Tensions rise when trailblazing blues singer Ma Rainey and her band gather at a recording studio in Chicago in 1927.Tensions rise when trailblazing blues singer Ma Rainey and her band gather at a recording studio in Chicago in 1927.Tensions rise when trailblazing blues singer Ma Rainey and her band gather at a recording studio in Chicago in 1927.
- Won 2 Oscars
- 84 wins & 192 nominations total
Johanna Elmina Moise
- Ma Rainey's Dancer
- (as Johanna Moise)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
The Legacy of Chadwick Boseman
The Legacy of Chadwick Boseman
Chadwick Boseman is known for his iconic performances in Get on Up, Black Panther, and his final role in the musical drama Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. IMDb takes a celebratory look at his career in film and television.
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaIn 2015, Denzel Washington announced that he would be bringing all ten of August Wilson's "Century Cycle" plays to the big or small screen. Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is the second filmed Wilson adaptation Washington has produced in this cycle, after Fences (2016). In September 2020, Washington told the New York Times that the third film in the series would be The Piano Lesson, and that he hoped to cast his own son John David Washington and Samuel L. Jackson, with Barry Jenkins directing.
- GoofsThe action of the film takes place on July 2, 1927. Ma Rainey's car in the film is a Model A Ford which were not introduced to the public until December 1927.
- Crazy creditsDuring the first part of the credits, actual photographs of the real Ma Rainey and the musicians who inspired the characters in the play are shown.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Sky News Breakfast: Episode dated 19 December 2020 (2020)
- SoundtracksDeep Moaning Blues
Written by Ma Rainey (as Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey)
Produced and Arranged by Branford Marsalis
Featured review
First things first. Chadwick Boseman gives a performance like nothing you've ever seen. The rest of the cast, led by the legend that is Viola Davis, is, as might be expected, tip-top, but Mr Boseman flies ever higher in every scene.
The film is based on a famous play by a great playwright who chose to write with a sense of melodrama that can still work in the theatre but somehow feels dated when transfered to the screen. The camera has to cope with the sheer size of performance necessary to capture set-piece speeches, which go against the grain of image-led cinema. Renowned Broadway director George C Wolfe gets the actors to the right temperature, but then has to find a way to make the project cinematic. The solutions here, apart from minimal opening out from the claustrophobia of the recording studio setting, are some mobile camera work and quite a bit of nimble editing. Curiously, though, these strategies simply emphasise the work's stage origins. What do work are the close-ups. They bring us closer to the characters than can ever happen on a stage. With an ensemble as fine as this one, the more close-ups the better.
So, MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM, like the film of Wilson's play FENCES, is not satisfying as a movie, but as a record of a powerful play. Both well worth seeing. MA RAINEY is the greater, because of Chadwick Boseman. What an amazing actor. What a loss. What a legacy.
The film is based on a famous play by a great playwright who chose to write with a sense of melodrama that can still work in the theatre but somehow feels dated when transfered to the screen. The camera has to cope with the sheer size of performance necessary to capture set-piece speeches, which go against the grain of image-led cinema. Renowned Broadway director George C Wolfe gets the actors to the right temperature, but then has to find a way to make the project cinematic. The solutions here, apart from minimal opening out from the claustrophobia of the recording studio setting, are some mobile camera work and quite a bit of nimble editing. Curiously, though, these strategies simply emphasise the work's stage origins. What do work are the close-ups. They bring us closer to the characters than can ever happen on a stage. With an ensemble as fine as this one, the more close-ups the better.
So, MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM, like the film of Wilson's play FENCES, is not satisfying as a movie, but as a record of a powerful play. Both well worth seeing. MA RAINEY is the greater, because of Chadwick Boseman. What an amazing actor. What a loss. What a legacy.
Details
- Runtime1 hour 34 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.00 : 1
Contribute to this page
Suggest an edit or add missing content
Top Gap
By what name was Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (2020) officially released in India in Hindi?
Answer