GREEN BOOK ON SOUTHERN ROADS. Peter Farrelly’s feature film is inspired by the friendship between Tony Lip and Don Shirley. While it received the Oscar for Best Picture in 2019, Green Book, however, was the subject of criticism upon its release.
France 3
Monday, July 10 at 9:10 p.m.
4/3 | All public
The film Green Book: on the roads of the South, Oscar for Best Film in 2019, is broadcast on France 3 this Monday, July 10, 2023 at 9:10 p.m. But when it was released from the film, the feature film was criticized on several occasions. First, the fidelity of the reconstruction of this true story was criticized by those close to Don Shirley, who say they were not consulted for this film. Other observers have also pointed to the use of the figure of the “white savior” in the film: “The Green Book is part of the history of black people, strongly denounced the director Roger Ross Williams (Music by prudence) on his Facebook account. It is unacceptable for a white man to steal this heritage and this name for a film that has very little, if anything, to do with the Green Book. Our stories and our history have always been stolen from us and told through a white lens, and this film is Hollywood’s latest example.”
For their part, Nick Vallelonga and Peter Farrelly both defended themselves from these criticisms. The first affirms that his scenario is based on the memories which his father could tell to him, while Don Shirley would have advised him not to evoke his draft scenario with other people. The director believes for his part that Green Book revolves “around love, the fact of loving each other despite our differences”.
Synopsis – In 1962, an Italian-American security guard named Tony Lip is hired as a driver for Dr. Don Shirley, a famous jazz pianist who is going on tour in the conservative South of the United States.
The true story behind the movie Green Book
A rude and racist Italian-American opposite a brilliant and refined black pianist. It is this explosive duo that viewers were able to discover in Green Book: on the roads of the South, which won the Oscar for best film in 2019. As unlikely as it may seem, this friendship did indeed exist, since Peter Farrelly’s feature film starring Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali is inspired by a true story. Green Book was co-authored by the son of Tony “Lip” Vallelonga (Viggo Mortensen), Italian driver who drove pianist Don Shirley (Mahershala Ali) on his tour of the racist south of the United States in the 1960s. Despite their initial opposition, the two men became friends, until their death, in 2013.
Moreover, the famous Negro Motorist Green Book which inspired the title of the film did indeed exist, since it was a question at the time of the segregation of a guide intended for black people to indicate to them in which hotels and restaurants they would be welcome or not. If Green Book is inspired by a true story that has touched many spectators, the film has not been spared from controversy. First of all, from the brother and niece of the pianist Don Shirley: they claim to have never been consulted by Nick Vallelonga for the writing of this screenplay. According to them, this one is a veritable “symphony of lies” that describes only “a white man’s point of view on a black man’s life”.