Reviewed by Rama Gaind.
Writer/director: Gabriel Range, Icon Film Distribution.
Here’s a fascinating look at English singer-songwriter David Bowie and his alter ego Ziggy Stardust. Regarded as one of the greatest ions in music history, what was he like as a young man behind the many faces?
Stardust centres on Bowie’s first tour in the US in 1971 and his creation of the Ziggy Stardust persona following this visit, whilst also showing Bowie’s origins. Uncovered are the inspirations and life events that gave birth to the character, also charting his remarkable transformation.
When 24-year-old David Bowie (played by Johnny Flynn) embarked on his first road trip to America with Mercury Records publicist Ron Oberman (Marc Maron), there was a world out there that wasn’t ready for him yet.
The idea Gabriel Range (The Day Britain Stopped, Death of a President, I Am Slave) had was not to make a biopic or a spin through Bowie’s greatest hits. Instead, he has directed a film about what we’ve not seen: the interior journey David Bowie might have taken to become that artist. We’re used to thinking about Bowie as the star he became or as one of his alter egos: Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Zane, The Thin White Duke.
Gabriel admits he’s been fascinated with Bowie ever since he was a kid. “I bought every record, read every interview, every biography. What surprised me in thinking about this project was how little most people seemed to know about his family background, about his life before that first real flush of fame.”
Range has made a film about what makes someone become an artist; what actually drives them to make their art.
“Someone I only ever saw at a great distance, behind a mask; a godlike, alien presence. Even in his perfectly choreographed death, he didn’t seem like a regular human being.”
Stardust will be released in 2022: digitally on 5 January and on DVD on 19 January. The release will coincide with Bowie’s lost album Toy coming out the day before what would have been his 75th birthday on 7 January.
