L'Héritage de la chair

Elia Kazan was a well-known film professional, and his films are characterized by a sophisticated script and meticulous execution, starting with the casting and ending with film editing. In any case, they are above-average dramas, for which Kazan, as a socially critical creator, chose the theme of racial intolerance in the American South. In the story of a girl who has to defend her right to inheritance from a white woman in a dramatic court trial, he points out the bleak situation regarding white behavior toward the colored population, but the film, in contrast to reality, is overly optimistic and didactic. The victory of the civil rights movement for black people was still far away; in the 1940s, this issue was just beginning to gain deeper awareness. In real life, Pinky would probably have become a victim of the Ku Klux Klan and would have been driven out of her home. However, in a mainstream studio film, Kazan understandably could not go that far. The resolution in his film is somewhat unexpected (but fully in line with the studio tradition of a happy ending), but above all violent, considering the course of the court trial. Overall impression: 80%. (28/09/2009)