Jerry Zaks Director
Megalyn Echikunwoke-cast
as Ivy Mills/Etta James
Did you see Cadillac Records (2008) the award winning film featuring the Chess brothers or rather Leonard Chess (Phil was omitted) the legendary two who joined the black world of Chicago blues and rock-N-roll using their money, their guts and energy to bring sharecropper music into public light and delight?
If not, you have a second chance because another film has been made with the same historical characters, and the same theme but the play with history is different. Phil is a real person in Who do you Love and Leonard has "an extra marital affair with a black woman ivy Mills. Who in the real world is Etta James and she has not died of a drug overdose or anything else.
When was the last time you saw a beautiful black women on screen who was alive, healthy, loved and not a drug addict, alcoholic or a sex symbol of one vacuous sort or another. The 2004 film Cat Woman received one to two star ratings. It starred the beautiful, Halle Berry and she is anything but a half alive drug addict or incurable alcoholic. Her long legs and great body exude the kind of power any mother would be happy to have their children see. And Many did.
In Who do you Love Ivy Mills dies of a drug overdose. We see her sing one song, we are given a rear view shot of her beautiful body alive and then an image of her dead lying on the hotel bed. Not someone I would like my children to see and emulate.
She is the problem in the film. Was she Leonard's mistress? Michael Chess says No and he is the son of the great Leonard Chess. Why is Etta James/Ivy Mills so controversial? Is the image of a black woman with a white man so charged, is it the image of Leonard being less than pure the issue, or is the sight of an attractive powerful black woman deemed unacceptable to the paying public? Whatever it is, the image of an attractive black woman is a film industry problem.
That said,
Of course I enjoyed the film. It was great acting, good looking people seemingly having a good time without bloodshed; a lot of laughs and high energy. And a mix of black and white Jewish blood; what else can I, a New Yorker, ask for. This is the real deal. This is life as I know it.
Have a good time. Isn't that what film is all about...
entertainment
Linda Zises
WBAI Radio
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