These days we are swamped with Reality TV, but half of it is scripted and still manages to be banal. So thank God, Sophie Fiennes hooked up with Grace Jones and made the fabulous and insightful documentary Bloodight & Bami – out today on Blu-Ray and DVD. To celebrate we talk to Sophie and have two Blu-Rays to give away. Scroll down to find out more.
Sophie, how was it when you first met Grace?
When I actually met her I realised she was a brilliant person but she had never shown it. Well, she had, but only through the theatricality of her art. She played with that space brilliantly and of course behind that is a brilliant person. I immediately hit it off with her just talking.
All of Graces performances seem very controlled, the idea of a documentary must have been very foreign to her.
When you do an interview you have to present yourself in a certain timeframe, in one shot. I’ve seen her do TV shows abut disco or whatever. She has to figure out a look, work out what she’s going to say, sit down and be interviewed. An interview is a kind of performance. People are slightly naive to that. It’s a very artificial conversation. That form of engagement throws me off as a filmmaker because I’m not certain what the right questions are, I’m not sure if the answer is what they really feel. I’m much more interested in a different level of engagement. I think she saw that and it made her excited to create something different. Showing herself in a different way.
Did you have certain things you wanted to present?
No, I think one of the things that’s thrilling about a creative endeavour, is that you don’t realise how much you are brain melding. There was an understanding between us about what we were going for. She saw that my camera eye was something….she understood where I was coming from. Also we are both extremely visual people and I think that was something that excited her.
Intimidation is a word often associated with Grace. Were you intimidated before meeting her?
When I track it back I had a moment of seeing Island Life when I was 15/16 and thinking, ‘Wow, what kind of woman is that?’ That’s wild, it’s exotic but not exotic because it was against a domestic backdrop. It’s called Island Life but it’s not an island as it’s interior. And it wasn’t showing Island in the cheesy 70s way with a Bacardi and coke. It was sending such mixed messages it was fascinating. I wasn’t intimidated by her, I respected her. Her songs were part of growing up.
Did she ever say, ‘Time out’?
No never. She would say ‘Sophie why aren’t you filming?! What’s wrong?’ I was like, ‘Grace I’ve been filming you for about five hours.’ She’d made the decision to do this and wanted me to have as much material as possible. She told herself that she had some sort of control in terms of our relationship but she didn’t look to control herself in the film at all. That’s the properly radical act that I think is reflected in the film.
There is so much scripted reality, this is very refreshing.
There’s a tonality from the cinema of the 60s/70s where film is going from fiction to reality. It enters another zone. That’s the holy grail of filmmaking for me. So when she’s sitting in the hotel in her fur coat talking about the performance. She’s quoting All About Eve. She’s talking about risks and having no trimmings but she’s surrounding by trimmings. All these signs that have meanings that collide together that create a moment.
She likes to play up to the idea of being a diva…
The reality of it is that she is just a force to be reckoned with.
I remember her saying she liked to turn up late, as that is part of the ‘Grace Jones experience’.
I think that’s true. Any performer knows that anticipation creates an interesting friction for when the event happens. There’s already a performance happening before the artist walks onstage. It’s the anticipation between the artist and audience that really matters to Grace. She certainly needs to get quite angry before she gets onstage. I tried to show that.
When a performer performs like Grace does, it just can’t be done in ordinary daily life. But with the anger she recognises she has, she has the licence to express that. Maybe that’s part of what makes her an interesting performer.
What was your favourite moment?
That’s such a horrible question. It’s been an extraordinary relationship.
Did she bring anything out in you?
All films I make I am excited to make because they push me…the subject, what they are doing. Otherwise it would be boring. If I know what I want to do, ‘This is what I want to show about Grace Jones.’ It would be so dull.
Definitely I’ve learned from Grace. I have learned to argue vociferously – Jamaican-style! She said to me, ‘Well, you’re pretty good in an argument!’ and I was like, ‘Well who do you think I learned that from? What are you going to do on the other side of the court if Serena Williams is firing aces at you? You’ve got to hit them back.’
With Grace there seems to be the performer and the Grace in Jamaica. Was there one you connected with more?
Well it’s the relationship between them that I love as a filmmaker. I became aware when I assessed the material, how it reflected the truth in how broad we really are in our spirit depending on what situation we are in. For instance if you wrote a work of fiction with a character like Grace, people would say, ‘Well that’s just mad.’ But no, that is a true person.
Fiction has us believe that people are one dimensional or perhaps at the most three dimensional. I think how she moves between the two areas is really fascinating. I can enjoy each one. I love her with her family but I also love how ballsy she is with the French TV guy – how she reads the situation. She sees beyond where I could have gone. I would have said, ‘This is a male fantasy, let’s move on, no more to say.’ But she sees it as a picture and drew out so much of it.
A friend writes a comic where he lives with Grace, Jerry Hall and Jessica Lange in the 70s. I think that sounds like an amazing fantasy.
A lot of competition between them I’m sure! I’m not sure that would be my fantasy! Haha…
Normally we would ask you for your favourite Mariah song. But what is your favourite Grace song?
I feel like I love ‘Nipple to the Bottle’. I knew it was personal to Grace because she’s done a lot of covers that she’s made her own but that was something that she wrote very quickly after being furious. I also really love ‘The Apple Stretching’. For me there’s that fantasy of hearing the song and imagining New York through that song but at that point I was living in a little cottage in Wiltshire. It was very biographical. Knowing that there was this world there…an Atlantis to discover.
To win a copy of Grace Jones: Bloodlight & Bami on Blu-Ray, email Michael@LoverboyMagazine.com with your address and the answer to this question – Which of these is a famous Grace Jones album?
A The Boss
B Spiceworld
C Island Life
Grace Jones: Bloodlight & Bami is out now on DVD, Blu-Ray and Digital.
Order your copy here: bit.ly/
