52 Films by Women Vol 3. 8. NINA (Director: Cynthia Mort)
Released in a mire of controversy in a handful of US cinemas in April 2016 by RLJ Entertainment, Nina , a drama about the later years of African-American singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone has finally surfaced in the UK two years later through Sky Movies, a cable TV service. Nominally telling the story of Nina’s battle with alcohol dependency and mood swings in the 1990s, aided by a male nurse, Clifton Henderson, who subsequently became her manager, its writer-director Cynthia Mort was reportedly shut out of the editing room. Cast in her 30s, ostensibly playing a 60 year old woman, Zoe Saldana was not only too young, but her skin colour had to be altered and the bridge of her nose widened by prosthetics. By the way I don’t remember anyone complaining about Robert de Niro’s fake nose in Raging Bull - and as for any actor playing Cyrano de Bergerac, from José Ferrer to Steve Martin to Gerard Depardieu, it is par for the course. Then there is Saldana’s singing – good, but...