Click here!

Arts:Blog

Cinema Review: David Bowie Is... (***)

Lorna Irvine reviews director Hamish Hamilton's cinematic journey through the recent exhibition of the iconic musician.

Hamish Hamilton's film, a virtual tour around the life and career of David Bowie at the V & A Gallery, London, should be a five-star experience—after all, the sell-out exhibition clearly is. It looks exceptional. Yet, the curators, Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh, bring a prim and over-polite, slightly condescending tone that grates, as does the self-congratulatory applause every ten minutes. The effect is that of a tour guide who ferries you about with little room for wandering and enjoying exhibits at your leisure.

It is a pity, as there is a lot to find satisfying: Fifty Nine Productions add suitably theatrical flourishes, such as the cheeky nod to Bowie's Lindsay Kemp mime artist period in the intro, and the 3D effect of the visitors, all dressed flamboyantly in accordance with their idol, looks gorgeous on the big screen. The video clips and guests (Hanif Kureshi, Michael Clark, Jarvis Cocker and Jeremy Deller, among others) are well chosen, if predominantly male. Aberdeen dancer Clark says that many of Bowie's personas greatly influenced his choreography, and London-based Kureshi feels an affinity with a man trying to transcend his stultifying suburban origins.

Bowie and Designer Yamamoto

But the most fascinating guest here is the colourful, slightly bat-shit designer Kansai Yamamoto, who has designed some of Bowie's most iconic outfits, like the black jumpsuit with sculpted trousers or the Ziggy Stardust off-the-shoulder unitard. Visibly overcome, he chokes back tears as he recalls his first meetings as a young man, with the twenty-six year old who was just becoming an international star, inviting him to New York, and their vague attempts at communication—today, they still remain firm friends.

It is joyful to see Bowie's handwriting, described by both Jarvis Cocker and critic Paul Morley as 'childlike... almost like a teenage girl's’ and the intricate set designs for Diamond Dogs' Hunger City. There are some of his most amazing costumes—not least the dazzling Pierrot clown from the Ashes To Ashes video, or the Starman jumpsuit (pictured) which appears in a Hall of Mirrors, as Broackes explains, ‘as he points to the camera during the famous performance on Top of the Pops, and so we wanted to have a sense of multiple reflections.’

However, there are problems. Hunky Dory, Young Americans, Lodger and Station to Station are all a little under-represented. Co-curator Geoffrey Marsh states that during the period of Changes and Oh! You Pretty Things that the lyrics 'may have been influenced by drugs.' Partially, perhaps, yet as most Bowie fans know, he had been reading a lot of Nietzsche and Crowley during the early seventies, and that had fed into his visions of Dystopian future worlds. Elsewhere, happily, Burroughs is acknowledged as an influence with his ''cut-up' technique, but such a glaring omission in Hunky Dory's lyrical terms is startling.

Not to worry—in the main, it is an enormously enjoyable trip into the archives. The David Bowie Periodic Table, created by artist Paul Robertson, is fun, acknowledging how wide his influence spreads—although poor Pamela Hogg, the Scottish fashion designer, gets Ho! The Lindsay Kemp-inspired mime clip is hilarious, druggy and very of its time. And it goes without saying that the cream of Bowie's back catalogue (mostly) gets an airing: Ziggy Stardust, Rock 'n' Roll Suicide, Life On Mars, Boys Keep Swinging, Little Wonder, Fame, Starman and, bang up-to-date, The Stars video with Tilda Swinton, his female lookalike.

David Bowie-- 'you're wonderful'. This film almost is—but well worth a Sunday afternoon viewing if it is ever released on DVD—and probably as close as most of us will ever get to the man himself.

Installation image (c) Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Comments: 0 (Add)

To post a comment, you need to sign in or register. Forgotten password? Click here.

Find a show


Search the site


Find us on …

Find us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterFind us on YouTube