The Color Purple: a successful adaptation (review)
A flamboyant and epic musical, with a very fine group of actors and actresses, both hyper calibrated and hyper excessive: the most American film seen in ages.
It’s one of the micro-trends in American studio cinema: the snake biting its own tail. Like this Purple color, adaptation of a Broadway musical, itself adapted from the film by Steven Spielberg, which adapted the novel by Alice Walker. Or recent Mean Girls – Lolita in spite of myself (note the genius of the VF) – … cinema adaptation of a Broadway musical, which adapted the 2004 film with Lindsay Lohan. In short, mutatis mutandis, nothing is lost, everything is transformed. Let’s come back to this Purple color, to this story of two African-American sisters in the South of the United States, who will be separated for half a century. One will return to the Africa of its origins while the other, married to a violent alcoholic, will survive and forge her own destiny – until a dream fantasy finale which evokes the pan-African utopia of Wakanda (promise, swear ). Beyond its appearance musical gleaming, perfectly rehearsed (one of the composers, Ailee Willis, who died in 2019, composed September for Earth, Wind & Fire and the theme song for Friends), The Color Purple is essentially based on the canon performances of its casting, notably Fantasia Barrino (discovered in American Idol, she also played The Color Purple on stage on Broadway), Taraji P. Henson brilliant as bi and flamboyant blues singer, Coleman Domingo (Euphoria) excellent… Everything is both excessive and very calibrated: in short, it’s been a long time since we’ve seen such an American film – in every sense of the word – on the big screen. And it feels good !
Of Blitz Bazawule. With Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson, Coleman Domingo. Duration 2h20. Released January 24, 2024
