The wedding dinner in “Rachel Getting Married” sums up much of Demme’s worldview: We witness this beautiful new family, an American microcosm, being born. Black and white and many other colors, shapes, and sizes are coming together as one in celebration (albeit with some unresolved issues from the past that need attention). Released the same year as Obama’s presidential campaign — at a time when all the progressive dreams of the 1960s and 1970s seemed reawakened — Demme’s film resonated with the “Yes we can” ethos.
By Jeff Farr
For close to 40 years, filmmaker Jonathan Demme, Oscar-winner for “The Silence of the Lambs” (1990) has been working toward the creation of his own America — one in which many of us would enjoy living. The dream America of his films, from his low-budget indie “Caged Heat” (1974) through “Rachel Getting Married” (2008), is an America that welcomes all to the table. The phrase “unity in diversity” may sound passé, but this is the ideal all of Demme’s films have danced around.