The gospel according to the First Lady of Soul
FILM: Amazing Grace (U) Verdict: How sweet the sound
HERE’S an extraordinary treat, a film of the ‘Queen of Soul’ Aretha Franklin singing with all her heart, and indeed soul, the gospel music of her youth — notably the titular Amazing Grace.
The concert was filmed by director Sydney Pollack over two nights in January 1972, in a Baptist church in Los Angeles. Many are familiar with it already because it yielded the biggestselling gospel album, and Franklin’s own most successful album, of all time.
But except by those lucky enough to have been there (including Mick Jagger, swaying anonymously at the back of the church) the concert has never been seen before, for the almost unbelievably prosaic reason that Pollack, though already an accomplished film-maker with the Oscar-winning They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? behind him, failed to synchronise the images with the sound. Its completion now owes everything to a combination of digital technology and the remarkable dedication of music producer Alan Elliott, for whom this has been a 30-year labour of love.
He not only had to remortgage his house to raise the funds, he also had to deal with being sued by Franklin herself, who didn’t want the film released. It’s hard to understand why, because it’s a remarkable chronicle of her unique talent.
She died last August, aged 76, and this is as powerfully moving an epitaph as any. Moreover, although Pollack’s cameras never move outside the church, it is a fascinating record of the era, not least in terms of fashion. Franklin’s backing singers, the Southern California Community Choir, look like they might have stepped off the Starship Enterprise in waistcoats seemingly fashioned out of tinfoil.
And the great woman herself — still not yet 30 years old, and clearly in thrall to her father, the Reverend C.L. Franklin, who at one point steps onto the stage mid-song to wipe the beads of perspiration from her brow — arrives swathed in a coat that looks like three fur bedspreads stitched together.
It’s all part of the spectacle. So is the church’s charismatic pastor, the Rev James Cleveland, who finally breaks down with the emotion of it all.
You don’t have to be religious (I’m not), or especially into gospel music (I’m not), to feel the power and the glory of Amazing Grace.