Hello, my fellow classmates! Hope all is well. Today I would like to discuss the movie The Landlord (1970) directed and produced by Hal Ashby and Norman Jewison, respectively and the concept of gentrification. First, I would like to talk about The Landlord. I thought that this movie was interesting because Elgar (Beau Bridges), the ‘white’ protagonist in the film, went against his affluent family for an African woman. Even during this time period, a white man falling in love with an African woman was a big thing for some people. However, Elgar’s obstinate and rebellious nature caused him to go against his parents. Consequently, Elgar went to live with Lanie (Marki Bey), his African American girlfriend. In addition, I was surprised when Elgar had a fair with Francine (Diana Sands), despite being in a relationship with Lanie. In fact, Elgar and Francine even had an illegitimate child together! Even worse was Francine had this affair with Elgar in spite of being married to Copee (Louis Gossett Jr.) Talk about cuckoldry! I also enjoyed the film’s humorous moments, but was astonished to see that small kid smoking while he was in Elgar’s car.
Next, I would like to jump to the topic of gentrification and how it is related to this film. As defined by the 1980 American Oxford Dictionary in the Gentrification of Harlem? (Schaffer and Smith), gentrification is “the movement of middle class families into urban areas causing property values to increase and having the secondary effect of driving out poorer families.” While watching the film, I really did not see The Landlord as a film about neighborhood change. Others may have seen it that way, but I did not get a sense of much change occurring in the neighborhood while viewing this film. All I noticed was Elgar’s affair with two African women and his failure to comply with his parent’s wishes. I feel that the movie superficially portrayed the concept of gentrification because there were more other random events going on in the film that had nothing to do with gentrification. For example, Elgar was supposed to evict all the people in the tenement he was the landlord of, but he did not because he grew fond of the low-income African Americans that resided there. This illustrates that Elgar did not embody the ‘spirit of gentrification’ because he appreciated the Africans that lived in the tenement of Park Slope, Brooklyn. While Elgar’s parents were more critical of African Americans and more racist toward them, we see that Elgar grows close to these African people (as seen in the scene with the party) and even has a child with one. Essentially, Elgar’s actions contradicted the very definition given of gentrification above. I mean did Elgar’s moving in cause any of the poorer individuals to move out? No. I thought that if Elgar did indeed remove the occupants of the tenant, then the film would better depict the idea of gentrification.
Also, I found the article that dealt with Gentrification in Harlem? to be of much statistical significance. I say this because according to the article, central Harlem’s population consisted of 96.1% African Americans. Since most of the African population in central Harlem was financially unstable, the gentrification of whites into that neighborhood would make matters even worse for them. For instance, if more whites moved into Harlem, the values of property would increase and it would thus be more difficult for the poorer side of the population to keep up with the high rent in tenements. Fortunately for the occupants living in Elgar’s tenement, this was not the case because Elgar did not evict them and even entitled the role of landlord to the family there.
Finally, I want to add a few comments on the film’s lighting and costumes. The extravagant and stylish outfits worn by Elgar’s family and the ragged clothes of the people in the tenement provided a clear juxtaposition between the different social classes of the neighborhood (rich and poor, for example). Also, the few scenes with the brilliant lighting demonstrate even further the distinction between the different groups that lived in the neighborhood (the middle-class vs. the poor Africans). Overall, I felt that the film could have directed more of its attention toward class distinctions and gentrification, rather than Elgar’s love affairs with two African women he happened to meet.
