a chocolate confection

[gravende@epas.utoronto.ca (David Gravender)]

Seen in the Canadian paper Globe & Mail's weekly TV mag _Broadcast_,
under the heading of Video (new releases, that is):

THE CHOCOLATE WAR
(Malofilm, R, 103 minutes)

'If you have an appetite for politics and the psychology of intrigue
and you haven't managed to choke down Kitty Kelly's recent tome on
Nancy Reagan, then try The Chocolate War. This is a splendid
directorial debut by actor Keith Gordon, boasting a solid script, also
by Gordon, effective performances, and a driving score with
contributions by Peter Gabriel, KATE BUSH [my emphasis] and Joan Armatrading.'

'Taking a cue from Lord of the Flies, The Chocolate War is set within
the walls of a fiscally troubled Catholic prep school, symbolically
named Trinity. ......'

'The young man here, Jerry Renault . . . , is a freshman at Trinity.
Still aching from the death of his mother six months earlier, and
disturbed by his father's subsequent affection for the bottle, he's a
little adrift and sore. He's rightfully terrified upon being chosen by
the leader... of the school's powerful secret society, the Vigils, as
an object of clandestine hazing. Meanwhile, Trinity's acting
headmaster, Father Leon ..., an ambitious, manipulative
disciplinarian, has entered into a Faustian pact with the Vigils in
order to ensure the success of the school's annual fund raising drive.'

etcetera, etcetera....

Might any of you out there have any further intelligence about this
film, such as what music of kate's was employed? From the sound of the
plot, it would seem that Waking the Witch might likely be found there.
At any rate, it is titled appropriately enough for Kate given that predilection
of hers which manifests itself so in her recording incarnations, no? A
chocolate war, indeed! :)

And since I am here, I might also add my voice, a bit off-pitch though
it may be, to the present and continuing choric chime of praise for
Happy Rhodes. I did recently, as Elvis Costello might have said, "get
happy!!" & am pleased to report my delight, if not infatuation (yet,
at least), with what I ordered, namely, the CD of Warpaint. Her voice
is quite stunning--although I have only listened to the album once to
date (having just received it today), when listening to the songs
therein I am reminded often by nothing so much as a duet between KaTe
& Annie Lennox--it is uncanny how in its high register happy's voice
sounds like kate's (as many have already observed here), and how
different is the timbre and inflection in the lower registers--the
effect of a duet, though undoubtedly unintended, is nevertheless to
these ears quite unmistakable. It is regrettable (& not a little
astounding) that Happy is still without a recording contract--but
should this be rectified soon, and Warpaint made into her first major
release, I would think that the first song of it (the precise title
of which escapes me now, but something like Waking Up) would make for
a perfect single (just as I have thought, by the way, that Kate's Be Kind
to My Mistakes would have made a perfect US single for her)--it has the
right "pop" to it. I must defer until a later time, when I have more
fully ingested the album, to discuss other aspects of the work that
strike me (for good or ill). But I am glad I invested my $16 (& agreed
to my friend Kim's suggestion so to co-invest), that much I can say.

"spike"  <gravende@epas.utoronto.ca>