David Bowie
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Take Two: Richard Shepard on Redoing The Linguini Incident
Back in 2005, I wrote an article for this magazine titled “Escape From Movie Jail” about my years-long effort to break out from under the career-killing shadow of my first film, the oddball comedy The Linguini Incident. The film was stacked to succeed when we shot it back in 1990—after all, it had David Bowie (!), Rosanna Arquette, Marlee Matlin, Eszter Balint, Buck Henry and Andre Gregory in the cast. Robert Yeoman was the DP; Thomas Newman did the score. I was all set to surf the golden wave of indie film adulation, but then the tide turned and I […]
by Richard Shepard on Jun 27, 2024 -
“I Tried to Make the Film So Everyone Can Find Their Own Bowie”: Brett Morgen on Moonage Daydream
Documentary innovator Brett Morgen once again pushes the boundaries of creative non-fiction filmmaking with his latest doc, Moonage Daydream. Morgen was given access by the artist’s estate to over five million works in the archive — music, film clips, artwork, musings, interviews, photographs and recordings, some of which have never before been seen or heard. The resulting two hour and 20 minute-long film is a kinetic, sometimes euphoric tribute to Bowie and his multitude of stage personalities, career offshoots, and personal reflections. As with his other archive-based work (Jane, Cobain: Montage of Heck), Morgen’s approach is unconventional. Utilizing some of the alternative forms […]
by Tiffany Pritchard on Sep 15, 2022 -
Making a Microbudget Film about the Death of David Bowie and a Wormhole to the Future: Writer/Director Liz Manashil on Speed of Life
The script for my time-travel second feature, Speed of Life, is set in 2016: a time that a lot of people point to as pivotal, when American society felt fractured. It follows a couple from the night David Bowie dies — and they are separated — until 24 years in the future, when they are reunited. Our version of 2040 follows 2016 to its logical conclusion: that David Bowie’s death may or may not have fractured the fabric of the universe. Our version of 2040 is dark and dreary all because our hero David Bowie is absent. I was actually […]
by Liz Manashil on Jan 13, 2020 -
Even Fire Walk With Me‘s Deleted Scenes Are Important to the New Twin Peaks
Warning: If you haven’t seen both seasons of Twin Peaks, Fire Walk With Me and the first five episodes of Twin Peaks: The Return – turn around. David Lynch warned us. Weeks before the revival of his surrealist soap opera, Variety reported that Fire Walk With Me would be “very important” to understanding Twin Peaks: The Return. Five episodes in, it’s clear Lynch wasn’t kidding. Even fans of the original series who plowed through the maligned second season – overcoming Confederate flags and pine weasels – have found themselves baffled by references to Phillip Jeffries, the Blue Rose, or the Owl Cave Ring. Fire Walk With Me, we’ve […]
by Soheil Rezayazdi on Jun 5, 2017 -
David Bowie, 1947 – 2016
I’ve been listening to David Bowie’s new Blackstar all week, and its lyrical ruminations on mortality — some aching, some cheeky — are inescapable. Still, the idea that these were prompted by anything more than an impending 70th birthday didn’t occur to me. It seemed unbelievable that David Bowie would not be around for a little while longer. So, it’s a sad day to wake up to the news that Bowie has died. So meaningful, influential and vital through so many different periods of our lives. For me, the Berlin trilogy, my first arena show, The Man Who to Earth, […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 11, 2016 -
Watch: David Bowie on Making Movies, 1983
Short and sweet: in this brief clip from a 1983 CBC interview, David Bowie — who turns 68 today — talks about wanting to be an actor and his “pretensions” of wanting to direct. “The inherent problem of being a rock star who wants to be a legitimate act or legitimate anything else, I think, is that the parts are restricted from the beginning,” he said, noting he’d been confined to a run of “green-eyed, out of space, rock-playing freaks.” That year, Bowie had a hit record with Let’s Dance and a very different kind of role in Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence; five years […]
by Vadim Rizov on Jan 8, 2015 -
Paid Friends, Empathy, Inequality, True Detective, Garry Winogrand and the Impossible Stairwell: Sunday Morning Links
Here’s some of what I’ve been reading this week for your Sunday perusing pleasure. At Vulture, producer Gavin Polone has developed into an excellent essayist. Here he is discussing the emotional complexities of a particularly Hollywood-type of relationship, the paid friendship: While I’m sure that paid friends exist in many walks of life, I doubt they are as common anywhere else as they are in the entertainment industry. I’ve encountered many big-deal stars and directors with an entourage of assistants and development executives who have crossed the business-personal line. Some were friends before they were employees. Others drifted the other […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 11, 2014 -
Hope, Soderbergh, Bowie, Hannah, Bolano and Glass (Google and Ira): Sunday Morning Links
The San Francisco International Film Festival is underway, the first under the San Francisco Film Society’s new head, Ted Hope. In an interview with Casey Burchby at the San Francisco Weekly, Hope tells the story of his move from producing in New York to running the organization in the Bay Area and how it reflects his own evolving ideas on independent media in the 21st century. I especially like this quote about how artists can rethink their process in a time of plenty. Emphasis added below: Burchby: I wanted to connect your vision for the SF Film Society to the […]
by Scott Macaulay on Apr 28, 2013 -
Music Video: David Bowie’s The Stars Are Out Tonight, Directed by Floria Sigismondi
David Bowie and Tilda Swinton star as a retiring couple assaulted — literally — by vampiric celebrity culture in the latest from David Bowie. It’s directed by Floria Sigismondi, who is in fine form with this electrifyingly creepy clip. With the new Bowie album due out in a few weeks, you may have seen its wildposting campaign, in which its title, “The Next Day” is superimposed over a variety of advertising images. On its blog, CPH:DOX, which has paid homage to Bowie by naming an entire section after one of his songs (“Sound and Vision”), notes their own use of the same […]
by Scott Macaulay on Feb 27, 2013 -
David Bowie Returns with a New Single and a Tony Oursler Video
After the pleasant shock of learning that there’s a new David Bowie single — a beautiful, Berlin-referencing melancholic ballad reminiscent of his Thin White Duke days — I was even more thrilled to see that the accompanying video is directed by one of my favorite artists, Tony Oursler. Check out the song and the video above.
by Scott Macaulay on Jan 8, 2013
