A singer struggles to dance well in rehearsal with her band. A power outage leaves her alone in the studio, reviewing her life, when a mysterious woman appears through the mirror and gives her a pair of Red Shoes. The cursed shoes dance beautifully, but endlessly. The singer is drawn irresistibly into the fey world beyond the mirror, where she must redeem three magic symbols from the mysterious woman in order to obtain release from the cursed shoes.
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Probably one of the most quirky and campy videos I have ever seen. Full of beautiful imagery and strange humour. Kate is brilliant in her weirdness! I could watch this over and over and never get bored. Kind of reminds me of a Harlan Ellison comic or story come to life in beautiful color. Kate's acting ability is not Oscar worthy, but it works really well here. Miranda Richardson is phenomenal as is Lindsey Kemp. Aside from all of the film aspects, we cannot forget the incredible music where Kate's genius shines like a million suns. Definite two thumbs up and if you are a Kate fan you simply must own it :)
If you are truly a fan, you will love it... It is of course quite mad, but utterly wonderful at the same time. It provides wonderful images to the music that, if you are watching this, the chances are you have heard over and over and over. The whole thing is a complete contradiction. It looks cheap and expensive, it is fantastic and yet grounded in a set somewhere in London. Most of all, it is flawed but completely flawless. Perhaps you need to talk yourself round to the idea that its brilliant, but its worth it if you do. Kate Bush the actress is as unconventional as the singer...naysayers will just say shes no good, but the Fan will see the passion instead of the (lack of) polish. The whole thing has a peculiarly British feel of enthusiasm-in-spite-of-budgetary-restrictions about it which fans should and will get carried away with. But it is also infused with magic and fantasy, in a way that more than compensates...it is not like other films; it doesn't look like other films, it doesn't have a plot like other films so it is pointless getting hung up on the fact that it doesn't. Just run with it. This, it has to be said, is a pretty awful review, but then I hope that the rambling, wafflish nature will make it clear just how Kate Bush can reduce her fans to an awe-struck stupor and that one of the key pleasures of this film, however superficial a pleasure it may be, is the smug satisfaction that non-fans just won't get it...
This is Kate Bush at her best. Any Kate Bush fan will admit that most of her earlier videos (see "KATE BUSH: THE SINGLE FILE" (1983)), are basically Kate showing her unique way of dancing, but this video is where she really excels herself. Kate is practising to record her video of the 1993 single "Rubberband Girl", which is cut short when there's a power cut. When everyone has left, Kate is confronted by a strange woman who comes through the mirror (!), and begs Kate to help her get home - in return, she will give Kate her beautiful red ballet shoes. Kate accepts, but soon regrets when she herself is taken into the world inside the mirror - the woman double crossed her, because the shoes are eternal - the never stop dancing! The film then shows Kate trying to get home, while she sings some A+ songs like "Moments of Pleasure", the previously mentioned top-ten hit "Rubberband Girl", and "The Red Shoes", also the name of the album the video coincides with. Kate's acting may not be Oscar standard, but her ethereal beauty, the excellent music and the obvious fun she is having make you forget about that and enjoy the ride, and the acting is pretty good for a first performance. This is a fantastic idea, and should be adopted by more singers. Should appeal to ALL Kate Bush fans, music fans in general, and fans of films such as "WIZARD OF OZ" and "THE RED SHOES". Hopefully Kate will do this again if she does record another album! 10/10 :-)!
Some of the photography and such are very good in this, but Kate's lack of acting ability is apparent and startling in this -- much more so than was evident in her earlier videos.