FEATURE:
Time and Time Again, Line and Line Again
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 197/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
Kate Bush and Acting: Les Dogs, The Line, the Cross and the Curve and Beyond
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I have spoken before about…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari
how film and literature has played a role in Kate Bush’s music through the years. Whilst she was not necessarily a veracious reader, a lot of her best moments were either inspired by literature or a classic text – James Joyce’s Ulysses famously, can be felt through The Sensual World’s title track (it was re-recorded for 2011’s Director’s Cut under the title Flower of the Mountain; Bush was able to include Molly Bloom’s soliloquy from the novel after being granted permission by the estate). Film and T.V., I think, have been a more powerful tool of inspiration for Bush regarding her music. This article from the BFI highlights how horror and the gothic have influenced many of her songs:
“Despite a well-publicised reluctance to perform in front of an audience (with her 2014 Before the Dawn concerts a glorious exception), Kate Bush has embraced film, and many of her music videos are works of art in themselves. ‘Cloudbusting’ may be the most celebrated, an exhilarating and moving short conceived with Terry Gilliam and starring Donald Sutherland, but the video for ‘Experiment IV’ – a darkly comic tale of government conspiracy starring Dawn French, Hugh Laurie, and Bush as a horrific banshee – has to be seen to be believed.
Movies – specifically gothic horror movies – have had an acknowledged influence on Bush’s back catalogue. ‘Hammer Horror’, named after the British production company, tells of a death and subsequent haunting on the film set of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. One of her most unnerving tracks, ‘Waking the Witch’ from Hounds of Love, imagines the drowning of a woman accused of sorcery and seems indebted to Michael Reeves’s Witchfinder General (1968). Sutherland was cast in the ‘Cloudbusting’ video following his appearance in Don’t Look Now (1973), and she borrowed the choral section of ‘Hello Earth’ – the Georgian folk song ‘Tsin Tskaro’ – from Werner Herzog’s remake of Nosferatu (1979)”.
From the powerful imagery of The Shining (film) to an adaptation of Wuthering Heights, Bush has been struck by the screen and she has, in kind, made her videos so powerful and visually arresting. I often look at some of Bush’s videos as little films. From Army Dreamers, to Cloudbusting, she approached her videos almost as films. From Hounds of Love onwards (until 2005’s Aerial), Bush directed/co-directed her videos and put her visual stamp down. I have spoken about her videos before, but I have been re-watching them quite a lot and flipping the view: Kate Bush as an actor in front of the camera. One can say a musician is like an actor in a sense, because they perform in their videos and that involves a lot of the same disciplines an actor would have. This is also true of live performance, where one needs to act and project, both physically and verbally. Despite relatively few live outings, Bush mounted a huge production in 1979 with The Tour of Life, and she did so again with 2014’s Before the Dawn. In her videos, we got different sides to her and these guises are intriguing and so engaging all these years later! If there is a certain amount of acting skill required for live work and videos, I think things are a bit different with something non-musical and straighter.
Especially early in her career, Bush was offered various acting roles, and she was offered a part opposite Oliver Reed in Castaway in 1986 – the role went to Amanda Donohoe. Maybe the idea of being naked with Reed was a bit unwelcome and intimidating, but I do think that she wanted to focus on music. Although Bush’s music has been used in films such as Vampire Diaries, Palm Springs and The Golden Compass, she has not stepped into acting as much as many would have liked. I guess she would have been sent scripts that typecast her a bit, either as a sexual figure or someone who was a bit odd. Maybe people were reacting to her videos, but I wonder how many scripts and treatments came her way for serious roles that would have allowed her to stretch her wings? The reason I bring this up is because I think the little we did see of Bush on screen outside of the music videos is quite powerful and intriguing! Because she did not tour or perform widely between 1979 and 2014, aside from making albums, there would have been this opportunity to take on film and T.V. roles. Bush has this filmic quality, and I think she could have handled a range of different roles. From an old-fashioned Hollywood starlet, an aspiring artist in London (playing herself to an extent), to a vampirical heroine or something meatier, I have been imagining Bush’s IMDB profile being beefed up to include these acting roles!
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during filming for The Line, The Cross and the Curve in 1993/PHOTO CREDIT: Guido Harari
I know she was offered roles in biopics, and it would have been interesting to see her translate her love of film into bigger acting roles. I will come to a couple of acting roles Bush did undertake, but I have been wondering whether it was the intensity of recording or the lack of appealing roles that kept her away from the small and big screen. Certainly, she had (and has) a charm and allure that would have won critics. Just look at every one of her music videos (where she appeared), and Bush has this radiance and flexibility where she could easily inhabit so many different looks and pull them off! The fact that she went on to direct her videos meant that she wanted to take greater charge in that sense, so maybe working with another director on a film would have been a bit much. Look at people like Lady Gaga and other great artists who appeared in film (including one of her idols, David Bowie) -, and it would have been tantalising to see Bush follow suite. Prince appeared in a Rock musical version of Purple Rain (in the film of the same name), and I often wonder what it would have been like if Bush had done the same with Hounds of Love, or even The Dreaming.
Her albums provoked big visions and possibilities, and I guess music videos are a way of portioning out these performances. Even though Bush did bring Hounds of Love to the stage I a big way in 2014, I think many of her fans would have loved to have seen her in a tasteful and challenging drama; maybe appearing in a crime caper – one similar to her single from The Dreaming, There Goes a Tenner. Bush had a real love of comedy and possessed a flair for the comedic. Her Comic Relief duet with Rowan Atkinson on the song, Do Bears… , shows she did have great comic timing - she would have excelled as a comic actor. Rather than me listing what-ifs and musing, I wanted to bring in a couple of times where Bush engaged in different acting projects – one of which was a short film composed of her own music. One of the things that a lot of people might know is that Bush appeared (in a silent role) in a television film called Les Dogs. As The Kate Bush Encyclopaedia explains and illustrates, it was a very interesting role (and one of two times when Bush worked alongside Miranda Richardson):
“1990 television film written by Peter Richardson and Pete Richens, directed by Peter Richardson, and part of The Comic Strip Presents series of programmes. A wedding photographer becomes enraptured by a bride's beauty, and the story drifts into the surreal realm of his imagination.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1990
Kate made her acting debut in the role of bride Angela Watkins in this film; Miranda Richardson and Alexei Sayle portrayed Angela's parents, Tim McInnerny and Julie T. Wallace played her in-laws, and Danny Peacock earned the envy of millions in the role of her newlywed husband while Peter Richardson earned the further envy of millions as her lover.
“Peter Richardson worked on the video [for The Sensual World] and it was a lot of fun, and we stayed in touch as friends. When he was working on The Comic Strip series, I got a script and he asked me if I'd play a part. I felt very honoured to be asked”.
I do really like Bush in Les Dogs, and it is almost a shame that she was not given more responsibility and dialogue. I think she manages to shine on screen without speaking and, as I said earlier, there is this magnetic quality that Bush has! Maybe it is her beauty and dance ability that brings her videos to life like nobody else; perhaps it is her love of film and T.V. that means she has this ambition to tackle various looks and approaches, but I feel Bush is just a natural actor! Three years after Bush appeared in Les Dogs, she was seen in the short film, The Line, the Cross and the Curve.
This was a period where Bush put out an album (The Red Shoes), but there was a lot of personal loss and stress that meant she could not fully commit to other roles. As actor, writer and director of The Line, the Cross and the Curve, there was a lot being taken on at a time when things were pretty hectic! Maybe the nerves of performing live is a reason why Bush did not commit to acting and exploring that side but, despite some mixed reviews, I think there is a lot of promise in The Line, the Cross and the Curve. From a visual sense, the film is gorgeous and there are some spectacular moments! Even if Miranda Richardson provides steadier acting and dialogue, I do think there is potential in Bush’s acting and, if she was being led by another director, she would have turned in quite a sturdy and impressive performance. She was, despite some headaches, committed to her role, and it was a great learning experience. Here are some more details about the film:
“In this version of the tale, 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 (who is never referred to by name) must battle Richardson's character to free herself from the spell of the shoes. Her guide on this strange journey is played by Kemp.
The film premiered at the London Film Festival on 13 November 1993. Kate got up on stage before the screening to thank "everyone who'd been a part of making the film" and to speak of her trepidation because her opus was following a brilliant Wallace & Gromit animation by Aardman called 'The wrong trousers'. Subsequently, the film was released direct-to-video in most areas and was only a modest success. Soon after its release, Bush effectively dropped out of the public eye until her eighth studio album Aerial was released in November 2005.
Two years after UK release, due to the late promotion in the US, the film was nominated for the Long Form Music Video at the 1996 Grammy Awards. The film continues to be played in arthouse cinemas around the world, such as a screening at Hollywood Theatre in 2014 where the film was screened along with modern dance interpretations to Bush's music”.
One can never say never regarding Kate Bush and acting, but with such a stunning career under her belt, I could imagine Bush adding to that with some brilliant film and T.V. roles. It would have been amazing to think, because I have always associated Bush to be – through her videos and live performances – such a multifarious and striking performer. If there had been film and T.V. acting roles between albums, it would have added another string…
PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
TO her amazing bow!