was to excited with "Roma", "The Favourite" and "The Wife" to actually pay attention to other "Oscar" nominations, so I'm glad we checked this one out because it was really entertaining, feel-good movie that played me like a violin. It is a story about New York bouncer accepting a new job, to drive classical music pianist trough the tour of American deep South - the catch is, this is still segregated US and his new employee is a black. Very sophisticated, cultivated person but it don't mean a thing to audiences in Alabama and such places - they will applaud the entertainment and will probably be amused with the spectacle of black classical pianist, but he still can't eat in the same restaurant, use WC in their homes or sleep in decent lodgings (hence "Green book" with list of motels available to blacks in the south). The dynamics between the driver and his employer is the heart of the movie, as they come from completely different backgrounds - Vallelonga is uneducated, simple Italian who survived trough life on the strength of his knuckles, while Don Shirley tries to keep his dignity trough the incredibly rough times and insist on good manners. It's a white man's world in which driver manages to bulldoze his way somehow, but black classical pianist might be too much of an refined oddity - later in the movie we get to understand that Don Shirley also feels outsider in both white and black worlds. There is a very poignant scene when the car stops in the middle of some fields deep down south and black farm workers all stop their work and stare at the spectacle of white man driving a car for a black person. Of course, bigoted policemen just wait for such people on the road to lock them up for no reason but being out in the night (the first time I ever heard about "Sundown towns" where it was actually against the law for blacks to be out after sundown).
Some nitpickers complained that movie is too simplistic but I disagree - its a very sensitive subject and language of the cinema have to somehow point at the atmosphere of the times, the world that today most of us find completely alien. At the beginning of the movie Vallelonga (who at that point still has no contact with blacks, since they are not customers in New York nightclubs) actually throws glass cups in the garbage after he saw his wife ordering refreshment to some black construction workers - this is how most of white people lived. Trough the journeys with his black passenger, he slowly changes his mind, comes to admire his virtuosity and becomes fiercely protective of him - at the end they share the same lodgings and Vallelonga genuinely invites him on a family Christmas dinner. The story is based on actual real people who really lived and became lifelong friends and movie suddenly (and very belatedly) put a spotlight on music by Don Shirley who was all but forgotten and ignored by now - to me he sounds like some distant predecessor of Nina Simone who was also classically trained pianist and often mixed genres (in her playing one can clearly hear classical influences). Reality was that black person simply had to entertain - there was no place for black people in classical music - so even on his tours, Shirley was playing lightly swinging variations on classical music combined with popular pieces. However, I need to research his music now because the movie became huge sensation and it brought him back to the spotlight. The soundtrack itself became one of the most popular in history of "Milan Records".
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