Tuneful Tuesday with Kate Bush

Today's Tuneful Tuesday is different than anything we usually present during the 31 Nights of Halloween, in that it's 40 minutes long and it's a musical. Yes, a musical.

The Line, the Cross, and the Curve (1993)

Starring: Kate Bush, Miranda Richardson, and Lindsey Kemp

Director: Kate Bush

Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

A multi-talented musician and performer (Bush) is going through a crisis of confidence when a supernatural creature (Richardson) tricks her into putting on a pair of cursed pointe shoes. She must travel through alien dimensions and confront demons to remove the curse before she is compelled to dance herself to death. 

"The Line, the Cross, and the Curve" is the rarest of films: It's a musical that is also succeeds brilliantly at being a dark fantasy film. Given that Kate Bush is not only a highly skilled dancer, musician and vocalist, but also has a talent telling stories infused with ethereal spookiness and outright horror, she could well have been the only creator in the 1990s who could have pulled this off. Or the only creator, ever.

Partly inspired by a fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen and a movie from the 1940s (both titled "The Red Shoes"), this film is built around songs from Bush's album "The Red Shoes". It was made as the music video was reaching its creative pinnacle as a format, and it deserves to be ranked among the very best of those efforts. (The film did win some awards Back in the Day, and it was also broken up into pieces to serve as videos for the songs featured.)

"The Line, the Cross, and the Curve" is beautifully shot and brimming with great music. It may be a bigger time commitment than items we generally offer for your entertainment during the Halloween Season, but we think you'll find this a very enjoyable.