Saint Pauly

7/10

In the 1970s, a journalist working on a Billie Holiday biography recorded hours upon hours of interviews with Billie Holiday's family and entourage. Those tapes have never been heard, until now. For those, like me, who love Lady Day, there is much to celebrate in this documentary. The archive footage, the photographs, the recordings, the detailed information, the TV appearances (if you don't tear up watching her sing 'Strange Fruit' on camera, I'm not sure we can be friends)... There were only two things that kept this movie from truly rocking my world. The first is the recurring (occasionally mysterious) story of the journalist who recorded the interviews. Each detour into her life proves a major distraction from the heart of the movie. The second flaw was the academic tone of the film, which didn't jibe with the information being conveyed. The fact Billie was a child prostitute at 13, that she was beaten and robbed by lovers (and not being totally uncomfortable with it?), her addictions, bullied by racists on tour, her bisexuality... all would benefit from a somber and solemn treatment interlaced with her songs, rather than the factual presentation that undercuts the serious sadness of Lady Day's life. Still, the tragic beauty of the woman and her talent far outweigh the infrequent mishandling of the subject.