Green Book

Hook, finding one’s place

Guiding thread: Finding one’s place in the world · Sub-thread: Giving and receiving, we can only give and receive from a place.

Finding one’s place in the world · Young people today

Don Shirley is applauded on stage but refused a seat at the dinner table. Today, how do young people act when someone is left out because of who they are?

Sentence starters

• Don Shirley is welcome… but refused…
• When someone is left out, young people can…
• Some young people get involved in… to…
• A real place at the table means…

Visionary filmmakers. In 2018, Peter Farrelly brought the story of a 1962 concert tour through the segregated South to a very wide audience: the film won the Oscar for Best Picture.

Talk about the characters and about young people in general, not about yourself.

Then, a second question:

Why would a traveller need a special guidebook just to find a hotel? Look at the cover of the 1940 Negro Motorist Green Book in the gallery.

The film in three lines

1962. Tony Lip, a bouncer from the Bronx, is hired to drive Dr. Don Shirley, a world-class Black pianist, on a concert tour from Manhattan to the Deep South. They rely on “The Green Book” to find safe places to stay. A film about music, segregation and an unlikely friendship, and a film whose story is debated.

Start with the trailerFilm study sheet

Film credits

Film language, with examples from the official trailer

Timecodes are approximate (± 2 s). Pause the trailer and check each example yourself.

Shots

• ≈0:02establishing shot of a 1960s street: we enter the period
• ≈0:34profile shot of Don Shirley in the back seat: distance between the two men
• ≈2:14spotlit piano on stage: the artist alone

Angles

• ≈0:14Shirley on a throne-like chair, slightly from below: dignity and status

Camera movement

• ≈2:26the camera follows the car on an empty road: the road movie

Lighting & colour

• whole trailerturquoise car, green fields, warm skin tones: a nostalgic, colourful look
• ≈2:14a single spotlight on the piano

Sound

• whole trailerpiano music by Kris Bowers, diegetic in concert scenes, non-diegetic elsewhere
• ≈1:10“You never win with violence.”, a key line in Shirley’s calm voice

Editing

• whole traileralternation between comedy (the car) and tension (the South)
• ≈2:30end card “Inspired by a true friendship”

Step into the period

Historical landmarks

• 1896 Plessy v. Ferguson accepts “separate but equal”.
• 1936 Victor H. Green publishes the first Green Book, for New York.
• 1937 The guide becomes national.
• 1954 Brown v. Board of Education.
• 1955 Rosa Parks and the Montgomery bus boycott.
• 1956 Nat King Cole is attacked on stage in Birmingham, Alabama.
• 1961 Freedom Riders challenge segregated interstate buses.
• 1962 Don Shirley’s tour of the South, the film’s story.
• 1964 Civil Rights Act: segregation in public places becomes illegal.
• 1965 Voting Rights Act.
• c.1966 to 67 Last editions of the Green Book.
• 2018 Green Book is released; Shirley’s family criticises it.
• 2019 The film wins Best Picture.

Sources: NYPL, The Green Book (digital collection) · PolitiFact, How true is Green Book?

Official trailer (Universal Pictures)

Official channel: Universal Pictures · https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkZxoko_HC0

First viewing

1. Who are the two main characters? What are their jobs?
2. Where is the tour going?
3. What happens in the restaurant scene?
4. What is Shirley’s philosophy about violence?
5. What does the end card say?

Second viewing, exact words

1. “I’m about to embark on a concert ___ in the Deep South.”
2. “Do you foresee any ___ in working for a black man?”
3. “You have a very narrow ___ of me, Tony.”
4. “Because it takes ___ to change people’s hearts.”
5. “So if I’m not black enough, and if I’m not white ___…”

Two men, one car

Who sits in front, who sits in the back? In a road movie, the car organises power. Analyse the profile shot at ≈0:34 and the spotlit piano at ≈2:14.

The Negro Motorist Green Book

Victor H. Green, a postal worker from Harlem, published the first guide in 1936. It listed hotels, restaurants and gas stations that welcomed Black travellers. The New York Public Library has digitised the guides.

1. What hope does the guide express?
2. What does “without embarrassment” reveal about daily life?

Critical thinking, who tells the story?

The film was co-written by Nick Vallelonga, Tony’s son. Don Shirley’s family said they had not been consulted: his brother Maurice Shirley called the film “a symphony of lies” (interview reported by IndieWire; see also PolitiFact’s fact-check). Mahershala Ali apologised to the family. Others defend the film as a story of friendship.

1. Whose point of view does the film adopt?
2. Why does it matter who tells a true story?
3. Is the label “Inspired by a true friendship” honest?

1 · Continuous speech, 2 min 30

2 · Interaction, the job interview

Pairs: Shirley interviews Tony for the job. Use lines from the trailer, then improvise.

3 · Debate, “Best Picture or a symphony of lies?”

Write

B2 · 220 to 250 words: Write one of Tony’s letters to Dolores from the South, then a short reply by Shirley giving his own point of view on the same day.

B2+ · 280 words: “Who has the right to tell a true story?”

• Listening: trailer · Reading: the 1949 Green Book · Speaking: interview, debate · Writing: letters / essay.

Project, “A safe route, 1962”

Using the NYPL digital Green Book, plan a route between two cities. List three addresses from the guide, explain why they mattered, and present the journey on a map in 2 minutes.

Teacher notes

• PG-13 (racial epithets in the film). Work with the trailer and documents.
• Axes: 1re « Diversité et inclusion », « Art et pouvoir » · Tle « Territoire et mémoire », « Fictions et réalités ».
• Critical point: the Shirley family’s criticism (“a symphony of lies”, Maurice Shirley); Ali’s apology.

Full teacher page (FR) →