Bowie\u2019s estate granted the director unprecedented access to the star’s vast archive, so Morgen could pay homage to one of contemporary culture\u2019s most significant musical artists. As a result, Morgen defied the traditional \u201cmusic bio-doc\u201d structure by making the film a one-of-a-kind experience rather than being another collection of talking heads and historical information. Instead, he relies on the almost overwhelming amount of colorful images, unique interview snippets and cinematically documented concerts, to channel his notion of Bowie into a new structure, and intercut it with new live material, remastered by long time Bowie producer Tony Visconti.<\/p>\n
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Instead of tracing Bowie\u2019s life from cradle to coffin, he mainly focuses on a prime time of Bowie\u2019s career \u2014 from 1973 to \u201983 \u2014 during which this multi-media creator seemed to reinvent himself each year.<\/p>\n
Morgen\u2019s film reveals how much Bowie needed to express himself.<\/p>\n
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The film starts off with aliens arriving on earth, based on the footage from D.A. Pennebaker\u2019s \u201cZiggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars<\/strong>\u201d and intercuts of clips from \u201cMetropolis,<\/strong>\u201d \u201cA Trip to the Moon<\/strong>\u201d and \u201cThis Island Earth<\/strong>.\u201d In archival TV interviews with Dick Cavett, Valerie Singleton and Mavis Nicholson, Bowie was compelled through his conversations to be spontaneous and playful but also serious at the same time.<\/p>\n Bowie was one of the first music industry figures to speak frankly about sexuality and gender \u2014 represented through gender-bending performance on stage and through TV appearances. His sincere statements sometimes were very controversial but also were eloquent, and, most importantly he at least was voicing them. As he evolved, Bowie\u2019s creative impulses propelled him toward painting, poetry, experimental video art, and acting both on stage and screen.<\/p>\n Morgen noted Bowie\u2019s distant relationship with his mother, the tragic hospitalization of his brother Terry because of schizophrenia, and his interaction with other artistic giants such as writer Jack Kerouac and jazz saxophonist John Coltrane. The director largely ignored Bowie\u2019s private life \u2014 his marriages and the many women he interacted with \u2014 except for a brief introduction of the love of his life, Iman.<\/p>\n Bowie dominated the music scene for decades, and the film displays his presence as a unique artist, bold experimentalist, gender explorer.<\/p>\n
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