You Light Up My Life (1977)

User Rating:

4.1/10   

Director:

Joseph Brooks

Writer:

Joseph Brooks (written by)

Release Date:

31 August 1977 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Sometimes when you reach for a dream you have to leave something behind.

Plot:

Laurie has been in show business since she was a child. Her dream is to be a singer, songwriter and actress...

Plot Keywords:

Title Based On Song

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Didi Conn	...	Laurie Robinson
Joe Silver	...	Sy Robinson
Michael Zaslow	...	Chris Nolan
Stephen Nathan	...	Ken Rothenberg
Melanie Mayron	...	Annie Gerrard
Jerry Keller	...	Conductor
Lisa Reeves	...	Carla Wright
John D. Gowans	...	Charley Nelson (as John Gowans)
Simmy Bow	...	Mr. Granek
Bernice Nicholson	...	Mrs. Granek
Ed Morgan	...	Account Executive
Joseph Brooks	...	Creative Director (as Joe Brooks)
Amy Letterman	...	Laurie
Marty Zagon	...	Mr. Nussbaum
Martin Gish	...	Harold Nussbaum

Runtime:

90 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Norway:7 | UK:A (original rating) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | UK:PG (video rating) | Iceland:L | USA:PG

Company:

Columbia Pictures

Trivia:

All songs sung by Didi Conn in the movie were lip-synched. The actual singer on the soundtrack album was Kacey Cisyk (often misspelled as 'Cassie Cisyk') , who also appears in the film as a bridesmaid. Debby Boone covered the title track, and her version spent 10 weeks at #1 on the U.S. pop music charts in 1977.

Quotes:

Laurie Robinson/Didi Conn: I learned something today, Pop. It was really painful, but I learned something. I learned that I have to depend on myself. I can't depend on anybody else and that's ok. You know why? Because I'm a really good person to depend on. Maybe I don't have someone that I thought I loved a lot really, but that's ok because I've got me. And I've got my work. And I've got my music. And I love that - more than anything else on this earth.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "I Love the '70s" (2003)

Soundtrack:

Do You Have A Piano

An entire movie thrown together to sing the most over-played song of the time

I remember this movie with feelings of sheer . . . agony. More than half of the film is commercials (no, really!). The slight excuse for a story could easily have been told in 25 minutes (and almost is!) The end result is a prefab love story of predictable schlock, all obviously thrown together in a crassly commercial attempt to wring a few more bucks from the contemporary Debbie Boone hit. Yep, that's how fast it was produced... the song that "inspired" it was still big on the charts when the film was released!

Despite decades of seeing bad movies, this one still impresses me for its extravagant, no-holds-barred, headlong jump into the most tedious, absurd, and indelible cinematic badness. It truly deserves to be on the IMDb list of the 100 worst of all time, and has never left the top 3 on my personal "worst" list.

Enjoy it for the sheer masochistic thrill!