How is “The Immigrant” an Anti-Nostalgic Take on Early 20th Century American Immigration?
The United States of America was founded by people who bravely journeyed from other countries in search of happiness and opportunity. American cinema loves to glorify this expedition, advertising it as a triumphant expedition full of promise and hope, guided by the human spirit.
James Gray’s The Immigrant (2014) breaks the rose-colored filter through which early 20th century immigration is often framed, and instead focuses on what a strange and terrifying prospect it was for millions of immigrants. It’s especially applicable to those like the characters highlighted in the film: sisters Ewa (Marion Cotillard) and Magda (Angela Sarafyan) Cybulska, a pair of Polish sisters. Magda is sick with tuberculosis and never makes it off Ellis island, while Ewa is immediately flagged as a woman of questionable morals “liable to be a public charge” due to an altercation on the boat (where it’s later revealed she was only defending herself from a sexual assault). The promise of opportunity and enterprise ends for these women before it even begins as they’re both threatened with almost-certain deportation.
The opening sequence of the film presents the towering figure of the Statue of Liberty, poised holding her torch high above her head. Often, her visage represents the welcoming of the weary traveler to a land promising refuge and opportunity. Yet, in this shot, the camera depicts a different message, one in which the guiding light of America’s promise is not quite as bright. As A.O. Scott of The New York Times describes, “The first shot is of the Statue of Liberty shrouded in harbor mist, and the film unfolds in the gap between the promise that lady embodies and the harsh realities a newcomer encounters once she gets off the boat.” - A.O. Scott, The New York Times.
The deep and passionate film boasts soft, grainy colors that capture the film’s time period, but also informs its tone. While Magda spends all but two scenes of the film stuck in an Ellis Island medical facility, Ewa is rescued from her instant American predicament by Bruno Weiss (Joaquin Phoenix), a connected and suave burlesque producer who’s also a dirtbag and pimp. Ewa becomes the newest in his flock of girls who he advertises as the daughters of New York royalty, but are actually hapless imports willing to do whatever for a man who keeps them safe, and in America.
The film “tells the story of a woman who is denied both the consolations of tribe and her own autonomy, and thus presents a kind of photographic negative of the American dream. It is not what your great-grandmother told her children, even though it may have been a story she knew very well.” - A.O. Scott
The Immigrant doesn’t strive to imply this lifestyle was the norm for immigrant women, but it does remind us that there’s more to America’s construction than flying eagles and red, white, and blue dreams. Though the story is set less than 100 years ago, the operations of the government and life altogether was vastly different than modern life lets us generally conceive, or than we are told to believe.