SOUL ON SCREEN: A PLAYLIST FOR CINEPHILES
1 ‘This Bitter Earth’
Dinah Washington, from Killer of Sheep (1978)
Director Charles Burnett’s debut film, a kitchen sink drama about a black family’s struggle to maintain their toehold in the middle class, spent decades in music licensing hell for its exceptional soundtrack. Burnett’s gift for pairing sound and vision is on full display here in this simple and tender scene between paterfamilias Stan and his long-suffering wife. As the pair slowdance in their kitchen to Dinah Washington’s yearning voice, their mounting troubles – big and small – melt away, leaving only a man and the woman he loves.
