Velvet Goldmine

[anotheranon]

More than one person has bugged me to see this film and tonight I finally did so. Two thumbs WAY up, if only for great acting all over the place: Ewan McGregor AND Christian Bale in the same movie is difficult to improve upon. Young androgynous nekkid men abound, which is also a nice highlight :)

Costume notes: they all look like wonderful glitter space aliens! I know very little about glam rock so I put it to those more conversant than I: Brian Slade = David Bowie, Kurt Wild = Iggy Pop?

Comments

[geekchick]

I cannot believe you hadn't seen that before tonight!

Brian Slade = David Bowie, Kurt Wild = Iggy Pop?

Ayup.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I think you and H. have both mentioned it before - I was incredibly slack about getting to it, but had a pile of handsewing to do tonight so I figured, why not? I can't believe it was made in 1998 - why did I think it came out ~2002?

To me it seems like a fairly obvious slashing of Bowie/Pop combined with a coming of age/revisiting one's past story. Not that there's anything wrong with that ;)

Love the icon, btw!

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

Correctly called. Jack Fairy is also vaguely Brian Eno. Kurt also has a little bit of vintage Lou Reed thrown in and Kurt-in-the-90s is also channeling Kurt Cobain. Mandy is David's first wife, Angela, even down to the bizarre accent and Shannon is sort of Coco Schwab who was David's assistant for way too long.

[anotheranon.livejournal.com]

I saw the Kurt Cobain influence, but wondered whether it was intentional as it's outside of the timeline of the rest of the movie (roughly 1974-84). Not surprising though, considering when it was made!

I've read a bit about David and Angela Bowie's first marriage and clued into the Mandy/Brian fictional parallel pretty quick.

[ragdoll.livejournal.com]

If you ever see any vintage footage of Angela being interviewed, you'll see just how amazing Toni Collette's performance is. That woman is incredible.

The Cobain thing is odd but I think the director was trying to make a statement about heroin addicts and self-destructive artists or...something. :) I do love the film though. I actually saw it in a theatre when it first came out. The place was nearly empty - I'm really happy that it's attained a cult status since then.

[jlsjlsjls.livejournal.com]

Does this mean I'm now the only person left on the planet who hasn't seen it? (yeah, yeah, it's on the watch-someday list)

Now if you'd watched it one week sooner I'd have promptly pointed you towards BBC's radio version of Doctor Who ... which was about carnivores from another dimension eating British glam rockers (honest!) :p