“Last Night in Soho” director Edgar Wright got a little choked up at the movie’s Canadian premiere on Friday night, after realizing that the date (Sept. 10) marked the one year anniversary of…
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
Perfection is rarely achieved in movies, but this heaven-sent concert doc hits the sweet spot. Over two days in January 1972, the Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin — she was 29 at the time — sweeps into the New Temple Missionary Baptist Church in Watts in front of a congregation and testifies to God in song. The blessed thing took nearly half a century to come out because director Sydney Pollack failed to sync the image with the sound. Then digital angels stepped in, and glory, glory, hallelujah!
“Last Night in Soho” director Edgar Wright got a little choked up at the movie’s Canadian premiere on Friday night, after realizing that the date (Sept. 10) marked the one year anniversary of the passing of Dame Diana Rigg, who stars in the project.
“The idea of working with her was so thrilling, and it’s really sort of become the big takeaway of the movie for me because she’s no longer with us,” Wright said, sitting down with co-writer Krysty Wilson-Cairns to discuss the project at the Variety Studio at TIFF presented by Canada Goose.
“Last Night in Soho” follows a young woman named Eloise (Thomasin McKenzie) who moves to London to attend fashion school. But life in the big city comes with a different form of glitz and glamour than she expected, after she discovers a mysterious connection to an aspiring young singer named Sandie living in the 1960s. Rigg plays Miss Collins, Eloise’s landlady at the bedsit in Soho where her nightmares begin.
Of casting the acting icon — and one of the “OG Avengers,” as he referred to her — in this ode to the ’60s, Wright added: “It was already poignant making the movie on a number of levels and now, her passing, and having gotten to work with her and being so fortunate to get to know her in the last years of her life.”
In fact, the filmmaker admitted he cut the introduction of the film a little short so he didn’t start “properly blubbering” onstage. Wilson-Cairns said she loved watching Rigg “command the room” on set, sharing that her favorite interaction came before the film started production, as the trio met over drinks to discuss the movie’s script.
“She drank me under the table. And I’m a Scottish person, I can drink, but she was just [ordering] Aperol Spritz after Aperol Spritz,” Wilson-Cairns explained. “And eventually we were so drunk, I was like, “I’ll write you anything you want. You want more lines, I’ll write them. So to have a drink with Emma Peel was like a dream come true.”
Wright also explained why he implored audiences to keep “Last Night in Soho’s” twists and turns a secret via a social media post.
“I’d seen that like Quentin Tarantino had done that at Cannes with ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,’ and Bong Joon-ho had done it with ‘Parasite,’ and Emerald Fennell had done it on ‘Promising Young Woman’ and I found that people pretty much played ball,” Wright said. “I actually went to see ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood’ at the cinema two months after Cannes, without knowing what the ending was.”
Beyond spoilers, Wright is passionate about preserving the theatrical experience, with “Last Night in Soho” debuting in theaters on Oct. 29.
“I got to the cinema a lot, and it’s still my first place that I want to see a movie,” he shared. “Don’t get me wrong, I’ve watched hundreds of movies at home in the last 18 months. But as soon as cinemas re-opened in the U.K., I went to see a film on the big screen that I owned a copy of at home.”
“I don’t want to stay home for the rest of my life,” he went on. “So pandemic or not, there’s the simple act of getting out of the house and seeing friends and going to the movies that’s a big part of my life.”