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David Bowie's new biopic, "Stardust," doesn't get the rights to a song, tantamount to a genetically defective baby born on earth. Bowie's family and his first wife (the heroine of the film), Angie, agree that the film is bad, boring and inaccurate. Is it that the family who holds the copyright of Bowie's song is not satisfied with the script first, refuses to sell the copyright first, or the copyright transaction price is not close, the film party finally bypasses Bowie's song and the family blessing boot, or both, both sides have their own statements, it is not easy for outsiders to figure it out.
After Bowie returned to the alien planet, there were native Earthlings rushing to speak for him. Angie said emphatically: "If Bowie were still alive, he would have been stunned by this movie." Meanwhile, Angie, 71, has just written a book about David Bowie's former lover and girlfriend, Laurita Watson. Bowie's son Duncan declared: "The audience will decide for themselves whether to watch a biopic without Bowie's song and without the blessings of his family."
Their attitude makes people want to see this movie. On the one hand, it is because after the death of a genius, the image of the bereaved family clinging to the inheritance is always repulsive. On the other hand, there is no precedent for making a biopic of a good musician without copyright. Jimi: All Is by My Side, which ran before Jimi Hendrix became famous, was one of them.
Stardust's approach to solving the problem of no copyright is similar to that of Walk with Me, and it also focuses on the era before the musicians became popular. This allows you to skip the time when he/she has to sing his or her own song. In the film, Bowie's cover of "My Death" and "I Wish You Would" have long been stained with his breath because he often covered it during that time.
In 1971, David Bowie had just released "The Man Who Sold the World," and the title song "All the Madmen" sank to the U.S. charts without a trace. His agent helped him win the opportunity to tour and promote in the United States, and Bowie landed at Washington Dulles International Airport with a suitcase in his left hand and a piano in his right hand.
Spoilers ahead, bowie's first trip through the United States was unsuccessful. The bad seeds were planted before he arrived in the United States. Mercury Records Uk Didn't Help Him Get a Work Visa, So He Couldn't Have Concerts in the United States or Be Promoted on Television or Radio.
His publicist, Lang (Mark Malone), is the only person in the American company who is bullish on him. He looks like Bowie's uncle (actually only five years older than him).
Arriving at Dulles Airport, U.S. Customs, who inquired in detail about his sexual orientation and whether he had sexual assault and quirks, and Lang's Jewish parents, who had settled Bowie in his home for dinner, heralded that the trip to the United States would be very different from Bowie's expectations.
1968's Space Oddity succeeded, and Americans acknowledged it, but weren't sure whether David Bowie was a flash in the pan or would have fifty years of great success waiting for him. The film hopes to find the secret of David Bowie's transformation before becoming Ziggy Stardust from this failed trip to the United States. The film uses the road movie technique, two people in a car, come to one city after another.
Along the way, they deal primarily with the media – journalists and radio DJs. No one recognized the blonde In front of him in a skirt as a future superstar. The portrayal of media people in the film is very contemporary, and it is surprisingly simple and simple. Whether it is the famous "Rolling Stone" reporter or the unknown tabloid music reporter, they are all elderly middle-aged men and women. A female reporter was fine, and was impressed by listening to Bowie play "Armsterdam" in the bar and asked to talk to him. It didn't work out, and Bowie was attracted to drugs and beauties and released the female reporter's pigeon. The two middle-aged male reporters are serious and old-fashioned, have not heard of this new disc, and can take out a paper and pencil to make a serious interview. These two characters can be completely combined into one, because they both have a standard mask of "cultural journalists" from ancient times, which can be worn to enter the role. They have a very high vision, and the questions they ask are all clever and clever, hooking people. During the interview, his eyes were focused, his body leaned forward, and he seemed to be very concerned about the artistic concept and hidden personality of the object he was interviewing. At least they have the ability to make people think so.
But soon, they couldn't stand it. Before the interview, they assumed that David Bowie was yet another gorgeous English hippie. After the hasty interview, they not only deepened this impression, but also added new comments such as neuroticism, narcissism, ignorance, and logical confusion. When the reporter asked Bowie to do a pantomime, he really stood up and performed in the hotel lobby, funny and charming. The music reporter of that year had never seen anything, thought he was too stupid to look directly, frowned and quickly put away the paper and pencil. If you put it to this day, if the musician is very involved in the interview, it must be deeply touched by the young reporter in front of him.
Under the baptism of old-fashioned, unimaginative and visionary middle-class reporters, the young David Bowie that the director wants to portray gradually takes shape.
If he had been ten years younger, Bowie would have played Johnny Flynn would have been much like Balzac's beautiful man Lucien, beautiful, vulnerable, and fantasistic, but lacking the firm will necessary for a successful person. This group of people aspires to success and pleasure like a child, but has no way of knowing how to put in the effort. On most occasions, Johnny Flynn looks like the most beautiful actor in Big Dipper. He is the diamond heart of this unpopular music biopic.
The film is stated at the beginning that the film is mostly fictional. So we don't have to worry too much about how well the characters played by David Bowie and Johnny Flynn fit in. Think of the character, "David Bowie," as a fictional artist, jump out of the "David Bowie" box, and see something.
This character is not even flattering. Not only did he talk to himself, he seriously lacked the understanding of the real world (opening a yellow cavity on American radio, scaring the host into immediately grabbing someone else's disc to play), but also thinking that this would arouse the response of the audience. He was selfish to everyone, rolling down the car window caused Lang's divorce papers to fly out of the window, Lang stopped to pick it up, he not only did not help but also laughed indifferently, thinking it was funny.
The film's flashbacks of his brother Terry show Bowie's inner struggles in a clichéd way, trying to point out the source of his weirdness and fear—familial schizophrenia.
Not a single David Bowie song, coupled with a bland and repetitive plot, a mediocre reporter who appeared one by one, and a series of cold performances by audiences, made the whole movie full of trivial throbbing. Audiences fed by musically rich biopics have a hard time accepting such a "biopic" from start to finish, not to mention that the protagonist is a generation of icon David Bowie.
But there's something trickling down in it that can really bring us closer to the famous Chameleon. After hitting the wall many times, the lost Bowie and Lang chat on the rooftop. He found that the crux of the matter was that rock advocated "pouring out oneself and burning the stage", which he simply could not do. On a previous road trip, Lang talked to him about Iggy Pop from the band "Puppets", admiring his unity of form and spirit, blood-soaked diving, and being worshipped as a god by young people at that moment. Lang repeatedly encourages Bowie to "show himself" in interviews, but Bowie is horrified to discover that there is no "only self" under his gorgeous skin.
At the beginning of the film, he finishes watching the scene of his favorite band "Underground Velvet" and talks with "Lou Reed" on the couch. Afterwards, he learned that it was the new lead singer on the couch, not Lou Reed, whom he adored. In the second half of his trip to the United States, he made a point of visiting another idol, Andy Warhol. The latter didn't look at him, just shot a piece of his pantomime performance. It's pantomime again. Coming out he asked Lang: "Is there a difference between a real rock star and a rock star played?" ”
How to become Ziggy Stardust is confused in this vague way. But it seems to be enough. The key secrets, the moments of inspiration, can be imagined by this hesitant and fragile young David Bowie. So when he and the band appear in costume at the end, and ziggy does not sing those songs, it has the meaning of a dog-tailed sable.
Editor-in-Charge: Chen Shihuai
Proofreader: Luan Meng