Talk talk... Chiwetel Ejiofor and Don Cheadle in Talk to Me
Talk To Me is one of the most enjoyable films I've seen all year. It's breezy, funky fun because of the two terrific performances of Don Cheadle and our own Chiwetel Ejiofor and because the music and milieu feel genuine and heartfelt.
The story of radio DJ Petey Green, set in late 60s Washington DC and featuring scenes around the killing of Martin Luther King - but I venture that its authenticity really stems from the film being directed by a black woman, Kasi Lemmons
It's why American Gangster is OK but strangely lacking in the soul to make it really good - it's a corking black story directed by a very old, very unfunky white man in Ridley Scott. So what I'm asking is, can colour make a difference to directing a film story? As is often remarked, Jewish jokes can be best, indeed only, told by Jewish comics. Shouldn't a black story be told by a black director? Wouldn't Brick Lane have been better directed by an Asian film maker?
Sure, any decent director can bring scenes together, do a bit of editing, get a cast working and even work to budget - but I'm talking about injecting a piece with real understanding and soul, emotion, empathy. Out of the three I've already mentioned (Brick Lane, American Gangster, Talk To Me) only the latter, it seems to me, ticks over with a genuine feeling of passion for the material. It's a coming together of the political and the personal.
It even comes down to something as blindingly obvious as music - in Talk To Me, you've got decent tracks and cover versions (Meshelle Ndegeocello doing Les McAnn's Compare To What, a live version of James Brown's Say It Loud I'm Black and I'm Proud, a great track from The Dramatics in Whatcha See is Whatcha Get); in Brick Lane, the wretched score is a world away from the sounds one actually hears on Brick Lane itself every day; in American Gangster, it was as if I was listening to Magic FM's Greatest Hits of Funky Black People album.
Am I wrong?
Kasi Lemmons herself wouldn't quite be drawn on the subject but she certainly came alive discussing the soundtrack. Her interview in this show is moving and uplifting - just like her film.
I've also got the rather lovely Amara Karan for you, a young woman from Wimbledon who went straight out of a City job and into drama school to then get picked by Wes Anderson for a role as a stewardess on The Darjeeling Limited. She tells us about shooting in India and having dinner with Owen Wilson and Bill Murray, and talks about the new St Trinian's movie. At least Wes Anderson doesn't attempt anything other than a story of American imperialism on Indian soil - a director who tells stories personal to him.
Finally, a tale of Miami vice from a Miami film maker. Billy Corben's Cocaine Cowboys is a brash documentary about the coke trade and how its unfettered billions built the city first into a cesspit of crime and then into a gleaming, successful metropolis. With clips of Miami Vice (the TV series) and Scarface, the film tells of the real people of the era, interviewing unrepentant gangsters, thieves and smugglers (check my lyrics?) as well as a rather scary hit man. Billy certainly sounds very perky when I catch him early morning in Florida as he recalls what it was like to grow up in a city built on white lines.
So enjoy the show and let me know - should the director fit the ethnic subject matter?
Jason
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