Part of 2024 In Tribute and Music City Mondays
Diahann Carroll is radiant in an unforgettable, Oscar-nominated performance as Claudine, a strong-willed single mother, raising six kids in Harlem, whose budding relationship with a gregarious garbage collector — an equally fantastic James Earl Jones — is stressed by the difficulty of getting by in an oppressive system. As directed by the formerly blacklisted leftist filmmaker John Berry, this romantic comedy with a social conscience deftly balances warm humor with a serious look at the myriad issues — from cycles of poverty to the indignities of the welfare system — that shape its characters’ realities. The result is an empathetic chronicle of both Black working-class struggle and Black joy, a bittersweet, bighearted celebration of family and community set to a sunny soul soundtrack composed by Curtis Mayfield and performed by Gladys Knight & the Pips. (Synopsis from the Criterion Collection)
“...Two larger-than-life characters played marvelously by Miss Carroll and Mr. Jones. Claudine and Roop are comic romantics of the most honorable, appealing sort, people who have a firm grasp on everything but themselves.” —Vincent Canby, New York Times (Apr 23, 1974)
“Much of the joy of CLAUDINE is in watching Roop ingratiate himself with Claudine’s skeptical family. The whole young cast is wonderful, and James Earl Jones — a theater-trained actor then fresh off an Oscar nomination for THE GREAT WHITE HOPE — brings a great mix of ‘cool cat’ mischievousness and paternal gravitas.” —Caroline Siede, The A.V. Club
“Works as both a gentle romantic comedy and a hard-hitting social critique…. [Diahann Carroll] is perfect in the picture, but so is Jones, whose character’s good cheer barely disguises his contempt with an unjust, Catch-22 system designed to punish the poor.” —Matt Brunson, Film Frenzy
