We all know Grace Jones as an eccentric music artist, an energetic dancer and the most androgynous fashion icon out there.
We might remember her not-unnoticed performance as the Amazonian bodyguard May Day in the James Bond film “A View to a Kill“ with Roger Moore.
But her latest movie “Bloodlight and Bami“ is only and all about her.
The title words are taken from the Jamaican Patois : “Bloodlight“ stands for the illuminated red light in a studio when an artist is recording and “Bami“ means bread, one of the bare necessities in life.
The film takes us on a road trip in Jamaica. Grace and some family members travel down memory lane revisiting places from her childhood.
We get to know her as a lover, daughter, mother, grandmother, sister, aunt and friend. We also discover that she tries to come to terms with a traumatised upbringing.
But on stage she forgets her demons. Her theatrical imagination lets loose. In the film, she connects with the audience in the most energetic and powerful way possible. She explains that a performer takes a risk; it’s a lonely but fascinating place up there. Off-stage, she comes across as a funny person, a hedonist, a fierce businesswoman but above all a modern nomad.
It also comes to light that she has a unique presence on the planet when we talk fashion. She is a visual person and her choices of outfits, make-up and jewellery are electrifying. She wears what she wants, how she feels in the moment. While getting ready for a show, her concentration is stunning and reflects in outrageous, screaming “I’m alive” garments with the ever-returning headpieces from milliner Philip Treacy that made her so famous.
She can wear it off because there is only one Grace Jones.
Go and see her movie. As the director Ms. Sophie Fiennes describes:
“I made a documentary. I had it not in control. The footage was clear and organic. An open journey, in the moment. You read the language through her body, her muscles, her dance.”
Life has not always been nice to her, but she kept on living and loving!
“Slave to the rhythm.
Love tot he rhythm.
Live to the rhythm.
Dance to the rhythm.
Never stop the action.
Keep it up.”
To be continued…
TeDe
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