This music documentary takes on the creative/performance and beliefs/philosophy aspects of the life of David Bowie, starting with Nietzsche and a kaleidoscope of 20th Century cultural/sci-fi beats set to the Hello Spaceboy remix that instantly sets up the outsider/alien facade cultivated in the media in the 1970s, and then sets out to attempt to discover just who this unique artist was with reasonable results. Largely chronological, it picks up from Bowie's rapid rise to success in the early 70s - the 1960s and the later years are given little time here) - and it covers key points in his life/career well (London, L.A., Berlin, the 80s commercial resurgence). Although the content of Bowie's 'philosophy' is rather repetitive, the film does give a fair insight into the eclectic experiences and ideas that fuelled his artistic and personal life. We are left with a picture of a fragile and often lonely drifter/chameleon who spent years failing personally to resolve the commercial/artistic tension as a creative in the music industry in particular, but who found a degree of control and happiness in his later years, and whilst the director's creative flourishes are occasionally distracting, the film conveys what made Bowie special as a performer to a good extent, with the music and ideas evident in the (choice of often stripped-back) live footage and later more reflective interviews.
No comments:
Post a Comment