1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910627283503321

Autore

Glynn Stephen

Titolo

David Bowie and Film : Hooked to the Silver Screen / / by Stephen Glynn

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cham : , : Springer International Publishing : , : Imprint : Palgrave Macmillan, , 2022

ISBN

9783031134012

9783031134005

Edizione

[1st ed. 2022.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (256 pages)

Disciplina

782.42166092

Soggetti

Motion pictures - Great Britain

Music

Celebrities

Popular culture

British Film and TV

Celebrity Studies

Popular Culture

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

1. Sound and Vision: Introduction -- 2. Ziggy Played Guitar: Bowie as Concert Performer -- 3. Loving the Alien: Bowie as Star(man) -- 4. Cracked Actor: Bowie Goes to War -- 5. Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps): Bowie does Fantasy -- 6. Man of Words, Man of Music: Bowie does Musicals -- 7. Chameleon, Comedian, Corinthian, Caricature: Bowie does Genres -- 8. Watch That Man: Bowie does Biopics -- 9. How the Others Must See the Faker: Bowie as Biopic -- 10. A Crash Course for the Ravers: Conclusion.

Sommario/riassunto

David Bowie and Film: Hooked to the Silver Screen is an important book. It analyses Bowie’s crossover stardom and provides new knowledge of not only Bowie as a cultural figure but also of the films Bowie acted in. As such, the book also offers a very useful and original case study of the ways in which one star can have a profound impact on British cinema history and cultural history. - Paul Newland, University of Worcester, UK This book constitutes the first monograph dedicated to an academic analysis of David Bowie’s appearances in film. Through



close textual analysis together with production and reception histories, Bowie’s ‘silver screen’ career is explored in full. The book covers performance documentaries such as Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, star vehicles ranging from the eulogised The Man Who Fell to Earth to the excoriated Just a Gigolo, plus roles from thehorror chic of The Hunger and cult fantasy of Labyrinth to the valiant high-brow Baal and vainglorious high-budget Absolute Beginners, ending with Bowie as Bowie in Bandslam and others as ‘Bowie’ in Velvet Goldmine and Stardust. Alongside showing his willingness to experiment (and at times fail) across a variety of genres, this study investigates Bowie’s performative style that, while struggling to accommodate the requirements of cinematic realism, fits more harmoniously with alternative production codes and aesthetics. More broadly, by exploring the commercial, socio-cultural and ideological significance of Bowie on film, the book demonstrates how notions of gender, sexuality and identity formation, plus commodity and cultural capital, function and fluctuate in contemporary society. Stephen Glynn lectures in Film and Television at De Montfort University, UK. His previous investigations of the connections between pop music and film include The British Pop Music Film (Palgrave, 2013) and The Beatles and Film (2021).