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December 02, 2005
Twilight in Los Angeles
Twilight in Los Angeles was basically a depiction of different races of people in Los Angeles during the riots and beating of Rodney King in 1992. This depiction was achieved by Anne Deavre Smith in this film by playing the role of several people who were involved in either the riot or events that were carried out during that time. I thought that her depiction of people that she had interviewed during the riot was very interesting. She portrayed the anger and confusion that was occuring during that time and all of the emotions that were prevalent at the time.
It was easy to tell what race she was portraying, because of the speech that she used when she was trying to be black, korean, or mexican, and the actions that she used to express the emotion of that person. She would speak more nasally and stand up straighter when she was trying to portray a white person. When she was trying to imitate a black person she would slouch more and have looser movements in her shoulders and hands. She would also mispronounce some words or talk in slang. For a mexican person, she would speak in an accent and place more emphasis on words with "r's" in her speech. She would also throw her hands around a lot more to prove a point or get the audiences attention.
Anne Smith was efficient at getting her message across, except for the fact that it sometimes became confusing when trying to figure out what person she was trying to imitate. This was because she would try to imitate several people at one time, and go back and forth between them. This kind of made her performance confusing and I couldn't follow what she was trying to say. Smith showed in this movie that the riots affected the morale of the community and turned races against each other. Everyone was affected in some way, and it showed that racial tension still did exist and that there was room for improvement.
--Yasmin
Posted by lcisperez at December 2, 2005 10:21 PM
Comments
Yasmin-- I definetely agree with your comments! I think Smith did an excellent job of conveying the characteristics of the people she was portraying. It was confusing at times, especially when she moved back and forth between people in the same scene. All in all, though it was really interesting to see how she interpreted the different characters.
Posted by: Brenna at December 5, 2005 02:03 PM