TD 1
Amazing Grace Director: Alan Elliott and Sydney P
ollack Released: 10 May Madeline’s Madeline Director: Josephine Decker Talent: Helena Howard, Miranda July, Molly Parker Release Date: 10 May Though Amazing Grace is considered a high point in Aretha Franklin’s career, it’s taken nearly 50 years for the accompanying concert film to reach our screens. Why? Because future Oscar winner Sidney Pollack didn’t use a clapboard to synchronize the sound and picture. If that’s not a comforting story for clueless student filmmakers, I don’t know what is. Now after many years of digital tinkering, not to mention legal battles with the queen herself, producer Alan Elliot has finally brought Amazing Grace to cinema goers. Over the space of two nights at the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, Aretha Franklin returned to her roots by doing rendition after glorious rendition of gospel tunes. Backed by Reverend James Cleveland, the Southern California Community Choir and a host of incredible musicians, the album is an epic tracklist of euphoric gospel. Through it all Franklin towers above her band, bellowing each note with an astonishing mastery. Of course, this is old news to anyone who’s enjoyed Amazing Grace since its release in 1972. The real question is how the film measures. Well for starters this is very much a ‘just the facts ma’am’ documentary. There’s little footage between the gigs, and Franklin seldom, if ever, speaks. Those hoping for an insight into Aretha Franklin, the woman can go elsewhere. But for those looking to spend time in the Queen of Soul’s court, Amazing Grace is a thing of beauty. Franklin stands still on the stage, every bit the regal figure that her work suggests. Around her the choir whoop and applaud, the audience close their eyes in religious devotion and the band struggle to wipe away the sweat (or is that tears?) that comes from playing with such a powerhouse. If only going to church was always this good. JOH I’m a cat. I’m a sea turtle. I’m the sky. I’m a confused film critic. I’m Josephine Decker, experimental director with my fifth feature. I’m also the extremely impressive Helena Howard in my breakthrough role. And scene! Interaction on any level with performance art and theatre troupes are probably outside the comfort zone of many. For Madeline (Helena Howard), it is everything. It’s her release and the raw expression of her world. Molly Parker’s theatre director, Evangeline, starts harnessing Madeleine’s mental illness for her show and the troupe follows suit, revelling in her sporadic outbursts and cat performances. She’s apparently very talented at pretending to be a cat. Core to the film is the strange relationship between daughter Madeline and mother Regina played with anxious neuroticism by Miranda July. Much of their interactions are uneasy, volatile, and mapped out with slow shots of hazy lingering close-ups and eyeball level gazing. Subtly takes a beating, as everything is slap bang in your face. But back to this performance art. It’s fun watching such unbridled exuberance and passion spill out on the screen, even if it all seems a little silly and far too serious. Decker constructs an odd mesh of ideas when she folds in issues of mental illness and racial politics alongside Madeline’s totally submerged performances. We get to experience Madeline’s distorted view of the world, that blurring of fantasy and reality. It’s remarkable and frightening at times. Like her previous films, Madeline’s Madeline is full of toxic, wayward characters and even at 93 minutes, it drags and bores, the whole thing anchored by the beautiful and obviously very talented Helena Howard. Cat impressions aside. SOR 77