The significance of David Bowie on the artists of his generation cannot be overestimated. He was one of the most prolific and influential artists of our time. Working most notably in music and film, Bowie also explored various other art forms: dance, painting, sculpture, video collage, screenwriting, acting and live theatre. Bowie’s creative output and personal archives span over five million assets.
Moonage Daydream is the first film sanctioned by the Bowie estate. As such filmmaker Brett Morgen was the first to have unfiltered access to Bowie’s archives, including all master recordings, to create an artful and life-affirming journey through David Bowie’s creative life. Over five years, Morgen constructed a genre-defying cinematic experience that grapples with spirituality, transience, isolation, creativity, and time to reveal the celebrated icon in his own voice.
For the Cannes premiere of the film Morgen didn’t just walk down the red carpet in front of the famous festival palais he danced to Bowie’s Let’s Dance as it was played over loud-speakers for the occasion provoking huge cheers from the crowd that could also watch on huge video screens. Bowie would no doubt have approved.
Morgen has a lot to live up to. There have not surprisingly already been a number of Bowie biographies and two of them have been critically acclaimed. There is David Bowie: Five Years (2013) covering the early 1970s period of Bowie’s career and a second film David Bowie: The Last Five Years (2017) which was actually made after the artist’s death in 2016.
During the last part of his life when Bowie already knew he was dying of cancer he worked on Blackstar, an amazing experimental album and performance work.
But this is not Morgen’s films rock idol documentary and his successful Rolling Stones film Crossfire Hurricane (2012) and Montage of Heck (2017) about Kurt Cobain. Born in Los Angeles in 1968, and with an MFA in filmmaking from New York University he is married to filmmaker Debra Eisenstadt Morgen. His take on Bowie is bound to be a unique take on the influential artist and it’s not likely to rehash the previous films about Bowie that have already covered the same ground.
The USA release of Moonage Daydreams is planned to unspool in IMAX across the country to catch to full impact of music video aesthetics that Morgen uses to show us the inner truth of this artist.
Credits:
Moonage Daydreams (USA)
Director: Brett Morgen
Cast:David Bowie
