Radio Curious revisits a conversation with Academy Awards winner and film director Robert Benton about his movie âThe Human Stain.â It is about a man who passes as white and hides his African American roots from nearly everyone his entire life.
Barry Vogel, Attorney and Counselor is the Host and Producer of Radio Curious. Christina Aanestad and Yuko Kodama are the Assistant Producers.
This program is about âpassing,â a term sometimes used to define a person of color who passes as white. From the 2004 Radio Curious archives we revisit a conversation with film director Robert Benton, about his film âThe Human Stain.â It's a movie about the life of Coleman Silk, an eminent Jewish intellectual and devoted husband; a professor of classics at a small New England college. Â The truth about Coleman Silk, portrayed by Anthony Hopkins, is far more complex than expected or thought to be. Â He hid behind a veil of lies, having masked his African-American origins in order to find a freedom he thought would otherwise be impossible to achieve. Â But his world of deception unraveled after embarking on a romance with a much younger woman.
Our guest, Robert Benton, is a three time Academy Awards winner for his work as the Director of âKramer Vs. Kramer,â âPlaces in the Heart,â and âNobody's Fool.â His film, âThe Human Stain,â takes place in the 1990s and is based on the third novel of Phillip Roth's âAmerican Trilogyâ describing the post World War Two turmoil in America.
The title âThe Human Stainâ emerges from the idea that no matter what a person does, a human being leaves a mark on the world, whether by rage, desire, ambition or accident, a kind of scar; stain that cannot be undone. Â For Coleman Silk that stain is the deception and concealment he carried for decades. The human stain is the mark we leave on everything. Â It speaks to the fact that we can't get through life without marking the world around us in some way. We have no choice. It's part of being human.Â
Robert Benton and I visited by phone in the fall of 2004.
The books Robert Benton recommends are âThe Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightâ by Mark Haddon and "The Manuscript Found in Sargossa" by Jan Potocki.
Radio Curious is a half-hour, weekly, long-form interview program, now in it's 26th year. We interview people on a curiously wide variety of topics about life and ideas. Our website is www.radiocurious.org. If your station airs Radio Curious please let us know curious@radiocurious.org, we will add you to our list of syndicate stations. We also welcome questions, feedback and program ideas. Radio Curious 280 N. Oak St. Ukiah, Ca 95482. (707) 462-6541.