Akyho

(Foreword) I am sketchy on details of the movie as I do not want to give away any story beats as it is a film with so many good story beats that I do not wish to spoil it as I really thought it was a good ride and wish for others to have the same.



I decided what a month or so? I was going "I need some new New Wave in my life....I like Toyah I should give her a good focus on her albums." and I did, listened to her albums quit a lot really over a month.

When I was doing a play list of Toyah out of no were a new song....a song that's not hers not on any of Toyah Albums. So I checked what was playing and was met with a woman in glowing robotic out fit reminiscent of the film Millennium except with lasers. I was heavily jamming to the song and absolutely loving it.



That song was Eighth day by Hazel O'Connor and it was from a film called Breaking Glass.....which would explain the title to this thread...I suppose.


Found out their was an album ( I say album as it is all original work) and absolutely loved it, played the album solidly for weeks until...I signed up here as I just needed to talk about it and many other musical influences.

Did my little review of the soundtrack ...somewhere on this forum...nope cant find it, anyway so alot of my comments on the album turned out to be what they were going for with the film as well and I will now actually delve into it.


So the film is about a young angry woman called Kate who is playing music and promoting her band in her own way in 1980s london, she is heavily cemented as a punk and her music is punk...but better yet no one likes it.



Enter Danny a just as young guy who is wheeling and dealing his way into the music industry as a manager....with absolutely no experience....and neither does her current band mates.




This is just the first 20 minutes of the 1hr 40 min running time, which is a bit unusual for the time and more so is really nice as it does not try to abridge itself and feels like it plays out over the running time quit well.

This is were we follow Kate in intendant social political activist type trying to preach her anarchy to punks, while Danny tries to bring a bit of order to her and her direction in both music and life and make a new band from scratch and many hardships, funny moments and heartfelt moments that rings true to a lot of the true stories that bands tell of their rise to fame.


All the while the music that was in the soundtrack that I listened to a lot is just as important as the words of the script being spoken, in some parts it actually IS the only words being spoken. There is no real separating the movie and the music as they both were created to go together as the events in the film inspire the songs and even moments where the songs inspire events in the film.



Another reason why the music and the movie cannot have been with out each other is because the lead is played by Hazel herself as Kate who created the songs, the concept and script of the movie.

Also surprising alot of familiar faces from British screens show up mainly just as a bit roles however the more prominent one is Danny is played by Phil Daniel who at the exact same time made his name as Jimmy in Quadrophenia another strongly music and social focused film on Mods and Rocker clashing and often.



The most fascinating part of the film is the constant fight over are they "Punk" and "New Wave" then story events turns everything into something else and band members have to figure is this what they want?

This film is actually really interesting to see some very plausible musician anecdotes be put into action, such as a band well known for having a saxophonist....ends up with a song that does not need saxophones how pleased will that guy be? What about a drummer who loves to use every part of his kit...yet the songs they do know only needs snare and tum tum. Certainly feels like a story made by someone who has been around such things or at least spoke too much to musicians.


The only ONE complaint I can say is...due to the film using only the Breaking glass album for 80% of the film, there is a lot of repetition in the songs being replayed and at points minutes after the last time, now now this actually is important to do, if they fixed this issue then it would not have those poignant moments were the film and the music are 1 to 1 and when those moments happen its like your seeing the true meaning being the words, the sound and the images on screen a kaldiscope of sensations that focuse into a laser beam of sense.

I really like this film and if your into Punk or New Wave and want to try and get a taste of things in the 80s for london bands of such then check this film out.

To any musicians I would also urge you to check it out as I say its quite anecdotal on band life.

To film lovers/film students it is actually one of those films that is made in it own way that its actually really fascinating. Speaking as a media student which didn't know he had passed his media course until 7 years on....no one told me....no one sent out my certificate......any ways WATCH THIS FILM I TELL YOU!