Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami

When talking about pop cultural icons of our time, it would be difficult not to include queen of the 80s, Grace Jones. As recent as in 2017, the now 70 year old diva played an immediately legendary concert in Oslo, with a stage show that can barely be matched. Sophie Fiennes’ documentary about the legend and the person Grace Jones shifts between recordings from this kind of electric and unforgettable live performance, to the mundane events taking place far out of reach of the spotlight.

We follow Jones everywhere, from a taxi through the avenues of Paris to family dinners in Jamaica, and in studios whilst yelling at no-show musicians over the phone. There are also some crossovers between the two worlds, like for example a music video shoot, where we get to see the icon that is Grace Jones whilst simultaneously having access to her thoughts and her own experience of the situation. While Fiennes largely employs the fly-on-the-wall approach in this documentary, the clips from concerts and other public performances ensures a lively dynamic between to different sides of a great cultural icon.