The Lunch Date
I think this film obviously had some intense social commentary about race. The first hint is that it is shot in black and white. There is old-fashioned music in the background, which could lead the audience to think that maybe this is a time when racial prejudices are still strong. The woman is even dressed like what we would assume a rich, white woman would wear - fur and fancy jewelry.
The woman seems to be out of her element in the subway station. She’s always looking around frantically, and when she bumps into the black man and her stuff falls down, she pretty much freaks out. Even though the man is obviously just trying to help her, she yells at him “You’re making me miss my train!” Even though him helping her would actually expedite the process of gathering her things, she doesn’t want him to help and begins blaming him for something that definitely is not his fault… just like she does later in the film.
I also got the feeling that this woman is kind of a neat freak and untrusting in general. She wipes her table down before she sits, she wipes her fork down before she uses it. But then when she thinks that the black man has stolen her salad, she overcomes this neatness and just starts eating with him. Its almost like her prejudice is so strong that she can overcome some of her own shortcomings, just to make this black man understand that he isn’t going to steal her salad without a fight. When he brings them both coffee, she begins to realize that (despite “stealing” her salad) he is a nice man. But then she just rudely gets up and leaves without a word, and the man is left look sad and lonely.
Once again, the woman jumps to the assumption that the black man stole her stuff when she rushes back to the cafe and finds it “missing”. She is so caught up in her own racism that she cannot see her stuff sitting right there next to her. And then she lets out a girly laugh when she finally realizes that she was the one being rude and the black man was just being friendly to her - its the most free that we ever see her being in the film. Has the truth set her free? Possibly.
