With “Moonage Daydream”, the American Brett Morgen presents an entertaining 140-minute film that tries to introduce the viewer to the dazzling, often aimlessly racing world of thoughts of the pop artist who died in 2016.
Can a psychedelic visualized approach to thinking David Bowie’s begin somewhere else than in the vastness of space? Probably not. “Moonage Daydream” also begins in this cold, dark stillness. The invisible spaceship that takes the viewer on the journey seems to jerk when Nietzsche’s sentence “God is dead” is faded in. Now it’s time to check the belt. “Are you there, David?” someone asks offscreen. And the singer’s voice is already pressing: “Time is one of the most complex expressions. The word desires to be understood to have a meaning.” After a sequence of esoteric electronic noises, the rock star stands up. The first song sounds. The beat, newly oiled by Tony Visconti, is refreshingly heavier. It leads straight into the driving “Hello Spaceboy”, with the question: “Don’t you want to be free?”
Freedom was a central concept in Bowie’s art. Also in the form of the aimless straying that started his career. Of pilgrimage, of circling genres and icons. Some of whom also flare up in this film: Buster Keaton, Nietzsche, Brecht, Murnau, Fritz Lang. Director Morgen tries to figure out Bowie using methods of association without fear of uncertainty. That would have pleased David Bowie, who once said: “If you feel safe in the area you’re working in, you’re not working in the right area. Always go a little further into the water than you’re capable of being in.” It only gets exciting when you start to lose the bottom. This also applies to this wispy collage of unseen materials that lashes at the retina.
In the most obscure place, in West Berlin
“Moonage Daydream” shows the transformation of the pop star into a universal artist who tries in a hearty amateurish way to create something lasting in a wide variety of disciplines and sometimes grows up just by failing. As a film actor, for example, he was only mediocre. Hardly anyone blamed him. Only Erika Pluhar likes to tell how uninteresting this pop star seemed to her on the set of “Beautiful Gigolo, Poor Gigolo”.
Or as a painter in the style of expressionism. Many an interesting picture was taken in Berlin, but nothing really groundbreaking. Even as Herrl, Bowie failed. In the end, he gave his shepherd dog Etzel von Sprieteufel to a farmer. As a musician, however, he was successful in what was then an immensely dreary city. Instrumentals like “Warszawa” and “Subterraneans”, songs like “Sound And Vision” and “Heroes'” are also moving in the new versions. At the end of his time in Los Angeles, Bowie decided he had to go to the most obscure of places. That was West Berlin back then.
In the 1970s in particular, there was no better personification of homelessness than David Bowie. He refused possessions and not only changed his place of life like others changed their clothes. In a wild frenzy of assimilation, he raced through aesthetics of the past as well as through projections of the future. Director Morgen tries to follow him in terms of volatility. And stays breathless. That’s good for the film. Unfortunately legendary interviews are missing. Something with the BBC in 1999, in which Bowie predicted that truth would no longer exist following the invention of the World Wide Web: “The Internet is not a tool, but an alien life form.”
Excited discussion regarding bisexuality
This is not the only reason why Bowie is considered the favorite prophet of pop culture. Also as a gender dissident. Like on talk shows. Morgen made generous use of archive material here. It was difficult for the hosts at the time to understand why someone wore nail polish, dresses and women’s shoes. The moderators, who are insanely conservative from today’s perspective, excitedly discussed terms such as bisexuality. American Dick Cavett still comes across as pretty cool, but the British hosts were stock-steady. What amuses these days.
One can also smile regarding the fact that in the 1990s Bowie himself lusted following the normal, which he perceived as exotic. After trying everything wild and utopian in terms of clothing, he showed up in normcore outfits, wearing plaid shirts, even blue jeans. “Moonage Daydream” doesn’t show this phase any more than the brilliant finale, where Bowie was able to reconnect with previous top performances with albums like “The Next Day” and “Blackstar”.
In its searching and finding, but also not finding, the film gives a realistic picture of a chaotic life as an artist. Did Bowie fall into this category at all? He doubted it. “The artist doesn’t exist,” says Bowie in the film. Then, following an artistic pause, he adds: “He exists only in the imagination of people.” In this sense, the greatest compliment one can pay this film is that it gives free rein to our imagination.
From September 16th in the cinemas. The soundtrack with scraps of words and interestingly remixed classics will be released digitally on September 16th, on CD on November 18th, and on vinyl only in 2023.
