Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé review — stunning spectacle makes the floor shake

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An unannounced Beyoncé stood with a microphone in front of the screen, introducing her film at its London premiere last night to a dressy and at that moment very excited audience of fans, influencers, celebs, scenesters and hacks. “Feel free to dance, sing, laugh and cry,” she said, beaming a billion-dollar smile. Welcome to take-two in pop music’s current takeover of the cinema.

Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé is the second concert film within weeks by a triple-A-list star. The first was Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, which broke box-office records. Swift was herself present on the red carpet at the Odeon in Leicester Square, as Beyoncé had been at the LA premiere of Swift’s film. Both have bypassed the big studios and streaming platforms by making their films themselves. Literally so in Beyoncé’s case: she is credited as having directed, written and produced it.

Her 168-minute epic is about the Renaissance stadium tour, which finished a five-month run in October. Footage was filmed at multiple concerts from its 56 dates. It shows gig-goers weeping, screaming, throwing shapes and generally behaving as if in the grip of a higher power. The Odeon audience was more restrained.

There was some singing along and a smattering of laughter. Perhaps copious tears were shed; if so, they were undetectable. A few exhibitionists got up, but mostly the dancing consisted of people gyrating in seats and waving their arms as though on a rollercoaster. The thrill that went through the room when Beyoncé made her unexpected appearance in person underlined the different energies between a live and filmed event.

But there are advantages to watching a concert in a cinema. Modern stadium shows are designed to look good on telephone screens. Blow that up in size to a movie theatre screen and the results can be stunning. This is especially true of Beyoncé’s staging, a high-tech son-et-lumière spectacle that took four years to make, as she tells us in a voiceover during the film.

The concert sequences make no effort to hide the fact that they were filmed over multiple nights. Skilful editing shows the singer wearing different costumes at different moments during the same song. And what wonderful costumes they are — a sumptuous array of gowns, corsets, catsuits and leotards, fabricated from all sorts of fabrics and crystals, and accessorised by cowboy hats, gloves, long nails, sci-fi shades and so on. The list of designers in the credits is five columns wide.

This feast for the eyes is matched by a treat for the ears. Basslines rumbled so forcefully at the Odeon that I could feel them in my seat. The end credits include a new song, “My House”, an enjoyably bombastic stomper. Surround-sound made it all the easier to surrender to Beyoncé’s powerful singing. Cheers in the stadium for a held note resounded in the cinema too.

The backing dancers’ choreography looked dazzling in close-up. Beyoncé is often shown joining in, although the overall staging has a more static aspect than usual. Routines feature her sitting on a silver military vehicle or reclining on an oystershell bed. The reason why becomes clear in the film: she underwent knee surgery not long before the tour began.

This information is relayed in one of the documentary-style segments that intersperse the concert scenes. We see Beyoncé’s daughter Blue Ivy practising for a dancing cameo in a show. We accompany the singer as she visits her childhood home in Houston. There are sections about ballroom culture and the LGBT+ allyship of her Renaissance album, which is dedicated to a family friend known as Uncle Jonny, a gay man who made dresses for her back in her Destiny’s Child days. Now deceased, he gets memorialised in the film too.

The offstage action is a mixed bag. Beyoncé comes across more personably than her aloof regal persona might suggest. But her displays of openness feel highly curated, while her speech is full of bromides about rebirth and safe spaces. With the exception of the knee injury, which was rumoured, we don’t learn much. These sections slow down the momentum. The film works best as confirmation of what we already know: Beyoncé is a fabulous performer.

★★★☆☆

In cinemas now