IRENE CARA (1959 - 2022)

Irene Cara, the beautiful and gifted singer and actor, best known for her film roles in "Sparkle" and "Fame" and singing the theme song for the movie, "Flashdance" has sadly passed away on November 25th at the age of sixty-three. No cause of death has been disclosed at this time.

Born and raised in the Bronx, this Puerto-Rican-Cuban performer displayed signs of her gifts early as young child, learning to play piano by ear and excelling in dance and voice lessons. She became a regular on the educational program, "The Electric Company" for two years beginning in 1971 and recorded Spanish-language albums. By the time she was a teenager, Cara had appeared on the professional stage, on and off-Broadway, and introduced a character on the soap-opera, "Love of Life".

She made her feature film acting debut in 1975 in "Aaron Loves Angela", a teenage comedy-drama inspired by "Romeo and Juliet" from filmmaker, Gordon Parks, Jr. This lead to the first role Cara is best known for: the title character in the musical-drama, "Sparkle", the youngest sister in the singing girl-group, Sister and the Sisters. Set in Harlem at the end of the 1950's, the film follows these impoverished girls as they climb briefly to the top of the music business before coming apart due to addiction, romantic strife and personal issues. Despite the music score written by Curtis Mayfield and a hit soundtrack album that featured Aretha Franklin performing the songs from the film, "Sparkle" was not a big box-office success. But the film would go on to become a popular cult classic, even being remade in 2012 with Whitney Houston (a big fan of the movie) in her final film role.

The other movie role Cara is best remembered is in "Fame". This 1980 Alan Parker directed film follows various students attending the High School of Performing Arts in New York, chronicling their lives and hardships as they go through each school year. Cara played Coco Hernandez, a dynamic talent who was a student accepted in all three different departments: Drama, Music, and Dance. The actress performed three of the most memorable songs from the movie; "Hot Lunch Jam", "Out Here On My Own" and the title tune. "Fame" was essentially an arthouse film that had broad commercial appeal, becoming a major hit with audiences along with a soundtrack that would become a chart-topping, multi-platinum album. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning for Best Original Score and Best Original Song with "Fame" which Cara performed during the ceremony.

"Fame" made Cara a star, giving her some opportunities to work in television and film. But it was music that was Cara's first love and where she achieved her greatest success. One of her biggest hits would be the title song for the 1983 movie, "Flashdance", a surprise box-office smash about a young dancer (Jennifer Beals) aspiring to become a professional ballerina while working by day at a steel mill. Cara co-wrote "Flashdance... What a Feeling" with Keith Forsey and Giorgio Moroder (best known for their work at the time with Donna Summer) and the song took off with the help of the very popular film, becoming a worldwide number one hit and winning the team the Oscar for Best Original Song. Cara would follow this with her second studio album, "What a Feeling" which was a moderate success with the singles, "Why Me?", "The Dream (Hold On to Your Dream)" and "Breakdance".

But by 1984, Cara had grown extremely unhappy with her record company, Network Records who she felt had not given her proper financial compensation for her first album or for the single, "Flashdance... What a Feeling". She decided to sue and while it took almost ten years, Cara finally won a $1.5 million dollar settlement in 1993. However, the company declared bankruptcy which made it impossible for her to be compensated. Cara also believed that she was blacklisted during this time due to the on-going lawsuit, making no record label and few film producers interested in working with her.

It's unfortunate Cara's career had been effectively stifled. She had continued to find some work after the lawsuit, making one more studio album, "Carasmatic" in 1987, occasional film and stage work and touring Europe. She was an incredible talent yet she was unable to reach her full potential simply due to her standing up for herself.  

I will always fondly remember Cara for her performance in "Fame" which remains one of my all-time favorite movies. As Coco (which was rewritten for her after producers heard her singing voice), she embodied a feisty, confident, charming and effortlessly sensual person which was not common at the time for a woman of color to be seen on screen as a three-dimensional character. Cara brought an exquisite inner light to her role that was so captivating, it has stayed in my thoughts all these years later. 

2022 AFI FILM FEST VIEWING DIARY

The AFI Film festival has ended and it was another solid event filled with amazing films from around the world, screening right in the heart of Hollywood where I was able to conveniently stroll to the theater right from my home. I have always loved this fest as it offers the first opportunity to see international films that have received awards and critical praise at previous film festivals while also delivering world premieres of intriguing Hollywood movies that are vying for award attention. With the fest being condensed down to only five days, this made it even more challenging to see all the movies I had wanted. Scheduling was certainly a complicated task for me by having to choose between which movie I really wanted to see, with many either playing at the same time or a movie would be starting while I was in the middle of watching another film. But I managed to do okay, seeing six films including the red carpet premiere of "She Said".

I have been attending AFI Fest for many years and it just occurred to me to I had never written about the movies I saw there. So here is my first time with a few reviews of films from the fest.

The first movie I saw was "Nanny", a haunting, psychological thriller that cleverly merges family dysfunction, West African folklore and a hint of the supernatural. Aisha (a mesmerizing Anna Diop), a Senegalese immigrant, begins a new job as a domestic care worker for the daughter of a wealthy New York family. Things begin well with the mother, Amy (Michelle Monaghan) but tensions build between them as they clash over what to feed the child and Amy's failure to pay Aisha on time. And the arrival of Amy's photographer husband (Morgan Spector) from a business trip only creates more stress in the household. Aisha is willing to endure this privileged family because she is trying to save up money to bring her young son over from Senegal. While Aisha is focused and determined on achieving a better life for herself and young son, she does allow her guard down long enough to tentatively begin a relationship with Malik (Sinqua Walls), the doorman of her employer's building. But she is soon being haunted by an eerie presence that begins in her dreams before spilling over as surreal visions in her waking life.

Writer/director, Nikyatu Jusu makes her feature film debut with "Nanny" which went on to receive the Dramatic Grand Jury Prize at this year's Sundance fest and capturing the attention of Jason Blum of Blumhouse Productions, home to several horror franchises, who went on to executive produce the film. Jusu has more on her mind that creating a creepy atmosphere, thoughtfully touching on the complications of the Black experience while trying to navigate through white society and the many indignities that domestic workers have to suffer through in order to survive. "Nanny" is further enhanced by the exquisite camerawork by Rina Yang and a powerfully captivating performance by Diop. There is a shocking twist which is absolutely heartbreaking, leading to a finale that comes across feeling rushed and obscure. But "Nanny" is still an outstanding, accomplished debut feature by a promising new filmmaker.

The winner of Silver Lion Grand Jury prize along with the Lion of the Future award for director and co-writer, Alice Diop at the 2022 Venice Film Festival and France's official selection for Best International Film for this year's Oscars, "Saint Omer" is a courtroom drama based on a real-life French case that occurred in 2013 involving the unimaginable crime of a young mother accused of murdering her fifteen-month old baby. But what makes this even more chilling and highly unusual is that Laurence Coly (Guslagie Malanga), who came from a middle-class family originally from Senegal, claims that it was witchcraft that caused her to commit this horrific offense. Rama (Kayije Kagame), a professor and novelist, has traveled from Paris to Saint Omer to watch the trial for research on a book about the case. As she learns more about Laurence, Rama, a few months pregnant and also Senegalese, finds herself making a personal connection with her, particularly regarding the complicated relationships each has with their mothers.

Diop, French-born to Senegalese parents, had previously only made documentaries but after attending the court case of Fabienne Kabou, the woman who was ultimately convicted of this crime in 2016, she was inspired to try and recreate the experience as a feature film, reflecting on how her home country views her African heritage and the difficult challenges that can come from motherhood. Taking place largely in the courtroom, we learn about Coly's background through her testimony, with her being raised to be a proper Frenchwoman and the conflicted bond between mother and daughter. Deftly penetrating and emotionally devastating, Diop has artfully reimagined the standard true-crime melodrama, focusing less on the lurid crime and more on the accused, exploring her trauma as a tragic motivation and possibly provoke some sense of sympathy. And hearing the world-weary voice of Nina Simone on her version of "Little Girl Blue", effectively used as a coda near the end of the film, left me completely wrecked.

And even though we know the eventual outcome, director, Maria Schrader has managed to create plenty of suspense and tension in "She Said", a riveting drama that looks into the investigation of the long history of allegations involving sexual misconduct by film producer Harvey Weinstein against many women, leading to the start of the #MeToo movement. Sexual harassment and abuse is hardly specific only to Hollywood yet from the very beginning it had become a consistent arrangement for the powerful men in the industry to prey on young, aspiring women just looking for an opportunity to work and has remained an accepted open secret until recently when Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan), a reporter for the New York Times began exploring the whispers of these crimes. After teaming up with fellow journalist, Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan), they had no difficulty finding several women who were victimized by Weinstein yet they refused to speak on the record, either due to NDA settlements or the fear of not being believed. The team also discover that they are not the first to take on this story but once Weinstein ever got word of an investigation, the reporting would mysteriously end. Luckily, their editors (played by Patricia Clarkson and Andre Braugher) give their full support, helping to play defense against the powerful movie mogul.

What makes "She Said" stand out from other films involving investigative reporting is that it's told from a feminist perspective; women working together to help and support each other by pushing back against the male dominated, systemic structures of power. And while Kantor and Twohey's gender certainly gave them some advantage, displaying empathy and a willingness to listen without judgement, it was still a considerable struggle to get these women to feel comfortable enough to risk allowing their names to be revealed to the world for this story. The pacing of the film can be sluggish at times and while I know a big part of a reporter's job is to investigate, the many scenes of the women having conversations on their phones can feel a bit monotonous. Mulligan and Kazan make a great team, capturing the fierce determination by these reporters to get answers. But also the women's exhaustion and guilt of dedicating long hours to their work while sacrificing valuable time away from their families, nothing at all like what Redford and Hoffman had to cope with in "All The President's Men".

COMING SOON

I had recently watched "Dead Ringer", a campy horror film from 1964 where Bette Davis has the opportunity to wildly devour the scenery two times in one movie. She plays identical twin sisters who have been estranged for years: one sister is dowdy, running a seedy bar and struggling financially. The other is glamourous, wealthy and has recently become a widow which is the reason for their reunion. Not to give any spoilers but let's just say that greed and jealousy leads to murder.

The reason why I bring this up is that in Tilda Swinton's upcoming film, "The Eternal Daughter" she appears in two different roles yet here she is playing mother and daughter. The story involves these two women returning to their former home that was once a stately manor but has recently become a shabby hotel that is nearly vacant. Now that they are back in this house, they are forced to deal with their mysterious past and confront long-buried secrets.

This is the latest from filmmaker, Joanna Hogg who brought us the indie drama, "The Souvenir" and the sequel which starred Swinton's daughter, Honor Swinton Byrne. And I'm fairly certain that "The Eternal Daughter" will not have much in common with "Dead Ringer" beyond the lead actress playing dual roles and a dark, creepy element to the story.

"The Eternal Daughter" is due in US theaters on December 2, 2022