Line, Cross, Curve in Seattle

[Gary Moore <gmoore@u.washington.edu>]

"The Line, The Cross, The Curve" will be screened in Seattle on September
30 and October 1 at the Varsity Theatre.  On Friday, Sept 30, it will show
at 4:50, 7:00, and 9:05; Saturday, Oct 1, carries the same schedule plus a
matinee at 2:50 PM.  Tickets are $6.50, except the 2:50 show on Saturday,
which should be $4.00.  The theatre is located at 4329 University Way NE
in Seattle's U-district.  Anyone who needs directions can ask me.  Show
time information is available from 206-632-3131 (recorded message); you
can call the box office during business hours for NON-show time info at
206-632-6412. 

It's a double-premiere, as TLTCTC will be double-featured with "Dream 
Girls", from Kim Longinotto and Jano Williams.  The description for 
"Dream Girls" says:  "A Japanese 'Paris is Burning' with a twist, offering 
an amazing and hilarious insight into gender identity and the 
contradictions experienced by Japanese women today, centering a theatre 
company in Japan that attracts hordes of adoring female fans.  The 
reason?  ALL roles are played by women. (UK, 1993)."  This screens on 
Friday at 5:45, 8:00, and 10:00; Saturday, same schedule, adds a 1:45 PM 
and 3:45 PM show.

The Varsity movie schedule has this description for TLTCTC:  "British pop 
diva Bush directs her first film, inspired by her new album (and Michael 
Powell's classic movie) _The Red Shoes_.  The film follows a mysterious 
woman (Miranda Richardson) as she gives dancer Bush a pair of red shoes 
that won't stop dancing, in exchange for three magical symbols.  (UK, 
1993)"

The movie schedule also had this excerpt from Chris William's Los Angeles 
Times review:

"Kate Bush has always seemed like a true sensualist trapped in an English 
art-rock singer's body.  She makes hay of that tension by casting herself 
in a very loose remake of _The Red Shoes_, adapted into her self-directed 
musical fantasy, _The Line, the Cross, the Curve_.

"The singer plays herself as a pop star whose yearning to be a great 
dancer, too, tempts her to take on the demonized shoes, dancing unto 
death.  Miranda Richardson is the bewitched ballerina who steps out of a 
rehearsal hall mirror to foist off the snazzy footwear.  Soon Bush is 
laced up and pirouetting back through that mirror into a fantasy world 
full of symbolic obstacles and quests, hoofing a path through six songs 
from her 'Red Shoes' album.

"Obviously Bush isn't about to improve upon the classic 1948 Michael 
Powell film that was her inspiration.  But Powell might approve of her 
filmmaking's richly lit, darkly colorful leitmotifs.  And Bush is less 
interested in homage than using the shoe shtick as launch pad for a 
series of independent, increasingly surreal music-vid vignettes.

"Even for those outside the cult of Kate, a good deal of the indulgence 
pays off.  There's a surprisingly haunted resonance in the combination of 
romanticism and mortality in some numbers, especially "Moments of 
Pleasure", which has Bush swirling past a gauntlet of the dearly departed 
in a snowstorm somewhere high above Manhattan (!).  Elsewhere she gets to 
shimmy with aplomb.  Entranced and trouncing through mounds of fresh 
fruit in her red shoes near the climax, she's an agreeably earthy 
etherealist."


One might hope for a better venue, but the Varsity isn't bad.

Oh, and there's Jackie Chan film festival running there this September 
and October ...


 gmoore@u.washington.edu        READ LINUX JOURNAL        gary@ssc.com
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