Uone of the most famous singers of all time, an endless repertoire but only one song to identify her: Respect. It is not the only destiny of Aretha Franklinwhose life, loves and creative travails, They’re coming up tonight Rai 3 at 9.20pm with the film – entitled precisely with the 1967 song. Released two years, the biopic directed by Liesl Tommy stars the singer Jennifer Hudson.
Respectthe plot of the movie
The film starts from the childhood of Aretha in Detroit, where he lives with his father, CL Franklin (Forest Whitaker), a Baptist minister. With them too the sisters Erma (Saycon Sengbloh) and Carolyn (Hailey Kilgore). When she is only 10 years old, mother Barbara Siggers (Audra McDonald), dies. It’s a huge trauma and Aretha closes herself in a profound silence. She comes out of mutism weeks later, thanks to her father who forces her to sing in church.
For the future star it is a first approach to music that will lead her to become one of the most recognizable voices in the world. In between, another event that will mark her forever. He is the victim of two rapes, following which his two children were born. AND in 1959 he met Ted White (Marlon Wayans), a producer warned by Aretha’s father. He orders him to stay away from her daughter.
One day CL gets her a meeting in New York with John Hammond (Tate Donovan) from Columbia Records. He begins to take his first steps with some songs, including Ac-Cent-Tchu-Ate the positive. He releases four albums, but success does not arrive. Meanwhile, she has differences with her father, who would like her to have a more elegant image, and she is increasingly close to Ted White.
Jennifer Hudson is Aretha Franklin in “Respect.” (IPA)
Success after nine albums
Five more albums arrive and he doesn’t break through. To avoid thinking about the frustration, she is less and less present in the studio. He introduces Ted to his family and tells them that he will be his manager from now on. The father can do nothing but accept and step aside, but he is certain that the man will only be a source of trouble.
We arrive in 1961. They get married, their first child is born and Aretha loses her contract with Columbia Records. So Ted manages to get her picked up by Atlantic Records, with the support of producer Jerry Wexler (Marc Maron). A new phase opens. It affects I never loved a man (the way I love you)which will be a success, but from the moment of recording the private sector clashes with the public. Ted, in fact, has an altercation with the studio manager. And soon he also proves violent towards his wife.
Aretha returns to Detroit. His song was played on the radio and he finally found the strength to take charge of his career. One night she and her sister Carolyn rearrange Respect by Otis Redding. The unstoppable climb begins. The single reaches first position. Franklin is 25 years old and becomes a star in his own right.
The ending of Respect
Dozens of recognitions followed, including the establishment of theAretha Franklin Day. It is celebrated on February 16th in Detroit and it was Martin Luther King, a long-time family friend, who wanted it. Goes out (You make me feel like) A natural womanone of her most famous songs, and in the meantime Aretha makes arrangements to sing at a civil rights event in Memphis.
Ted, on the other hand, would like him to think about the tour. He is not listened to, he beats her. The news reaches Timewho publishes an article about it, and when he asks his wife for information, Aretha says enough and leaves him. Respect it’s not just a recording triumph, but has a deeper meaning. Among the mother’s teachings is to expect to always be treated with respect.
“Respect”, Jennifer Hudson in a scene from the film.
Some time later, she begins a relationship with manager Ken Cunningham (Albert Jones) and gives birth to her fourth child. It is 1968 and on April 4, Martin Luther King is assassinated. Aretha and her father can no longer understand each other and in the end the singer moves away. Her fame continues, but her commitments increase and, in the end, he falls into the spiral of alcohol and drugs. Addicted to methadone, no one can help her, not even her brothers who she abruptly pushes away.
The peak of desperation arrives during a concert: she falls from the stage, drunk. Ken abandons her and Aretha takes refuge in alcohol. What gives the push to get her back on the right path, reconnecting with her loved ones, is the vision of her mother.
Aretha Franklin in 2017 in concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York. (Getty Images)
Jennifer Hudson, a credible Aretha Franklin
In Respect there is not only the life of a star that changed international music, but also the photography of the United States of the 60s. A profoundly chauvinistic and racist country, in which women struggle to carve out their own space, even more so if they are African-American.
It is the story of a difficult life, full of successes and dark moments. And who gave history one of the most famous singers of all time. 21 Grammy Awards, over 80 million copies sold and the greatest recognition: being the first woman to enter the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.
Jennifer Hudson – already Oscar winner for Dreamgirls – returns an intense and credible Aretha Franklin. In the film she highlights her undoubted singing skills and Franklin herself, shortly before her death, accepted that she should play her.
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