SCREEN SHOT - Moonage Daydream

Time takes a cigarette.

Moonage Daydream is not a traditional film documentary or biography. More akin to a tapestry or collage in a beautiful montage of visuals, sound and form, music, period clips and contemporary words. Its an audio visual feast. You hear Bowie describing times in his career, both at that time and many years later. You hear the as yet unformed naivety and the more fully fleshed out maturity of Bowie's reflections side by side. Did he really know what he was in search of all along, or was that only reclaimed, mythologised and reframed over time? I guess it is all of the above, its something we all do. We retrospectively tidy up our histories.

Puts it in your mouth.

After all the years struggling to locate his modus operandi, and the misfire that was Space Oddity, he hits upon the idea for a character, an alien androgynous rock star - his career goes stratospheric. Becoming this hugely idolised and much copied star. But the taste for Ziggy quickly sours as the character he plays turns into a monster, and begins to take creative control. Bowie, dramatically pulls the plug. Perhaps an upbringing with his loveless parents, created an existential need to remove himself from further stifling situations. Emotional loneliness and insecurity certainly lingered for years, hiding behind make up and outrageous cloths helped, playing a character helped, constantly changing focus and style helped. Behind these facades he gradually discovers who he is really - he's a storyteller.

You pull on your finger

Whenever he finds himself bored with his writing style he shakes things up. Often by moving to live somewhere he disliked or felt challenged by. So he transposes himself for a while to the US - Berlin - Japan. The magpie nature of his intuitions, influences, picks up scraps of knowledge and collects experiences that all fall into the creative melting pot. He described himself vaguely as a 'generalist'. Lacking the patience or ability to apply himself to detailed prolonged study. There was always something emotionally neutered and carefully edited about his public persona - the lonely and alienated man who fell to earth. In retrospect, his work always appeared to be about isolation, so Bowie himself observed. 

Then another finger

There has been a tendency to over claim the musical significance of what he did in the early years. He was a great borrower of styles, from The Rolling Stones to Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, that he somehow managed to make his own. Only when he moves to Berlin, to work with Eno, does what he says he's doing and what he actually achieves match up. Low and Heroes are his most musically creative career peak. Until even this particular vein runs out or steam, as did fresh ideas and personas. He drops the lot and heads straight for full on pop stadium level stardom. Wanting to present the happier more emotionally rounded Bowie he felt himself now to be. Until just how stultifying and boring that career path can be, how creatively barren the musical landscape is there, becomes clear to him. He looses the thread of exactly what he is trying to do. The film, thankfully, skips over the back to basics floundering, the naff nadir of the Tin Machine era.

Then the cigarette

Bowie was a well read man, with a curious and enquiring mind, with wide ranging creative interests. Music may have lost its vibrant charm for a while, the albums having only the occasional great track, whilst the rest was either straight borrowings from contemporary trends or his own back catalogue. Coasting, revisiting or reworking old themes. Major Tom becoming a recurring talismanic figure. Though he'd previously said the primary importance of his career left him no time for a love relationship. He falls in love with Imam, almost as though this were for the very first time. Hermione and Angie, apparently having been written out of the Bowie story line a long long time ago. 

The wall-to-wall is calling

The late renaissance in his career prior to his death, had a mordant mode, a mortal impulse, a need to cross all the T's and dot all the I's in his life, just in case you haven't quite got it right in your head yet. Maybe he needed to double underline to reassure himself too. He looks back at his life as if he was Lazarus, resurrected complete with bandages and buttons for eyes. 

It lingers, then you forget

There are aspects of Moonage Daydream which brought a lump to my throat, and are truly moving. The perspicacity of what Bowie says, is often quite startling. The world that Bowie's imagination dwelled in constantly fascinates whilst also remaining a puzzle. Both he and his imagination remain enigmatic. This film gets the nearest I've seen to portraying what motivated the man. That the creative thrust became a sort of personal quest for identity. A manifestation of 'the essential soul' of this one man. You don't have to be a fan to enjoy this movie, but if you are it shows you a whole other dimension to him.

Oh Oh Oh Oh - You're a rock n roll suicide.

One of the things that Bowie dabbled in and even went on a retreat once, was Buddhism. Not really a joiner of any institution, religious or otherwise, he acknowledged that what he took away from the experience was the impermanent and temporary nature of all we do. That for him this meant the centrality of life became paramount. He loved his life and attempted to live it to the full. Along the way he was an example, helping others begin their own personal quest, by turning himself into a visibly vibrant source of inspiration.

CARROT REVIEW - 8/8