It might be the single greatest song of the 1980s. It went a little something like this...
"Let's exchange the experience"... whew. That dance might be the most hypnotic-erotic fully clothed one in any music video, yes?
Everything about this video and song (the latter of which was released in the UK 25 years ago today) is perfect. The song has been covered a gajillion times since its release though oddly, you don't here it much in the movies or on TV. The Kate Bush song that the filmed arts have latched onto and beaten like a dead horse is "This Woman's Work."
To say that Kate Bush is a musical genius is as redundant as saying that right at this moment you're reading this sentence. Many musicians after her were influenced (Tori Amos, Paula Cole, Björk... the list is long) but there will only ever be one Kate. For a super long time when anyone asked me what my favorite album of all time was I would say "Hounds of Love" without having to wring my hands too much over the potentially difficult question.
Was it the hair?
Back in the late 80s I wanted to see a Kate biopic with Mary Steenburgen playing her. And then in the 90s when the great Miranda Richardson starred in Kate's video project The Line, The Cross and the Curve I suddenly dreamt up a whole epic Kate movie again.
Daft English lasses!
Sadly no Kate Bush movie ever materialized and I'd since forgotten that I ever wanted one. But I do! I can even play "Symphony in Blue" on the piano, no joke.
Which pop stars do you most want to see with biopics? Which actress could do Kate justice today?
We reduce movie trailers to yes/no/maybe so components. It's an expectation management system so that we can go in (mostly) neutral. Ac-cen-tchu-ate the positive ...and negative. My gimmicks are too complex!
In Atom Egoyan's latest feature, Julianne Moore hires Amanda Seyfriend (title character) to test her husband Liam Neeson. Didn't Julianne ever listen to Kate Bush's "Babooshka" growing up. Fidelity tests never end well.
YES. Two hot women getting it on? Yes doubled. That particular male gene did not escape me. Although for a split second I flashed back to Boogie Night's "will you be my mommy?" scene with Amanda standing in for Heather Graham's Rollergirl (Amanda in skates? Mmmm). I blame Julianne's love of incestuous undertones for this hallucination!
NO. Filmmakers still have trouble making our modern computer and cel phone heavy lives exciting onscreen. There's something about e-mail, chat, instant messaging, cel phones and web surfing that is defiantly anti-cinematic. I sincerely hope this isn't an hour of Liam and Julianne staring at LED screens, cross cut with sexygirldrama! by way of Amanda's cel phone. If so, it won't be any fun at all.
MAYBE SO. "You think you can just buy me and then I'm just going to go away?" On the other hand, Amanda as a Mean Girl again? Might be fun though can she do it, dramatically speaking? We know she can handle it comedically. It's just that she reads very sweet onscreen. This could go horribly wrong. It might be yet another film that is elaborated plotted just to demonize female sexuality somehow. And that's so tired. But maybe it's the trailer's overemphatic text tag-lining -- "SHE WILL BECOME EVERYTHING YOU FEAR" -- that's worrying me. It's making her look like a husband-hunting-homewrecking-baby-nursing-Moore-killing psychopath. And we don't need another one of those.*
Chloe opens on March 26th. Are you a yes, no or maybe so on this one?
Once again, Julianne... You shoulda listened to Kate Bush! Kate Bush is the answer. Kate Bush knows.
Hammer Horror films are not truly part of the gay canon, and as a body of films they are conservative in their narrative arcs and messages. However, I've always been a huge fan. They are undeniably camp and always feature either subtle homoeroticism or full on Lesbian Vampires. For those unfamiliar with this horror subgenre, it is a collection of films produced by Hammer Film Studios from the late 50s to early 70s that mixed Gothic melodrama with exploitation horror. The studio was most famous for their vampire, mummy, Frankenstein, and cave girl pictures.
The vampire films stand head and shoulders above the rest. Hammer's Vampires went through two major cycles, the gothic Dracula films with Christopher Lee and the later sexploitation-y lesbian vampire films. The early Hammer films are the most respectable. The closer you get to the seventies, the trashier and campier the films become. Obviously the later ones are my favorites! Two representative films from each cycle are the Dracula Has Risen From The Grave (1968) and the girls boarding school set Lust for A Vampire (1971).
Dracula Has Risen From The Grave has Dracula being resurrected accidentally by a cowardly, wayward priest who becomes the dark prince's slave. Dracula returns to his castle only to find it has been exorcised by the Monsignor. He goes off in search of the Monsignor's virginal niece to corrupt and bring her over to the dark side.
The film's camp is off the charts, with heaving bosoms, fake blood, and Dracula's potent sexual allure entrapping men, women, and......virgins. Dracula's blood shot eyes are supposed to signify his evil, but they really just look like he's smoked alot of weed before going out cruising.
Lee's relationship with his slave priest has elements of S&M, while the virginal Maria is only too happy to trade in her virtue for some dark and steamy vampire sex. The film might end reaffirming the superiority of heterosexual monogamy, but it has too much fun showing all the transgressive sexuality embodied by Dracula to be effective. The overacting, melodramatic plots, kitchy sets, and costumes all add to the fun, making the film as campy as Mommie Dearest. The director uses endless coloured filters, making sections seem like a Gothic acid trip. While it has an overlong prologue, the film is really fun and has a lot to offer the gay spectator, not the least of which is Christopher Lee's dominant Dracula.
Lust for A Vampire is loosely based on Sheridan le Fanu's archetypal lesbian vampire novellaCarmilla(1872). The film has the Karnstein family resurrect the buxom Carmilla Karnstein in order to enroll her in an all-girls boarding school for the sole purpose of allowing her maximum access to dishy young virgins. This film's camp is exponentially higher than the Lee films, because the whole point of this film is seeing a minxy vampire seduce anyone who makes eye contact with her (literally).
There are plenty of girl-on-girl massages, blood soaked breasts, and over dramatic declarations of love and lust to keep even the most jaded cult fan interested. The acting is dreadful, the dialogue is worse, but the look (sets, costumes, cast, and again use of filters) is beautiful, in that iconic Hammer Horror style. There are so many incredible moments. Richard's dream sequence is amazingly kaleidoscopic in its use of fade-outs, dayglo filters, psychedelic music, and sex-and-gore images.
Another key scene is the resurrection of Carmilla where a virgin's blood makes her materialise naked and blood soaked. Any of the lesbian sequences or spontaneous declarations of love (my count: 4) are worth the price of a rental. It's possibly the trashiest and most enjoyable of the entire Hammer oeuvre and not to be missed.
These films have so much to offer a spectator who relishes camp, and their explorations of non-normative sexualities (regardless of their ultimate affirmations of heterosexual monogamy) make them important and enjoyable members of the Queer Horror cannon. Other late greats are Taste the Blood of Dracula(1969), The Vampire Lovers(1970), Dracula A.D. 1972(1972), and the mummy film Blood from the Mummy's Tomb(1971).
Kate Bush pays tribute in the amazing song Hammer Horror
Does anyone have any other favourite gay or gay-ish horror films for us to enjoy over Halloween? *
"If I only could, I'd make a deal with God. And get him to link our places...."
This Woman's Link fourfour has a thang for Kate Bush. So many memories are embedded in this post I felt like my heart was going to burst whilst my mind was blown. I l-o-v-e Kate Bush. That is all. Where's her biopic? And who on earth would be gorgeous enough but suitably bonkers to play her?
Wuthering Links Blog Stage Jane Fonda and Angela Lansbury: "non-divas" Gawker is Warren Beatty holding up the rights to the Dick Tracy franchise. Did you even remember that this could have been one? Speaking of Dick Tracy... Boy Culture Madonna as Jeanne Moreau in Bay of Angels. Sorta... Screengrab inaugurates a new series "Not on DVD" with the bio Patty Hearst (1988) starring Natasha Richardson. /Film the strange case of the distributorless Jim Carrey/Ewan Macgregor prison love story I Love You Phillip Morris Victim of the Time the best review of Duplicity ever? World of Wonder says goodbye to Oscar nominee Betsy Blair (Marty). In the photo with this post she's pictured with Nathaniel's two all time favorite classic male movie stars. How about that?!
And finally, have to leave you with this pointed bit from Jimmy Kimmel Live. Portia De Rossi apologizing to everyone she hurt by marrying Ellen DeGeneres.
Everything about this video and song (the latter of which was released in the UK 25 years ago today) is perfect. The song has been covered a gajillion times since its release though oddly, you don't here it much in the movies or on TV. The Kate Bush song that the filmed arts have latched onto and beaten like a dead horse is "This Woman's Work."
Was it the hair?
