A story about banned inter-racial marriage might have been a golden opportunity for a tense courtroom drama, but US director Jeff Nichols opted for a heartwarming love film now vying for the top Palme d’Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival.
Nichols, who won critical acclaim for high-anxiety dramas like Take Shelter and Midnight Special, defies expectations in Loving by focusing on the power of love against all odds rather than clobbering viewers with racial politics.
It is based on the true story of a white man and a black woman from Virginia who get married in Washington DC in 1958. When they return home, they are first jailed then banished because inter-racial marriage was prohibited in Virginia at a time when racial segregation was common in America. They relocated to Washington but struggled to adapt to city life.
Lawyers took their cause to the US Supreme Court, which ruled in 1967 that prohibiting inter-acial marriage was unconstitutional, a historic civil rights decision that ended all race-based limits on marriage in the US.
I wanted to make a movie about two people in love
“It was very un-Hollywood in the sense that at certain moments, someone really drawn into the patina of Hollywood might have rearranged the truth in order to make it more Hollywood,” Australian actor Joel Edgerton, who plays Richard Loving, told a news conference. “There was something so simple about the truth that allowed us ... a very nice guideline to find our way into the story.”
Edgerton pairs up with Ethiopia-born Irish actress Ruth Negga playing Mildred Loving. Her subtle performance has triggered speculation in Cannes that Negga could be up for an Academy Award.
Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga in Loving (2016).“I looked at the story and it seemed very very obvious to me that we just needed to talk aboutthe people,” said Nichols, who previously presented Mud and Take Shelter in Cannes.
“The court case is so fascinating that it could be a movie. [But] I wanted to make a movie about two people in love. I hope it’s the quiet film of the year.”
“It humanises us,” Negga said. “It just shows the world that these things aren’t just boring, politicial ideas, they’re about individuals and humans.”