CLAUDINE

US, 1974, 92 minutes, Colour.
Diahann Carroll, James Earl Jones, Lawrence Hinton- Jacobs, David Kruger.
Directed by John Berry.

The Black genre developed during the 70s, sometimes seeking the sensational with supercops, sometimes bitter in memory, sometimes just concerned with the people shown, their lives, worries, ambitions. Claudine is one of the latter, a domestic comedy-drama of a divorcee with six children (with varieties of cantankerousness) and a genial garbage collector who is wary of responsibility. Set in New York, the film has opportunity for laughs at modern city living as well as anxieties about welfare, money, marriage. Diahann Carroll brings both charm and weary realism to the harassed Claudine and James Earl Jones is a bright hero. The film is enjoyable but ordinary.

1. How enjoyable a film was this? How satisfying a comedy drama? Was it a good film? Why?

2. For what audiences was it made? The difference in response from a black audience and a white audience? An American audience and a non-American audience?

3. How successful was the comedy? How humane? Was it actually funny? When? The portrayal of human foibles and therefore a wisdom in the comedy? How successfully?

4. Was the film successful as modern social drama? Interest in the people and their feelings and interactions? The social message of the film? As portraying a real world?

5. How authentic did the film seem? The portrayal of New York, riverside, the negro sections, the negro way of life? Was the plot credible for the film? Did the whole film and its issues seem real and demand a real response?

6. How important were the actors for this film and the impact of their personalities? The locations. the humorous and dramatic situations, the colour, the music and its atmosphere, the songs?

7. Did the film focus well on Claudine for audience - sympathy and interest? Diahann Carroll's performance and personality? Meeting her on the bus, at work, the problems of welfare, the problems at home and our introduction to them with Roop? The background of her husbands, the children, the various problems with the welfare inspector and the tricks to be played? As tired, as a mother trying to cope? The quality of her response to Roop? The flattery of having a date, the decisions to enter a liaison, the growing in love? Her anxieties for Charles and Charlene? The gifts from Roop, the benefits for their life, the continuing issues with welfare? The prospect of marriage and the emotional turmoil? The shock of no marriage? The continuing hope? Did this portrayal give insight into a modern woman trying to cope with family in the city? The insight into a dignity of a black woman?

8. How attractive was the portrayal of Roop? His genial personality, his work, his wisecracks, his wanting a date? The humour of his arrival and his experience of the children? His decisions about a liaison with Claudine? His love for her and the treatment of her? The growing rapport with the children? Supporting them with gifts? His encounter and the welfare problems? The attack by Charles and its fulfilment? The shock of having to support his own children? How callous was he in their regard? His running away and defeatism? The happy ending - was that appropriate? Did this performance give an insight into the average man?

9. How well were the children portrayed? Charles at the awkward age? His relationship in the family? His relationship with Roop? His conventional type of protest and the portrayal of this? How real was his involvement? Charlene and the usual problems of adolescence and pregnancy? The smaller children and their raucousness? How real did the children seem? Was this altered with the happy and romantic ending?

10. The importance of the welfare worker in the film? Doing her job? The letter of the law? How real was the attack on the system? The importance of money and financial survival in the vital world?

11. How well did the film explore relationships, marriage, family?

12. what stances and values did the film presuppose in its audience so that they could sympathize with Claudine, Roop and the family?