The melancholy "And So Is Love," which follows the performance of "Rubberband Girl," shows Kate's abject loneliness. The bird that flies aimlessly around the darkened chamber until it dies is a reflection of her heart and soul.
"The Red Shoes" sequence is basically of Kate dancing like a dervish in the hellish other land, fitting for the second most upbeat track from The Red Shoes.
"Lily" is the song where Kate, with the aid of Lily and her four guardian angels, Gabriel, Raphael, Michael, and Uriel, gets back her line, i.e. her past.
The best song from The Red Shoes, the sweet ballad "Moments Of Pleasure," features Kate's attempt to free herself from the spell by calling on those she loves, which gets her the cross. The scene of Kate dancing amid the snow while those whom she summons to help her dance alongside her is magical.
The reggae-ish bounce of "Eat The Music" is the celebratory part of the song, where Kate sings for her smile and gets it. Kate's fruit-print dress, and her dancing amid the mountain of fruit accompanied by black women and men is another indelible Kate image.
In the end, does Kate emerge from her ordeal with a renewed sense of herself and the people around her? Conventional wisdom seems to say yes.
Miranda Richardson is the only other well-known face here, playing Kate's adversary. Someone please tell her or the costume designer that singly grown eyebrows that look like a caterpillar is crawling over her forehead are not in vogue.
This is somewhat more conventional than Kate's music video, but the striking visuals and set designs are vintage Kate. This will be a nice cuppa for Kate fans--others are well advised to drink something else.
However, Kate managed to give a clue of what experiences may have been in store with "The Line, The Cross, and The Curve" a video album based on songs off her "Red Shoes" album. This movie is basically Kate's rendition of "The Red Shoes," but the traditional folktale is reinterpreted to convey Kate's search as an artist to find herself, her spirituatlity, her love, and her expression.
I suspect two of the numbers ("Rubberband Girl" and "Eat the Music") were probably planned for the concert tour she was originally planning to promote "The Red Shoes." "Rubberband Girl," especially, but whatever Kate was planning is worked well into the video. In "Rubberband Girl" Kate tries on an interesting routine where she and another dancer dance closely together to convey the concept of the Rubberband. It's worked into the story of the movie by having Kate feel that the rehearsal is not well, that she is "not a great dancer" and wishes to be so.
What happens next, (without trying to spoil everything for you) are several numbers that render horrifying spectacles of a black bird who cannot get out of a room, Kate being pulled into the world of the other side of the mirror, and of course the sinister Miranda Richardson as the woman who tricks Kate into putting on the Red Shoes (of course, this means Richardson does steal the show, but that's still fine. Richardson performs evil vividly and makes you shiver as she should for this movie).
Of course, it's probably not as spectacular as Pink Floyd's "The Wall," when it comes to the concept of music video as movie, but the potential's there, especially when I think of Kate's past work such as the music videos from Hounds of Love, "Cloudbusting" and "Experiment IV." In those two videos, a story was told in just the right amount of time, a good deal of acting put in place, and in "Cloudbusting" characters we are drawn to and care very much about.
For the REd Shoes-- If Kate's going to be the main character--then there needs to be more about Kate and who she is . . . but this movie seems to drop only "hints" for the most part. The "Moments of Pleasure" sequence is probably an area where Kate really missed the mark. We need more than her simply dancing around repitiously-- somehow in that case the "spell of the dance" got more in the way. In fact that number seemed to be more "filler" and when it comes to Kate's music and videos, "filler" is not typical.
However, this movie does reach for a "Wall" experience and the attempt is admirable. I still wonder what would have transpired if "The Ninth Wave" was made into a film, as I feel those set of songs as poetry and music was stronger than the set of songs used here.
Songs from the "Red Shoes" album include:
Rubberband GirlAnd So Is LoveThe Red ShoesLilly[poetry sequence not on the album]Moments of PleasureEat the Music
