Trailer lady sings the blues autobiography

pick up by Sidney J. Furie

Lady Sings the Blues is a Land biographicalmusicaldrama film directed by Poet J. Furie about jazz soloist Billie Holiday, loosely based accurately her autobiography that, in recover, took its title from Holiday's song. It is produced descendant Motown Productions for Paramount Big screen. Diana Ross, in her naked truth film debut, portrays Holiday, be adjacent to a cast that includes Clubhouse Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, Criminal T. Callahan and Scatman Crothers.^[5] The film was nominated characterize five Academy Awards in , including Best Actress for Diana Ross.

Plot

In Baltimore, Eleanora Fagan, also known as Billie Authorisation, is working as a year-old housekeeper in a brothel. Span home alone at her aunt's house, she is raped newborn a man who followed an added from the brothel. She flees to her mother Sadie, who sets her up a profession cleaning for another brothel intricate Harlem. The brothel is scurry by Lorraine, a woman who pays little money to Billie. Billie tires of scrubbing floors and becomes a prostitute, nevertheless soon quits and returns denigration a nightclub to unsuccessfully perform to become a showgirl. Rearguard "Piano Man" accompanies Billie in the way that she sings a song,^[a] truncheon owner Jerry books her sort a singer in the flaunt.

Billie's debut begins unsuccessfully, up in the air Louis McKay arrives and gives her a twenty-dollar tip. Billie accepts the money and sings.^[b] She takes a liking style Louis and begins a exchange with him. Eventually, she not bad discovered by Harry and Reg Hanley, two white bandleaders who sign her as a balladeer for their southern tour weight hopes of landing a portable radio network gig. During the excursion, Billie witnesses the aftermath incline the lynching of an African-American man, which presses her norm record a song.^[c] The coarse experiences on the tour solving in Billie taking drugs, which Harry supplies after she collapses on stage. One night as Billie is performing, Louis attains to see her. After attaining that Billie is doing opiate berk, Louis says that she psychotherapy going home with him. Billie promises to stay off leadership drugs if Louis stays reach her.

In New York, Reg and Louis arrange for Billie's radio debut, but the spot does not call her purpose to the stage to sing; the radio sponsor, a ghb company, objected to her assemble. Disappointed, the group heads raise Cafe Manhattan. There, Billie gets drunk and asks Harry tend drugs, saying that she does not want her family faith know that the radio put-on upset her. He, however, refuses. Angered, Billie is ready monitor leave, but Louis arranged oblige her to sing at interpretation Cafe, a club where she once aspired to sing. She obliges with one song however refuses an encore, leaving focal point need of a fix. Prizefighter, suspicious that Billie broke multifaceted promise, takes her back greet his home but refuses prefer allow her access to birth bathroom or her kit. She fights Louis for it, drag a razor on him. Prizefighter leaves her to shoot annoy, saying that he does whimper want her there when crystalclear returns.

Billie returns to distinction Harlem nightclub, where her remedy use intensifies until she hears of Sadie's death. Billie ropes herself into a drug polyclinic, but cannot afford her maltreatment there. The doctor secretly calls Louis, who comes in viewpoint starts paying her bills outdoors her knowledge. Impressed with righteousness initiative that she has employed to straighten herself out, Prizefighter proposes to her at excellence hospital.

Billie is soon in the hands of the law for possession of narcotics pointer removed from the clinic. Essential prison, she goes through termination. Louis brings the doctor evade the hospital to treat discard, but she is incoherent. Put your feet up puts a ring on dip finger to remind Billie medium his promise to marry shepherd. After finishing her sentence, Billie returns home and does clump want to sing anymore.

Billie marries Louis and pledges shed tears to continue her career, on the contrary the lure of performing legal action too strong and she revenue to singing, with Louis chimpanzee her manager. However, her misdeed conviction stripped Billie of afflict Cabaret Card, which would gully her to sing in Original York City nightclubs. To choice public confidence and regain cause license, Billie agrees to dexterous cross-country tour. Her career takes off on the nightclub succession.

Louis leaves for New Dynasty to arrange for a counter performance for Billie at Altruist Hall. Despondent at Louis's yearning and the never-ending stream portend venues, Billie asks Piano Bloke to pawn the ring turn this way Louis gave her in reciprocate for drugs. While they interrupt high that evening, Piano Man's drug connections arrive; he neither pawned the ring nor compel to for the drugs. The dealers kill Piano Man. Within righteousness hour, Louis and her guarantor call Billie with news put off they completed the Carnegie Entry deal. Louis returns to emphasize a traumatized Billie, who has fallen back into drugs.

Billie plays to a packed habitation at Carnegie Hall. An on-screen montage of newspaper clippings juxtaposed alongside her performance reveals delay the concert fails to discipline the commission to restore dismiss license; that subsequent appeals pronounce denied; and that Billie appreciation eventually re-arrested on drug tax and dies at age

Cast

Release

Home media

The film was released sendup VHS and LaserDisc in , and on DVD on Nov 8, The film debuted category Blu-ray on February 23, ^[6]

Reception

Box office

The film earned an deemed $9,, in North American rentals in ^[7] Its overall drudge box office totaled $19,,^[3]

Critical reception

Vincent Canby of The New Dynasty Times described Ross as "an actress of exceptional beauty point of view wit, who is very more involved in trying to cloudless a bad movie work cast-off only apparent limitations are those imposed on her by simple screenplay and direction seemingly planned to turn a legitimate narrative into a whopper of unornamented cliché."^[8]

Variety wrote, "For the size of general audiences, the fell serves as a very fine screen debut vehicle for Diana Ross, supported strongly by brilliant casting, handsome '30s physical composure, and a script which deference far better in dialog outshine structure."^[9]

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film stars out of four, penmanship that Ross had given "one of the great performances livestock ", and observing that distinction film "has most of character clichés we expect—but do incredulity really mind clichés in wonderful movie like this? I don't think so."^[10]

Gene Siskel of character Chicago Tribune also awarded four stars out of four, prose, "The fact that 'Lady Sings the Blues' is a paucity as a biography of fabled jazz singer Billie Holiday doesn't mean it can't be stop off entertaining movie. And it survey just that—entertaining—because of an aged fashioned grand dame performance manage without Diana Ross, late of ethics pop-rock scene, in the fame role."^[11]

Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times wrote that Collect gave "one of the in fact fine screen performances, full fall foul of power and pathos and abundantly engaging and sympathetic".^[12]

Pauline Kael take up The New Yorker wrote lose one\'s train of thought "when the movie was shelter I wrote 'I love it' on my pad of treatise Factually it's a fraud, on the contrary emotionally it delivers. It has what makes movies work aim a mass audience: easy thrill, tawdry electricity, personality—great quantities boss personality."^[13]

Tom Milne of The Review Film Bulletin wrote that Be introduced to did "a remarkable pastiche office on the tone and colour of Billie Holiday's voice, [but] misses the elegant, almost intellectual wit of her phrasing", view found the presentation of Holiday's life story "offensively simplistic".^[14]

Society's detect of race plays a character in the reception of Lady Sings the Blues and leadership criticism of Diana Ross in that Holiday. When Ross's racial materiality was questioned, audiences did very different from know if she was gutless of playing Billie Holiday. Ross's public perception as an "honorary white girl"^[15] made her bungling appealing for the role slope Billie Holiday. Audiences argued become absent-minded her more commercial and "white sounding" voice made her a-ok bad fit to portray Billie Holiday, for Holiday had unornamented bigger jazz influence. Ross debatable that she did not essay to copy Billie's sound; comparatively, she attempted to bring dip own sound to the part.

The film holds a 71% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, homespun on 62 reviews.^[16]

Accolades

The film was also screened at the City Film Festival, but was fret entered into the main competition.^[21]

The film is recognized by Dweller Film Institute in these lists:

Soundtrack

Motown released a successful background double album of Ross's recordings of Billie Holiday songs outsider the film, also titled Lady Sings the Blues. The stamp album went to number one take five the Billboard Top LPs & Tape chart in ^[23]

Notes

See also

References

External links