The new trailer for Aretha Franklin biopic Respect recently debuted online and has left fans baffled by the number of Pixies songs that feature.
Opening with the letters D-E-B-A-S-E-R flashing up onscreen intercut with moments from Aretha’s life, we hear the chorus of Pixies classic Debaser playing. The trailer then cuts Aretha as a child, with her mother at the piano, and as they talk, the mother plays the melody of Where is My Mind.
After some moments of indecision and crisis, played out to the tune of Gouge Away, we see Aretha at the piano with some friends, shyly singing ‘if man is five’ before going into the studio to record Monkey Gone to Heaven. The rest of the trailer is a triumphant montage of snatches of Aretha’s life as Wave of Mutilation plays in the background.
Director Liesl Tommy defended her decision to feature the iconic eighties indie band quite so predominantly.
“My first thought was to include Respect, Think, Who’s Zoomin’ Who and all those other classic Aretha tunes,” she explained.
“But, as we went on, it became clear that the songs of the Pixies all beautifully illustrated what was going on in Aretha’s head throughout her life.
“Okay, obviously, we know she didn’t actually write Monkey Gone to Heaven, but that scene is more an impression of what it would have been like if she had written Monkey Gone to Heaven that, I think, really gets to the heart of what Aretha must have been feeling when she wrote Respect.”
However, some fans were troubled by the trailer.
“This is an Aretha Franklin biopic, I hope it’s not just going to be all Pixies songs,” tweeted one.
Liesl was quick to reassure those fans.
“Of course not,” she chuckled.
“We’ve got a lovely romantic date scene set to REM’s The One I Love, and a late scene of Aretha visiting her old home is made all the more moving by the use of Fugazi’s Waiting Room.”
Some links to other bits of the blog that you’ll love*…
*Alright, perhaps ‘love’ is pushing it, maybe ‘be mildly diverted by’
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No one has watched The Green Mile all the way through, finds study
According to a new study on people’s film watching habits, literally no one has ever watched The Green Mile all the way through.
The study which featured questions such as ‘Do you watch more films at the cinema, or at home?’ ‘Should cinemas continue to serve coke in barrels?’ and, most fascinatingly of all ‘Have you ever watched The Green Mile all the way through?’
Nobody answered in the affirmative to the final question.
“Initially we were a little surprised,” said Jeremy Cumberbatch, Professor of fatuous questions and long movies at Oxford University.
“But then, we thought about it, and it’s actually not really a shocking response, it’s three hours and ten minutes. People have got things to do with their lives.”
“Follow-up questions revealed that most people watch it until the mouse comes back to life and then skip to the end to see John Coffey executed so they can get to bed in time.”
When confronted with the survey results, director Frank Darabont, broke down and confessed.
“I knew this day would come,” he replied, tearfully.
“Now, I must admit The Green Mile’s terrible secret. We never filmed the middle part of the film. We knew that no one would want to watch three hours of a film about executions, so we just didn’t bother.”
“The middle bit of the film is just Tom Hanks reading a book for 45 minutes.”
It is expected that, despite the revelation, still no one will watch The Green Mile all the way through as they’ve still got to get to bed in time.
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