(Both women laugh, although the underlying anxiety is palpable.) Neither woman has to worry about money, but Irene, whose husband (André Holland) is a doctor, participates in early civil rights activism without recognizing her own colorist attitudes towards their servant. When he meets Irene, he takes her for white as well, and uses the N word in front of her. Clare now passes as white, living with a racist husband (Alexander Skarsgard).
Irene and Clare, both light-skinned biracial women, knew each other as children but fell out of touch in their teens. The camera pulls back to a point where snow blows across the screen so heavily that it almost blots out the scene. Irene (Tessa Thompson) runs into her old friend Clare (Ruth Negga), and she looks up from her feet to her face. The scene turns out to be about a woman gazing at another woman. Gradually, the soundtrack gets louder and clearer. The camera’s POV is a foot above the sidewalk, looking at people’s legs as they walk by. The images are blurry, the sound muddled. The first scene gradually brings a world into focus. The opening and closing shots of “Passing” hint at a more daring film than the one Rebecca Hall, an actor making her directorial debut, actually made.
