Bowie: Starman and the Silver Screen

“He was just a very disarming man with such power... a kind of charismatic power, a beauty and extraordinary talent and genius at what he did”
Martin Scorsese

As a performer David Bowie was magnetic on screen, and as a composer, innovator and artist his fascination for film fed an insatiable creative drive, write season co-programmers Rhidian Davis and Leïla Taleb TV made Bowie a star in 1972 when his glam-rock alter-ego Ziggy Stardust beamed alien sex-magic directly into Britain’s living rooms via Top of the Pops. His engagement with film, theatre and design forged his high-concept approach to pop stardom and supercharged the evolution of music video. Bowie’s big-screen acting ambitions were first realised in 1967, but it was in 1976 that brilliant casting made him The Man Who Fell to Earth. He was drawn to learn from great directors, and worked with Nic Roeg, Martin Scorsese, Nagisa Oshima, David Lynch and Alan Clarke. It can be hard to look beyond Bowie ‘the star’ to appreciate the characters he portrayed, but he was always more interested in personas than in the craft of naturalism. Six years on from his passing, Bowie’s star still sparkles brightly.

All film notes by Rhidian Davis and Leïla Taleb, except Baal, which was written by Marcus Prince

The Man Who Fell to Earth

Bowie is a homesick alien trapped in consumerist America in Nic Roeg’s beguiling science fiction drama.

Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars

Ziggy Stardust’s legendary final act captured for ever by the master of direct cinema.

Cracked Actor

A portrait of the artist as the Thin White Duke in mid-70s LA.

Christiane F.

Love and addiction on the streets of Berlin, under the black star of a brooding Bowie soundtrack.

The Hunger

In Tony Scott’s feature debut, Catherine Deneuve, David Bowie and Susan Sarandon star in this stylish gothic horror story set in 20th century New York.

Baal + Pierrot in Turquoise or The Looking Glass Murders

Bertolt Brecht’s first full length play, directed by Alan Clarke, remains the finest example of Bowie in a serious classic dramatic role for UK television.

Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence

An unflinching study of brutality and resistance, fear and desire in a Japanese WWII POW camp, directed with verve by Oshima and starring David Bowie, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Tom Conti.

Absolute Beginners

1950s London gets an energetic 1980s makeover in Julien Temple’s movie musical for the MTV generation.

Labyrinth

Bowie plays the unforgettable Jareth, the Goblin King, opposite a teenage Jennifer Connolly, in this fantasy adventure, directed by Jim Henson.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me

The feature-length follow-up to the hit TV series, which stars Bowie in a small but vital role, is a terrifying fever-dream that lives long in the memory.

Basquiat

Artist Julian Schnabel’s directorial debut is a star-studded biopic of Jean Michel Basquiat, a gifted and prolific painter and street artist who died at the age of 27.

The Prestige

A pair of fin-de-siècle showman-magicians duel in their personal and professional lives in an appropriately tricksy thriller, starring Bowie as the enigma Nikola Tesla, directed with panache by Christopher Nolan.

Bowie at Glastonbury 2000

Come and sing along with 200,000 revellers in one of the greatest sets the Pyramid stage has ever seen.

Hooked to the Silver Screen: Bowie at the Movies

A selection of titles that influenced the eclectic artist.

“[Bowie] loved Buñuel, Cocteau, Fassbinder, but then he also loved Tony Hancock and the Ealing comedies. He could watch The Rebel on a weekly basis and he would laugh and laugh and laugh”
Julien Temple

David Bowie’s parents first met in a cinema in Tunbridge Wells where his mother worked as an usher. A formative viewing of The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari at the age of 14 had a great impact and cast a long shadow over Bowie’s imagination, instilling in him a lifelong passion for German Expressionism. Visits to the cinema would prove creative turning points throughout his career, inspiring existing collaborations and sparking new ones. His own serious directorial ambitions were never realised, but he would go on to introduce the basics of filmmaking to his son Duncan Jones, now a successful filmmaker himself.