David Bowie

In “Moonage Daydream,” a besotted fever dream of a non-fiction film about Bowie, written, directed, produced and edited by American filmmaker Brett Morgen (“The ...

To his fans, Bowie is the high priest of sexual mutability, a “space oddity,” who writes a song called “Space Oddity,” which becomes a smash hit. Bowie evolves from Ziggy Stardust to a Diamond Dog to the Serious Moonlight crooner in a white suit and bleached blonde hair. In a voice-over, Bowie discusses his older, maternal half brother Terry Burns, who suffered from schizophrenia, introduced him to Beat poetry, John Coltrane and the occult, and died young, leaving a lasting impression. In “Moonage Daydream,” a besotted fever dream of a non-fiction film about Bowie, written, directed, produced and edited by American filmmaker Brett Morgen (“The Kid Stays in the Picture”), young Bowie is treated by the music media like a freak. With its outlandish visuals, musical chops, archival images of Bowie concerts, filmed interviews with him, including two by Dick Cavett, clips from “Metropolis,” “Nosferatu,” “Onibaba,” “Snow White,” “The Seventh Seal” and others, “Moonage Daydream” becomes a non-fiction fantasia on the subject of David Bowie (born David Jones, he took his stage name from the American frontiersman famous for his knife). “Moonage Daydream” is not so much a biographical non-fiction film as it is an immersion into the quintessence of Bowie.

Brett Morgen went through a lot to make David Bowie documentary “Moonage Daydream,” a psychedelic tour through the life of the shape-shifting artist.

I was limited to David’s voiceover, and I couldn’t get a phrase that I needed to get to the next scene. And I called the estate and I said I need to get it because it wasn’t in our inventory list. That to me was more valuable than any unseen, never-before-released stuff because I just knew how integral it was to the experience I wanted to present. There was like nowhere to access this thing and I was like, oh my God, it’s the Holy Grail. So the pressure to perform on a daily basis just so we can get through this was immense. And then the pandemic hit, and there was nobody in the building. I went to visit the David Bowie exhibit in Brooklyn. And so I then said let’s take three songs from each album that relate back to that theme, and curate a playlist that is the foundation of them, almost like a jukebox musical. I would start to write ideas — not about scenes, but ideas about Bowie on spirituality, Bowie on the creative process, Bowie on aging. Usually, I write before I get to the edit room and I lay down the narrative that’s written notes tracking the through-line. Usually the script pours out of me after I go through the materials and it’s a three to five day process. I had possibly the two greatest years of my career going to work every day to watch and listen to David Bowie.

A near-death experience turned David Bowie's musings on art, alienation and existence into a “resurrection” for 'Moonage Daydream' director Brett Morgen.

That was so specific to my condition and the pandemic. I had no idea how sage he was, how committed he was to his life philosophy — and how much I needed that at that moment in my life. BM: It was integral to the construction of this film. The first words out of my mouth to my surgeon were, “I need to be on set Monday.” He goes, “You’re not going anywhere.” I was insane. It was anything I wanted it to be as long as it was my own expression. The audience is going to project and fill in the blanks.” That was the key for me to understanding Ziggy and Bowie: projection and fill in the blanks. To me, it was more important than the Within the Bowie world, the inner circles, it was … And David didn’t really have anywhere to return to; I don’t think he had a home. Then I spent eight months trying to figure out how to script the film. The assistant editors collated it chronologically, which I always do when I’m screening material; I’m trying to look for a through-line, for themes, to see what material will be accessible in a large-screen theatrical environment. I said, Okay, there’s a relationship to spirituality, gender fluidity, physical transit, being “Lodger,” being on the road.

If you're going to do a David Bowie film, it should be like “a thrill ride” according to Brett Morgen. Morgen — the film and TV director/producer whose ...

I realized that he was providing me with a guide to how to lead a more balanced and fulfilled life, and how to not be perfectionist and how to embrace my mistakes and not hide from them. At that point the whole film changed and I realized that this could be something I could leave to my children, because I don’t have David’s wisdom. I sat down with (the estate) and said, We can do this film in a way that’s very accessible, kind of a VH1 thing…or we can fashion it more like Bowie, which would be more elusive and mercurial and sublime and intimate, but sort of more challenging, if you will. David was not there to authorize or approve the work, and I don’t think the executors wanted to be responsible, creatively, for anything. I wanted to NOT have a story. Morgen was given full access to Bowie’s archives and full control of the project, which is an impressionistic, surreal two-hour and 14-minute immersion into the late Bowie’s creative mindset, packed with rarely seen footage and narrated by Bowie himself.

Brett Morgen's Moonage Daydream documentary presents an Immersive and intimate look at David Bowie, in intimate, surprising, and non-traditional ways.

[ The Sp](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-sparks-brothers-edgar-wright-music-documentary/) [a](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-sparks-brothers-edgar-wright-music-documentary/) [rks Brothers](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/the-sparks-brothers-edgar-wright-music-documentary/). Some might mistake the elastic cohesiveness for a lack of perspective, but this is Morgen’s Bowie. Morgen evokes Kenneth Anger’s Scorpio Rising, Nosferatu, Aleister Crowley, Georges Méliès, Disney’s Fantasia, and footage of the moon landing to show it is only a small step from Major Tom to the Spiders from Mars. “Everything is rubbish, and all rubbish is wonderful,” Bowie says at one point in the documentary, and this is celebrated in the archival media. On the other hand, a sequence of clips from a 1984 Serious Moonlight tour documentary showing Bowie riding escalators in Bangkok could have been trimmed for more interesting visual dips. “If you feel safe in the area you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area,” Bowie explains in the film. If you are looking for a standard chronological biography, watch David Bowie: Five Years (2013) and David Bowie: The Last Five Years (2017), made after Bowie’s death in 2016. At one point all we hear is a bass line, it bops and pops and, coming out of the prior sonics, is at first unidentifiable. Certain phases of Bowie’s career get the most spotlight, notably the 1969 “Space Oddity” breakthrough, The Spiders From Mars journey, the commercial period of “Let’s Dance” (though more could have been said about his time spent with Nile Rodgers), the Glass Spider Tour in 1987, and the graceful ending of Blackstar. The film is two hours and 20 minutes long, and the soundtrack happily feels slightly longer. Much of the artistic intimacy must be credited to music producer Tony Visconti and music editor John Warhust, who take snippets of individual instruments out of context and into a larger relevance. There are no talking heads, stretches of the film play out like a concert taping, others appear in fragments and splashes of sound and vision.

Bowie was the king of ephemera, never sitting still artistically. What he achieved throughout his career cannot be understated. Whether it be the androgynous, ...

He’s one of the all-time greats.” As for Noel Gallagher, he was the creative mastermind behind Oasis, Britain’s hottest export of the 1990s. However, they are two of British rock’s most lauded icons, and for many, they represent the voice of their respective generations, with Gallagher being deeply influenced by David Bowie.

Universal's 'Moonage Daydream' and Sony's 'Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song' both out.

[Moonage Daydream](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/moonage-daydream-cannes-review/5170416.article) has the backing of the David Bowie estate – a verification that has proven hard to come by, both prior to and since the musician’s death in January 2016. [Moonage Daydream](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/moonage-daydream-cannes-review/5170416.article) is a journey through Bowie’s creative and musical output. Lionsgate is starting Kevin Smith’s comedy Clerks III, in which the protagonists are enlisted to make a film about the convenience store that started the series. US filmmaker Kline’s debut feature follows a teenage cartoonist who rejects the comforts of his suburban life in a misguided quest for soul. He has previously tackled modern music icons in 2012’s [The Rolling Stones: Crossfire Hurricane ](https://www.screendaily.com/crossfire-hurricane/5048006.article) (£34,514 total); and 2015’s [Cobain: Montage Of Heck](https://www.screendaily.com/cobain-montage-of-heck/5082879.article) (£401,679 total), about Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. The film, which debuted at the BFI Flare: London LGBTQIA+ Film Festival in March, follows two attached men from a cash-strapped rugby who unwittingly sleepwalk into an adulterous affair. First appearing on Cohen’s 1984 album Various Positions, the song has been covered to great acclaim by artists including John Cale, Jeff Buckley and Rufus Wainwright. Stardust, a 2020 historical fiction film about Bowie’s first tour of the US in 1971, did not receive a license to use his music. [Funny Pages](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/funny-pages-cannes-review/5170390.article) in 35 locations. [In From The Side](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/in-from-the-side-flare-review/5168467.article) in 61 locations. [In From The Side](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/in-from-the-side-flare-review/5168467.article) is the directorial debut of UK filmmaker Carter, who co-wrote, directed, produced, edited, shot and composed the score for the film. [Hallelujah: Leonard Cohen, A Journey, A Song](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/hallelujah-leonard-cohen-a-journey-a-song-venice-review/5162922.article) opens in 69 sites via Sony.

Shout-outs, too, to Disco Death Records and Beth Ditto in "Monarch."

She has a tremendous singing voice (the best in the family) and acting ability. Originating as a soundtrack to a PBS nature documentary in 2021, "Big Bend" is best viewed in its entirety on the band's YouTube channel. 3 Explosions in the Sky, "Big Bend."

Filmmaker Brett Morgen gives you a full immersion in the gaudiest, glammiest of rock-star lives, and comes up with the perfect nonconventional portrait of ...

There’s also a ferocious jam on “The Jean Genie” where he leads the crowd in a sing-along of “Love Me Do.” A scene where he plays a vampire in The Hunger, insisting, “I’m a young man. There’s a laugh-out-loud montage of shots of Bowie executing the same stage move, over and over — the famous bit where he drops to his knees in front of axeman Mick Ronson, and essentially fellates his guitar. But that’s all it took for him to make this suit part of the world’s dream life ever since. I’m a young man!” It’s a horrifyingly vivid way to evoke the claustrophobic torpor of his Eighties success. In one of the film’s great interview clips, Bowie sums up his musical sensibility with the words, “Everything is rubbish, and all rubbish is wonderful.” That’s the approach of Moonage Daydream in a nutshell. (Neither the words “Tin” nor “Machine” get mentioned.) But the audio collage is a revelation into Bowie’s music, mixing and matching musical bricolage with a fan’s ear for the details, as remixed for the film by Tony Visconti. We are the gods.” The Dame saw the rock star’s mission as seducing his way into the public imagination, changing the way people saw themselves and each other. But Morgen’s approach to the documentary format is essentially: I am a DJ, I am what I play. “What were you doing before you hit the bright headlights?” Harty asks. It’s a fitting approach for the subject, who always saw himself as a blank screen, a canvas for the audience’s desires and fears. It’s a groundbreaking approach to the music doc.

'Moonage Daydream,' Brett Morgen's dazzling study of David Bowie, is a new kind of music documentary — a grad-school-level deep dive that skips the obvious ...

And for the geeks, there is super-rare footage from early “Ziggy Stardust” dates in England, a segment of “Rock and Roll With Me” from the scantly documented 1974 “Soul Tour,” and even footage of him with Elizabeth Taylor and William Burroughs (although not together, unfortunately). Indeed, few songs or videos here get a full airing, and one that does — a hoarsely sung live version of “Modern Love” — seems to be there to emphasize Bowie’s comments about how lightweight his music became in his extremely lucrative early ‘80s bid for megastardom, the “Let’s Dance” album. His first and last 20 years are dealt with briefly, although revealingly; there are few if any glimpses of his first wife, Angela (who exerted an enormous and under-acknowledged influence on the Ziggy era) or his children, although his older brother Terry, probably the greatest influence on the young Bowie, gets a larger than usual viewing. While that makes for an unusually free-form approach to structuring a documentary (and was enormously challenging for Morgen, who worked on the film for over four years and suffered a heart attack while doing it), in many ways it’s freeing: Instead of a rigid timeline or forced, overarching theme dictating the narrative, Bowie’s words do. Like another recent historical film about an oft-trodden subject — Todd Haynes’ “ [The Velvet Underground](https://variety.com/2021/film/reviews/the-velvet-underground-review-todd-haynes-john-cale-lou-reed-1235013500/)” — it eschews the standard, chronological, done-to-death “Behind the Music”-style template that has become a predictable default for music documentaries and finds a dramatically different way to tell the story. Ultimately that era amounted to a hollow retroactive paycheck for his years of innovation: “Even though it was very successful, there was no growth,” Bowie says in a voiceover.

"Moonage Daydream" director Brett Morgen had a different idea for a David Bowie film when he and the musician met in 2007.

"That film that I pitched him imagined that David never evolved after Ziggy and that we would find him in present-day Berlin, and he has been playing the same songs for the past 40 years at a dive bar in the middle of the night to the last four people on Earth who are paying attention. "The man who became his executor called afterward and said, you know, 'David enjoyed the pitch but he's not at a place where he can do this right now.'" ](https://www.looper.com/442726/the-forgotten-david-bowie-sci-fi-flick-you-can-catch-on-amazon/) The pitch also pointed to Bowie's famed early stage persona "Ziggy Stardust," which, for many in early 1970s Britain, was spellbinding in terms of the artist's style and androgynous appearance. Filmed in a hazy glow, the movie is a complete love letter to his artistry instead of his private life. From his earliest songs and performances that explored surreal concepts such as humankind's fascination with space travel in "Space Odyssey" up until his poignant final album "Blackstar" in 2016, the music auteur left an indelible imprint on popular culture. Upon his death that same year, his influence stretched far and wide in popular music with fellow music artists across several decades paying tribute to his life and legacy.

'Moonage Daydream' filmmaker Brett Morgen discussed the 'dive bar' movie he originally wanted to make about David Bowie in September 2022.

“I had possibly the two greatest years of my career going to work every day to watch and listen to David Bowie.” “I met David in 2007 to discuss a potential collaboration on a hybrid nonfiction project – not Moonage Daydream, something very different that was going to be more performance-based,” he said. ... The man who became his executor called afterwards and said, you know, ‘David enjoyed the pitch but he’s not at a place where he can do this right now.’”

The music and movie star, subject of the new documentary 'Moonage Daydream,' made his big-screen debut as an alien in Nicolas Roeg's sci-fi classic.

Roeg died at age 90 in 2018; Bowie was 69 when he died of liver cancer two years earlier. [Share this article on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/david-bowie-debut-the-man-who-fell-to-earth-moonage-daydream-1235221281/&title=Hollywood%20Flashback:%20David%20Bowie%20Debuted%20as%20‘The%20Man%20Who%20Fell%20to%20Earth’%20in%201976&sdk=joey&display=popup&ref=plugin&src=share_button&app_id=352999048212581) [Share this article on Twitter](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/david-bowie-debut-the-man-who-fell-to-earth-moonage-daydream-1235221281/&text=Hollywood%20Flashback%3A%20David%20Bowie%20Debuted%20as%20%E2%80%98The%20Man%20Who%20Fell%20to%20Earth%E2%80%99%20in%201976&via=thr) [Share this article on Email](mailto:?subject=thr%20:%20Hollywood%20Flashback:%20David%20Bowie%20Debuted%20as%20‘The%20Man%20Who%20Fell%20to%20Earth’%20in%201976&body=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/david-bowie-debut-the-man-who-fell-to-earth-moonage-daydream-1235221281/%20-%20Hollywood%20Flashback:%20David%20Bowie%20Debuted%20as%20‘The%20Man%20Who%20Fell%20to%20Earth’%20in%201976) [Show additional share options](#) [Share this article on Print]() [Share this article on Comment](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/david-bowie-debut-the-man-who-fell-to-earth-moonage-daydream-1235221281/#respond) [Share this article on Whatsapp](whatsapp://send?text=Hollywood%20Flashback:%20David%20Bowie%20Debuted%20as%20‘The%20Man%20Who%20Fell%20to%20Earth’%20in%201976%20-%20https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/david-bowie-debut-the-man-who-fell-to-earth-moonage-daydream-1235221281/) [Share this article on Linkedin](https://www.linkedin.com/shareArticle?mini=1&url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/david-bowie-debut-the-man-who-fell-to-earth-moonage-daydream-1235221281/&title=Hollywood%20Flashback:%20David%20Bowie%20Debuted%20as%20‘The%20Man%20Who%20Fell%20to%20Earth’%20in%201976&summary&source=thr) [Share this article on Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/submit?url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/david-bowie-debut-the-man-who-fell-to-earth-moonage-daydream-1235221281/&title=Hollywood%20Flashback:%20David%20Bowie%20Debuted%20as%20‘The%20Man%20Who%20Fell%20to%20Earth’%20in%201976) [Share this article on Pinit](https://pinterest.com/pin/create/link/?url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/david-bowie-debut-the-man-who-fell-to-earth-moonage-daydream-1235221281/&description=Hollywood%20Flashback:%20David%20Bowie%20Debuted%20as%20‘The%20Man%20Who%20Fell%20to%20Earth’%20in%201976) [Share this article on Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/widgets/share/tool/preview?shareSource=legacy&canonicalUrl&url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/david-bowie-debut-the-man-who-fell-to-earth-moonage-daydream-1235221281/&posttype=link&title=Hollywood%20Flashback:%20David%20Bowie%20Debuted%20as%20‘The%20Man%20Who%20Fell%20to%20Earth’%20in%201976) [David Bowie](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/david-bowie/), the subject of Brett Morgen’s new documentary Moonage Daydream (in theaters and on Imax screens Sept. Bowie plays a humanoid alien named Thomas Jerome Newton who lands in New Mexico in search of water. But a screening of Cracked Actor, a 1975 TV doc about Bowie, convinced Roeg the glam rocker was born for the role. It was just left of center. Lawrence, from Japanese New Wave director Nagisa Ôshima) to the lowbrow (2001’s Zoolander, in which he judges a runway walk-off). [The Man Who Fell to Earth](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/the-man-who-fell-to-earth/) tells the story of an extraterrestrial whose planet has been stricken by drought. It was like, ‘Isn’t that how they laugh on Earth?’ ” [Toronto International Film Festival](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/toronto-international-film-festival/) [TIFF: Director Reginald Hudlin on Doing Justice to the Legacy of Sidney Poitier](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/tiff-reginald-hudlin-interview-sidney-poitier-1235213983/) [Toronto International Film Festival](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/toronto-international-film-festival-2/) [Toronto: Hollywood Reporter’s Photo Portfolio With Viola Davis, Nicolas Cage, Evan Rachel Wood and More (Updating)](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/gallery/tiff-2022-stars-photos-festival-1235216148/) [Toronto International Film Festival](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/toronto-international-film-festival/) [TIFF: Lena Dunham on Adapting the YA Classic ‘Catherine Called Birdy’ and Casting Andrew Scott as “Hot Medieval Dad”](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/lena-dunham-interview-andrew-scott-tiff-catherine-called-birdy-1235213458/) [International](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/e/international/) [TIFF: “Weird Al” Yankovic on the Long, Hard Road to Bring His Mock Biopic to the Big Screen](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/weird-al-yankovic-biopic-tiff-2022-daniel-radcliffe-1235213250/) 16), appeared in 12 scripted movies — everything from the high-minded (1983’s Merry Christmas Mr. The original Man Who Fell to Earth (it was revived as a Showtime/Paramount+ series this year) is now considered a sci-fi classic, revered by directors like Christopher Nolan, who cast Bowie as Nikola Tesla in 2006’s The Prestige. He meets Mary-Lou (Candy Clark, Oscar-nominated for her performance in George Lucas’ American Graffiti), who introduces him to the earthly pleasures of TV, booze and sex.

The director of "Moonage Daydream," Brett Morgen, told Newsweek how he made the film and the immense challenges it posed for him.

By the time I got back to L.A., I had the film that we are now talking about," Morgen said. "If you can put it in a book, I don't really want to put it in a film," Morgen said. So to be continued, I suppose." The day before I flew to Cannes this year he came to my office and he said, 'Look, I've seen all your movies and I've read all your interviews. "So I headed LAX, took a plane to Albuquerque. He followed one of Bowie's practices and took a train ride to clear his thoughts. "I just needed a transition. "I had a heart attack," he continued. Morgen described a particular struggle he had when trying to introduce Bowie's second wife, Iman, into the film. "Then suddenly I'm listening to David, who I had no idea was so wise and profound. In 2017, the estate handed over to Morgen 5 million assets that he could use for his movie. It might in terms of the form, but in terms of the content, there was no way.

The sprawling mural of a documentary understands that David Bowie was too big—and too magnificent—for any of us to fully grasp.

But the point stands: Bowie was too big, and too magnificent, for any of us to fully grasp, and his loss still hurts. If nothing else, Moonage Daydream captures him as we’d like to remember him: dazzling, sensitive, full of questions—and in the end, as happy, probably, as a truly brilliant person can ever be. The images Morgen includes here—of the two laughing and wrapped in each other’s arms on a beach, or dancing together in an unguarded moment—are a kind of balm. Morgen also includes [archival clips](https://time.com/6205449/the-princess-hbo-documentary-diana/) of Bowie appearing on talk shows both in the States and the U.K., and, in his shy, awkward way, explaining his ideas about gender fluidity, long before there was an accepted term for it. Lawrence, and The Hunger—as well as snippets of interviews in which Bowie explains how and why certain albums came about. In the mid-late 1970s, exhausted and in need of recharging, he went to Berlin. The result was the 1983 album Let’s Dance, considered a sellout by many critics of the day, though the footage from the era included in Moonage Daydream suggests that this period of exuberance and joy was an important transition for Bowie. [definitive documentary](https://time.com/6208573/best-tv-shows-august-2022/) about a figure like [David Bowie](https://time.com/magazine/us/4180259/january-25th-2016-vol-187-no-2-u-s/), who was so much larger and grander than life. What’s fascinating about this early section of the film is how devoted these young people are to a figure who held himself safely away from them, even as he gave his all during performances. He told them, in his appearance and actions as well as actual words, that they didn’t have to let anyone else define who they should be, how they should feel about the opposite sex or their own, that they could create a self and inhabit it comfortably—perhaps easier said than done, then as today, but how could you not love a performer who urged you toward that freedom? The concert footage Morgen chooses from this era is electrifying: Bowie is part butterfly, part untouchable glitter god, a creature of splendid beauty whose remoteness is part of his appeal. Morgen begins with the artist’s

Moonage Daydream, a film about David Bowie, opens with "Hallo Spaceboy," a deep cut from his 1995 album Outside. It's clear from the use of this song that ...

“I said if you want to do interviews, you can take the film back but… I put in everything I had into this movie.” I said that this would be my last music doc and probably my last archival doc. But it also highlights the challenges of the genre. I don’t know what it is about me that I like to forge new adventures. Unfortunately, you probably closed yourself off to having what could have been a really interesting experience, because you wanted it to recite the facts that you already know.” He’s looking to tell the story of Bowie’s work as an experience or a feeling, full of “chaos” and “fragmentation,” rather than a chronological, visual biography. “But if you already know that, why would you want me to put that in the film? Because if I didn’t say that, I would never be able to do it. The film, which is being distributed by Neon and Universal Pictures, opens today in IMAX theaters before rolling out wide and later airing on HBO. This seems so fluid and like something that you wouldn’t have to kill yourself to do. [Moonage Daydream](https://deadline.com/tag/moonage-daydream/), a film about David Bowie, opens with “Hallo Spaceboy,” a deep cut from his 1995 album Outside.