All praying, stamping their feet and singing (without mask) and worshiping the voe dii the divine voice of Aretha Franklin first at the Berlinale 2019 and then, on July 4th of the same year, in the Ancient Theater of the Taormina Festival.
In short, the docu AMAZING GRACE, on the legendary Franklin album of January 1972, goes straight to the heart. A performance made about fifty years ago with the Southern Community Choir and Reverend James Cleveland in the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles. Signed by Alan Elliott, the film in cinemas from 14 to 16 June with Adler Entertainment and whose materials were shot at the time by Sidney Pollack and then for legal and technical reasons never saw the light, tells without comment the return of the gospel queen where she started, that is, from that church where Aretha and her two sisters, Carolyn and Erma, entertained the faithful of their father, the famous Baptist preacher CL Franklin. And this before the singer became an icon of soul and R&B and when she already had songs like Respect under her belt,I Say a Little Prayer, (You Make Me Feel Like a) and Natural Woman. In the documentary many songs from this album (the most successful gospel diak of all time), including an extraordinary eleven minute version of Amazing Grace, but also Never Grow Old, the beautiful Wholy Holy and the Climbing Higher Mountains choral. Besides the extraordinary voice of Aretha (the State of Michigan has declared her "a wonder of nature"), in the documentary the context speaks even more forcefully. In fact, we see a wild audience that stands up, dances, screams and mimes the phrases of the prayer-songs to the incessant rhythm of the ecstatic music of the orchestra and, in contrast, an equally anarchic choir, strangely seated and which, from time to time, he moves in unison and then, immediately after, he finds himself in the grip of the most unbridled individualism.In the concert then appears the singer's father, CL Franklin, preacher and great gospel voice and, surprisingly, two very young Mick Jagger and Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones in town to record the album Exile On Main Street. AMAZING GRACE is however a film not to be missed because, in addition to the value of the concert, it remains the extraordinary photograph of a world that seems much further away than it is. Finally here is the first verse of Amazing Grace: "Incredible grace, sweet sound that saved a wretch like me ... I was lost but now I found myself, I was blind, but now I see". (HANDLE).AMAZING GRACE is however a film not to be missed because, in addition to the value of the concert, it remains the extraordinary photograph of a world that seems much further away than it is. Finally here is the first verse of Amazing Grace: "Incredible grace, sweet sound that saved a wretch like me ... I was lost but now I found myself, I was blind, but now I see". (HANDLE).AMAZING GRACE is however a film not to be missed because, in addition to the value of the concert, it remains the extraordinary photograph of a world that seems much further away than it is. Finally here is the first verse of Amazing Grace: "Incredible grace, sweet sound that saved a wretch like me ... I was lost but now I found myself, I was blind, but now I see". (HANDLE).