David Bowie Wasn’t Impressed By A ’90s Movie That Was Partially Based On His Life – SlashFilm

Author/director Todd Haynes’ 1998 glam rock odyssey “Velvet Goldmine” is not actually about David Bowie, however it additionally type of is. Jonathan Rhys Meyers stars as Brian Slade, a fictional queer pop icon whom rock historians will be capable to acknowledge is a compilation of Bowie, Bryan Ferry from Roxy Music, Marc Bolan from T. Rex, and homosexual rocker Jobriath. Brian Slade additionally assumes a wild, bedazzled stage persona at one level within the film, calling himself “Maxwell Demon,” which is a transparent reference to Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust” persona. It definitely additionally helps that Brian Slade, properly, simply seems like David Bowie.

In the meantime, Ewan McGregor co-stars as Curt Wild, a fictional rock star who’s clearly an amalgam of Iggy Pop, Mick Jagger, and components of Lou Reed. “Velvet Goldmine” is one in every of McGregor’s finest motion pictures, however it is not a lot a biopic as it’s a widespread exploration of the daring music, open queerness, wild aesthetics, and fast burnout of the British glam rock scene of the Nineteen Seventies (however particularly the queerness). It even touches on the rumored affair that Bowie had with Mick Jagger, however utilizing their cleverly fictionalized avatars. Just about everybody might see what was occurring with Haynes’ movie when it first got here out.

That included Bowie himself. In a 1999 interview with Huge Difficulty Journal (which was handily printed on-line in 2020), Bowie took a little bit of a swipe at “Velvet Goldmine.” He felt that Haynes’ movie, whereas a small manufacturing made for less than $9 million, was attempting to jumpstart a brand new wave of retro-glam vogue that it will be capable to money in on. The one elements of the film he actually favored have been the queer scenes. Bowie might say from expertise simply how overtly queer the ’70s glam scene was.

It is essential to recall that hit motion pictures, again within the Nineties, did tend to bend your complete fashionable consciousness towards particular musical tendencies. On the very least, they may increase the report gross sales of sure genres and/or careers. One might see the swing explosion that popped up on both facet of “Swingers,” the surf-rock airplay that resulted from “Pulp Fiction,” or the rebirth of Queen after “Wayne’s World.” It appears David Bowie felt that “Velvet Goldmine” was attempting to do one thing related with Nineteen Seventies British glam rock. Sadly, the film wasn’t an enormous success (it solely made $4.3 million on the field workplace), so the glam explosion by no means got here.

Bowie commented on that to Huge Difficulty Journal, in addition to what “Velvet Goldmine” might have carried out to be extra traditionally correct:

“I felt that was an artificial recycling on the again of the assumption that ‘Velvet Goldmine’ can be a smash film and be capable to promote all these spin-off books and information. Once I noticed the movie, I believed one of the best factor about it was the homosexual scenes. They have been the one profitable a part of the movie, frankly. It did not perceive how harmless everybody was then about what they have been stepping into. […] Additionally, there was much more buying; trawling spherical Liberty’s searching for cloth. It was hysterical.”

It is true: “Velvet Goldmine” has a variety of vogue exhibits and wild costumes however not many buying-for-cloth scenes. There may be loads of queer sexuality on show, although, so it appears to have gotten no less than one element 100% right. It simply did not do a lot else to impress Bowie.

Bowie was a movie fan, by the way. He even tried to purchase the rights to Fritz Lang’s “Metropolis.”