FEATURE:
Pluses and Minuses…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush with Miranda Richardson in The Line, the Cross and the Curve
The Cases for and Against Remastering Kate Bush’s 1993 Short Film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve
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I have mentioned how there…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush and crew during filming of The Line, the Cross and the Curve/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari
is a new edition of Classic Pop that presents Kate Bush and explores her career in forensic detail. It is a real gift for diehard fans and those new converts alike. I learned a bit when reading it, and I have been writing a few features off of the back of it. Whilst Bush’s albums win praise in different measures, some are underrated. I feel even her less-appreciated albums – such as 1978’s Lionheart and 2011’s Director’s Cut – have their fans and will be reappraised. One album that has always struggled for love and new affection is 1993’s The Red Shoes. I have explored 1993 and a couple of Kate Bush projects that signalled a turning point and pivotal moment. Classic Pop delve into it too. Maybe thinking that she should have released a short film around Hounds of Love’s glorious second side suite, The Ninth Wave (which was realised for the stage in 2014), she rectified this desire by directing, writing, and starring in a short film around The Red Shoes and songs from that album. I don’t think it is a case of the songs from that album being weaker than on Hounds of Love and the film struggling to register because of that. The tracks we see in the film are all great, but maybe she took on more than she could handle at the time. Classic Pop write how the release of the film and the somewhat negative reception it warranted was a breaking point of sorts.
She also split up with Del Palmer at a fairly similar time, so it was a lot to take in! Bush would appear on Top of the Pops in 1994 performing And So Is Love (the final time she appeared on the show), but it was a time when she started to retreat. Bush’s mother Hannah died in 1992, so the combined effects meant that she time away was needed. In June, 1993, when The Red Shoes was being readied for release, Bush appeared on Michael Aspel’s talk show. She was guarded during the interview. It was also I think one of he last time she would record a T.V. interview. Many of the questions are banal or inappropriate, and you get the sense Bush would have been happier doing a radio interview or not being there! The Red Shoes’ first single, Rubberband Girl (Bush’s least favourite song on the album) was released in September 1993. Bush wanted each of her albums to be different and have their own personalities. Perhaps, entering the 1990s and a more visual decade in terms of promotion, a short film was a good promotional tool. Many artists now do visual albums and release short films composed of tracks from their new work. You can trace that back to Kate Bush’s The Line, the Cross and the Curve. Compromising six songs from The Red Shoes, it was a brave move for Bush to undertake such heavy-duty work in such a busy year. Maybe as a distraction from some of the personal loss and heartache, the film premiered at the London Film Festival on 13th November, 1993. Bush thanked fans for coming and for the crew for their hard work.
The Line, the Cross and the Curve did come to VHS in 1994, though it was not well received and is a footnote when it comes to Bush’s career. Bush admits that she was tired and squandered utilising such a remarkable actor as Miranda Richardson (who appears alongside Bush). Thinking of the film after completing the album, maybe there was not enough time to get the short film into shape or as she would have hoped. There was no promotion or live performances needed as the videos from The Red Shoes were used in The Line, the Cross and the Curve. Again, it makes me think of The Red Shoes as a visual album in some ways. Bush did revisit The Red Shoes when it came to Director’s Cut. She did rework a few songs – including the once-disliked Rubberband Girl -, but there was no retrospection when it came to The Line, the Cross and the Curve. There has not been a remastered version that cleans up the versions floating around YouTube. A digital transfer would be a great idea. Whereas Bush was seen as a nutter after the release of 1982’s The Dreaming – as she revealed in a later Q interview -, the negativity she got in 1993 was a different thing. Rather than spur her on and then we got Hounds of Love, Bush stepped away from the spotlight after 1993. In fact, Bush was not being a recluse or being too affected by critical backlash, instead she felt she hadn’t had time to grieve following her mother’s death. I think Bush was reordering her priorities by that time. Not wanting to play the fame game, she was dedicating time to her personal life.
Later, Bush looked back and felt that she crammed too much in. Maybe wanting to take a year out after the release of The Red Shoes, her coping mechanism might have been the work itself. Comparing 1993 to 1978 in terms of promotion and releasing two albums, Bush did take on a huge challenge in 1993. People felt that, as she left gaps between albums, that she wasn’t do anything. Maybe to prove people wrong she released The Line, the Cross and the Curve. As she has often pointed out, the albums do take a long time – so she is hardly inactive or lazing around! Bush bought a flat in central London not long after releasing The Red Shoes, and she watched a lot of T.V. and she slept a lot. Occasionally dining with friends and visiting the theatre, she was definitely grieving and trying to be more relaxed. In retrospect, you can forgive The Line, the Cross and the Curve because of everything Bush was taking on. I don’t think people need to reappraise it, as the short film has its merits and is not a disaster! If the 1990s was a rocky decade in terms of its start, Bush ended it with happiness. With her new partner Danny McIntosh and a chance to break from music and put herself first, the couple welcomed their son Bertie into the world in 1998. Never originally wanting or having plans to become a mother, it makes me wonder if she made the decision to have a child because she had no firm future plans about music. As an artist, she didn’t have the time to balance motherhood and work. In 1997/1998, things had changed. She was already working on Aerial (released in 2005) and had to abandon that when she gave birth. Having already written songs for Aerial in the 1990s, she had not abandoned music and making albums. The fact that Aerial turned out like it did was affected by motherhood (King of the Mountain, An Architect’s Dream and Sunset were written pre-pregnancy). Motherhood reinvigorated Bush and provided her with fulfillment, gifts, and love after suffering so much loss merely a few years earlier!
Let’s end by thinking about The Line, the Cross and the Curve. Even if Bush and some critics feel it ranks alongside her least essential work, there are many who love it and find positives. It does exist in raw forms online, but there isn’t a cinema-quality video from her official YouTube account. As The Line, The Cross and the Curve is thirty next year, I think it should be remastered. What are the minuses and negatives? Kate Bush might not want to invest time having that done. As she dismissed in the years after its release and has since downgraded it to ‘bollocks’ status, she might feel it is best buried or consigned to the archives. Also, if you are remastering anything, surely her music videos come first?! We still do not have remastered versions of classics like Hounds of Love and Babooshka. Finally, I guess Bush has had a period of retrospection. She re-released her studio albums under her own Fish People label in 2018. Apart from Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) featuring on Stranger Things, there has not been a lot of Bush looking to the past. I guess, if she is going to do anything, there will be a new album. We can only hope that is what she has in mind! That said, Bush has long said how she loves her videos and would be good to have them on DVD (she said that in an interview with a Canadian radio station in 2011 I think).
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: John Stoddart
As it is Bush’s longest visual piece and is her biggest undertaking as a visual director and actor (aside from her stage preparation for The Tour of Life and Before the Dawn), The Line, the Cross and the Curve should be celebrated. Fans would love to see The Line, the Cross and the Curve remastered, as there are definite highlights. Scenes that take your breath and show that Bush could have had a future as a film director. It also documents a very strange and busy time in her life. I feel the film has aged well enough and is actually very watchable. Although Bush is not as fine an actor as Miranda Richardson, she was clearly committed to making a great film and giving it her all. I like the whole concept of The Line, the Cross and the Curve (Bush plays a frustrated singer-dancer who is enticed by a mysterious woman (Richardson) into putting on a pair of magical ballet slippers. Once on her feet, the shoes start dancing on their own, and Bush's character must battle Richardson's character to free herself from the spell of the shoes. Her guide on this strange journey is played by Lindsay Kemp). Bush herself said in 1993 how there was potential (thanks to the Kate Bush Encyclopedoa: “In a way, it was very restrictive because it's not my conceptual piece from scratch. Also, I'm working around the songs and I had to put myself into the film. I would've preferred to cast myself in a smaller role. It wasn't the ideal situation because it was very rushed and we had little money. But it was an intense project. And I'm very glad I went through it, even if the film is not received well, because I learned so much. (Now Magazine, 16 December 1993). The Line, the Cross and the Curve is something I love and feel deserves remastering and fresh eyes. I, like many fans, hope that it does…
SEE the light of day.