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Bessie: Directed by Dee Rees. With Queen Latifah, Kamryn Johnson, Rikki McKinney, Alan T. Coleman. The story of legendary blues performer Bessie Smith, who rose to fame during the 1920s and '30s.
- (4.8K)
- Biography, Drama, Music
- Dee Rees
- 2015-05-16
May 15, 2015 · HBO’s “Bessie,” a biopic premiering Saturday that stars Queen Latifah as the blues singer Bessie Smith, is a thoughtful and at times stirring example of how a film can add texture to a ...
- Did Bessie Smith's Mother Really Die When Bessie Was A Child?
- Was MA Rainey Responsible For Bessie Smith's Success?
- Is Bessie's Female Love Interest in The Movie, Lucille, Based on A Real person?
- Was Bessie's Husband, Jack Gee, Illiterate?
- Did Bessie Really Move Her Family in to Live with her?
- Did Bessie's Sister Viola Really Abuse her?
- Did Bessie's Husband Jack and Her Sister Viola Really Not Like Each other?
- Did The Real Bessie Smith Adopt A Son, Jack, Jr.?
- Was Bessie Smith Really Stabbed in The stomach?
- Did Jack Really Kidnap Jack, Jr.?
Yes. The true story confirms that Bessie's mother, Laura Smith, died when Bessie was eight or nine. Her father, William Smith, had died when she was a baby. Like in the movie, her oldest sister, Viola, assumed the responsibility of raising her and her four other siblings: Andrew, Lulu, Tinnie, and Clarence. -'Bessie' by Chris Albertson
No. The Bessie movie true story reveals that most of the credit goes to Bessie's brother Clarence, who got her a job with the Moses Stokes company with whom he was employed. The company's cast included Ma Rainey, who then went by her birth name, Gertrude. Bessie started out primarily as a dancer with the company. Bessie was already a talented singe...
No. Lucille (Tika Sumpter) is likely a composite of several people, including Bessie Smith's niece by marriage, Ruby Walker, who was a close companion and a performer in her aunt's shows. Like Lucille in the movie, Ruby left Bessie's life at around the same time, just prior to when Bessie's marriage fell apart. However, in real life, Ruby didn't le...
Yes. Chris Albertson's biography confirms what is implied in the HBO Bessie movie. It describes Jack as being "virtually illiterate," stating that this was probably a good thing since Jack could not read about Bessie's exploits in black gossip publications like the Interstate Tattler.
Not exactly. The real Bessie Smith moved her family, including her sister Viola, up from Chattanooga, but not to live in the same Philadelphia house with her and her husband. She instead rented them adjoining houses in her neighborhood. It was a generous gesture, but her family members were spending her money faster than she could make it. It also ...
Yes. Bessie's niece, Ruby Walker, said that she doesn't remember Bessie's sister Viola liking anybody, calling her a "nasty woman" in Chris Albertson's Bessie biography. "...she was even nasty to Bessie, who did everything for her." In addition to bearing the burden of running the family, Viola was left hurt and jaded after a brief romance ended, w...
Yes, and Bessie was amused by their dislike for one another. In exploring the Bessie movie true story, we discovered that Bessie set up her bank account so that Jack needed Viola's signature in order to withdraw money when Bessie was away. It was an arrangement that infuriated Jack and humored Bessie. -'Bessie' by Chris Albertson
Yes. However, she didn't adopt the six-year-old boy out of the blue as the movie implies. She also didn't adopt him from an orphanage. "Snooks," as she had nicknamed the boy, was Margaret Warren's niece's son. Warren was one of Bessie's chorus girls. The boy's father had been a stranger in the night, and the mother was having trouble making ends me...
Yes. According to the account that Bessie's niece, Ruby Walker, gave to biographer Chris Albertson, the real-life events played out almost exactly as they do in the HBO Bessie movie. In real life, they were at a house party when a drunk man with gold teeth grabbed Ruby's arm and forced her to dance with him. Bessie got up from her table and confron...
Yes. When Jack, Jr. was ten, Jack Gee came and took him from Bessie's home when she wasn't there (in the movie Bessie is home and desperately tries to stop Jack). In real life, Jack dropped the boy off at the SPCC (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children), and according to Jack, Jr., made up lies that Bessie had let him stay out all night...
Bessie is a 2015 HBO TV film about the American blues singer Bessie Smith, and focuses on her transformation as a struggling young singer into "The Empress of the Blues". The film is directed by Dee Rees, [1] with a screenplay by Rees, Christopher Cleveland and Bettina Gilois. Queen Latifah stars as Smith, and supporting roles are played by ...
Sep 27, 2024 · September 27, 2024 7:00 AM EDT. W hen Kate Winslet set out to try and make a film about the photographer Lee Miller, she knew it couldn't show everything. "She lived such a vast life, it would ...
- Esther Zuckerman
Jun 9, 2015 · Bessie is also the perfect fit for Rees, who wrote and directed Pariah, a beautiful film about a young black teenager learning to embrace her sexuality as a lesbian. Rees’ unbridled insistence on presenting Bessie as she apparently really was, instead of an idealized, more cinematic version of herself, sets this biopic apart from other films about black women, and most other biopics in general.
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Cast. Queen Latifah Mo'Nique Mike Epps Tika Sumpter Michael Kenneth Williams Charles S. Dutton Bryan Greenberg Oliver Platt Khandi Alexander Tory Kittles Joe Knezevich Jeremie Harris Jennifer Sears Crystal Lee Brown Terence Rosemore L. Warren Young Tia Hendricks Whitney Goin Neko Parham Kaden Washington Lewis Alkoya Brunson Todd Allen Durkin ...
