You Light Up My Life

With the American singles charts in their worst state since the days of Frankie Laine and Johnnie Ray, it was only a matter of time before some joker set about transposing the world of 'hip easy listening' to the screen. Joseph Brooks did just that with a vengeance. Not content with producing, writing, and directing, he also penned the title tune which drove US radio to new heights of palsied schmaltz. But what is unbearable on record can be hypnotically funny on screen. With breathtaking assurance, Light Up My Life follows a young soft-rock Angeleno hopeful (in moments of great emotion, she looks like an asphyxiated Pinocchio) in encounters with a beautiful movie producer who also happens to produce beautiful records, but who finally gives her a beautiful nervous breakdown on TV. Connoisseurs of LA sentiment will love it.