Friday, July 1, 2011

Breaking Glass (1980)

Nah, not Lady Gaga. Good gawd, I can't stand Lady Gaga. Maybe my opinion isn't entirely fair since I haven't throughly researched her music catalog and haven't gushed all that much at her extreme fashion sense. Hey, maybe she's a nice gal from New York for all I know? The little I've heard from her though is just terrible. 

So, who is that in the picture? Hazel O'Connor as Kate from the 1980 film, "Breaking Glass". She wrote and performed all the songs in this film in which I'm on the fence as to whether I liked the music or not. All I know is that it stuck with me for a few days so it must've had some sort of effect on me. For some reason it reminded me of Cherry Vanilla which may be totally off the beaten path. 

The story is your typical rags-to-riches-to-vanity-to-insanity, but it still works. Probably because of the strange almost operatic singing style, uber-liberal lyrics, how bleak and dark the whole film is and frankly just how scary looking Kate is with her kooky make up. The ending is uneven with the American version having a happy ending, whereas supposedly in the original European version, Kate is knocked off her high horse into the hospital where she's visited by Danny, her manager/boyfriend (Phil Daniels from "Quadrophenia"). That would have made a whole lot more sense, although her Tron-esque outfit (maybe? There's a debate as to which movie came out first) is definitely an awesome sight. These music films always hit home with me since I've been a drummer half my life. After seeing this, I want to re-watch the hard to understand, "Slade In Flame". Can you believe the DVD has no subtitles? 

Finally, do you think Nick Lowe likes the sound of "Breaking Glass"??



2 comments:

  1. I didn't really give this a chance is it worth checking out? I thought the music was dumb and it reminded me of Starstruck.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't think you'd like it, maybe Ami would. "Starstruck" is in my queue, but I haven't watched it yet. I remember they used to play it on Sundance when Mom had cable.

    ReplyDelete