For me, the Landlord showed more about white and black segregation/integration rather than neighborhood change or gentrification. There were many scenes throughout the film that emphasized the differences between the white and black people. For example, the beginning of the film starts with Elgar lying down peacefully on his lawn at his suburban home, which is contrasted with the hectic, busy streets of the black neighborhood (Park Slope?). Also, the awkward dinner in Elgar’s family is contrasted with the scene with dancing black women, where Elgar meets Lanie. Elgar is unprejudiced concerning blacks, unlike his conservative family. He actually seems to enjoy spending time in his new home in the black neighborhood and wants them to like him back. Also, one of my favorite scenes was when Joyce comes to the tenant and meets Marge. In this scene, Joyce does not keep her normal composure but allows herself to forget about their skin colors and her prejudices for a few hours and enjoy spending time with Marge. Elgar and Joyce show that integration is possible when you stop caring about skin colors.
As for gentrification, I believe that Elgar does not embody the spirit of gentrification. In our reading, it mentioned that Harlem was an attractive, but difficult target for gentrification. The land was cheap and a relatively big portion of the houses were abandoned and/or owned by the government. It was a similar case for the Brooklyn Park Slope tenant that Elgar buys. In the neighborhood, there are big plots of abandoned land that are occupied by remains of former houses and piles of wood and junk. It would be an ideal place to construct better houses and rent them out for more money. However, the neighborhood was almost completely black and these working-class blacks would be the neighborhood’s only gentrifiers. Furthermore, whites were not very willing to gentrify the place because, as the reading suggested, they felt that the neighborhood was threatening. I believe Elgar picked a good place to gentrify, but his plans became of less importance to him than black women or getting along with his new neighbors. Furthermore, I believe the film portrayed gentrification as improbable and stupid in such a neighborhood. For example, Elgar talks of planning to hang a chandelier on the ceiling, which seems ridiculous in such a small, murky building. And Lanie gives Elgar a skeptical look as he talks of putting a statue or bird bath in the disheveled backyard. Moreover, even if Elgar built such a nice place in the tenant, there would be few black people who would be able to, or white people who would be willing to live in it.
