The Film

[pptjc@vaxk.bton.ac.uk (It's in the trees... It's coming...)]

Peter Chow from Brighton (UK) writes:

Sorry I didn't see any of you on Sunday. I heard an announcement for a meet
of RMG bods but was embroiled in trying to grab Dave Cross for a word on
the subject of food (the lack of). He didn't believe there was a problem,
as they had told the management to expect 1000+ people and he couldn't
relax the no re-admission condition. I have to admit that following this
conversation, I and an accomplice talked a bouncer into letting us
sneak out to a restaurant! Sorry, Dave - Food is a PRIORITY OVERRIDE
condition!!! :-)

What else... Oh yes, I thought the "Pink Mules" thing was marvellous. Very
well observed humour. I'm sure nobody would have been offended. Come to
think of it, I probably enjoyed it more that TLTCATC! (hold on... let me
explain).

When I saw TLTCATC the first time I was quite non-plussed about the whole
film. This Sunday was the second view and now my view has focused a bit
more. I like the film with an exception and a half. The clip for
Moments Of Pleasure still makes me feel nauseous. The sight of a woman
spinning on a 20' screen for 4.5 minutes is enough to induce motion sickness
in any one. The key problem is that it is the same shot throughout; It's 
just not visually interesting. The same could be said of the sequence for
Eat The Music but the saving grace is the fact that there are a couple of
cut away shots to break it up a bit and one of the key events of the plot
occurs during the sequence (the symbols fly out of Mirranda's hand and 
flutter down the tunnel).

Favourite sequence: The Red Shoes. Very good. Love the choreography. The
dialogue scene at the start is good but Mirranda far outshines Kate who
delivers her lines rather cheesily. It's not just here either; she was
a bit dodgy in the Les Dogs film for the Comic Strip. Acting is not her
strength. Don't take my word for it, Kate has expressed her own reservations
about the film in an interview that I'll get round to transcribing from video
later today!

The main thing to remember is that it *is* her first attempt at a short film
as opposed to a 4 minute promo clip. And as such I think that she has done
very well. She does have a talent for directing as you can see from excellent
videos like Hounds Of Love. But she is used to condensing vast amounts of
plot into 4 minutes. When you've got 45 minutes to fill it becomes a very
different beast indeed.

In some ways it would have been better for Kate to have got her courage up
earlier to make a film when she was thinking of filming The Ninth Wave.
That has a definite cinematic quality to it rather than the film that we have
now which has one central relevent song and the others have been shoe-horned
into the plot as an after-thought. The main problem with making a film for
The Ninth Wave is that the plot requires some expensive water type location
shooting. I can visualize it all in my head but I can also see it costing
a great deal more than the almost exclusively studio-bound TLTCATC.

So to recap... I agree with Kate when she says that she should remain behind
the camera for her next film (except for a cameo - Hitchcock style). I do
like The Line, The Cross, And The Curve with a couple of reservations. I am
looking forward to her next film and I do think it is an excellent avenue for
her to persue in conjunction with her music career.