"DIFFERENT FROM THE OTHERS" (1919)

 

FRANCIS WATLEY'S DOCUMENTARY FILM, FINDING FAME, ABOUT DAVID BOWIE....'The Man Who Fell to Earth'.... (Jan 8, 1947-Jan 10, 2016)

 

Originally titled David Bowie: The First Five Years, Francis Whately's final instalment in his Bowie trilogy, Finding Fame, focuses on Bowie's early years.

Among the people interviewed are lifelong friends and fellow Bromley boys, George Underwood and Geoff MacCormack, plus interviews with people such as mime artist Lindsay Kemp, and former band members and producers such as Tony Visconti, Tony Hatch, Phil Lancaster and Woody Woodmansey. What is quite a coup is getting an interview from ex-girlfriend and band member, Hermione Farthingale, as well as from Bowie's cousin, Kristina Amadeus.

In the trailer, alongside footage from the Ziggy era and from Stansfield Road in Brixton, eagle eyed viewers might be able to identify recent aerial footage of Plaistow Grove, Bromley, cleverly made to look retro by the editing team, and photos from half a century ago at Haddon Hall and the bandstand.

The title change might be to reflect how the film now also features Bowie's Ziggy period, rather than just covering five specific years. As we know, Bowie did not find fame immediately, for after joining the Konrads in 1962, he had 7 years of jumping from band to band and numerous flop singles before he made a breakthrough with Space Oddity. Yet, even that was a one-off hit and was followed by more years of failing to reach the charts before Starman, 3 years later.

That Bowie didn't give up in the face of adversity, and had the self belief to continue on his journey despite all the setbacks, and that he went on to make such incredible music, is arguably a greater story than the years when he was enjoying fame and success.

"AN EARLY FROST...1985" melted, as repressed and rejected truths emerged from corralling sublimation in the middle of the 1980's...

over two decades years earlier, John Erman directed "NIGHTMARE", an episode of The Outer Limits.... this screenshot...of a young Martin Sheen....anticipated the hushing denial that had been increasingly prevalent, until then.. as his Voice is taken away.....(by Aliens, of course). The episode also starred James Shigeta, who remained a closeted gay man during his entire lifetime.....

This Episode's anti-military subtext is that the 'inhuman' Ebonites (hmm....Vulcans?) actually represented Civility and Ethical Consciousness, as they protest the ubiquitous testing, brainwashing and Societal Control by a Rightist Government....... Take a last, deep breath, Andrew Beckett and Michael Pierson, and 'say the heartfelt words', not legalese, for this could be what we will remember.......

Hopeful Reconciliation requires collusive alltogetherness, even if that is within the containment perpetuated by a conforming, uniform Society, in which each member merely wants to 'be a part of the Team'.....like a centipede leg, of many, mimicing, in metachronal waves, a prescribed/designated path of mindless conformity that has evolved from the haunches of impetuous escapism to the front legs of willful survival....    

"lo que será, será"...Broken nails or long white gloves, shoulders dripping in dead minks, foxes, martins or ermines, hoisting a sign, on some sticht, saying "SUPPORT ANIMAL RIGHTS'' while on her 'Guilt Trip' of the 1970's...still apologizing to Billy Gray for that Thanksgiving Turkey Disaster Dinner......

 

                                               But...don't forget to forward my set of leather-trimmed snakeskin luggage... 

and I'll require a couple of Louis Vuitton Vertical Steamer Trunks, preferably 'on wheels', although I do like to 'tip a lot'......(maybe three...and a dozen matching hat boxes, two 'shoe' cases, and an extra-large Jewelry Box...with trays and drawers...... )      

Noticing a 'string' of Doris Day movies on TCM, yesterday, I recalled the derivatively overlapping plots of a few of these.....and some pesistent  plot/character similarities......In "By The Light Of The Silvery Moon, 1953"....Doris plays 'Marjorie Winfield',  who is familiar and comfortable with rather 'butch' activities..like car mechanics and 'changing the oil' on a crank-start T-Model vehicle.. while her   'boyfriend' looks on, admiring her....but keeping his own soft hands clean.....Her effeminate  'designated by her family' potential fiance',  her piano teacher, Chester Finley is  a  replicant of a few other of Doris' movie boyfriends...as I remember "Romance On The High Seas", wherein Oscar Levant plays the effeminate piano player/composer, while Doris eyes the more masculine Jack Carson, who is attracted by Doris' set of snakeskin luggage....  "Calamity Jane" was next up......another buckskin-clad Gal, wearing a holstered '6-gun' and carrying a whip.....singing 'Secret Love'...hmmm....another closeted crypto-lesbian innuendo?....or just another good, little kappelhoff girl, from the sticks, unwittingly..if willingly... poured into silk and satin bodices and glamourized by Movie Studio Big Shots.....Move Over Darling, there's plenty of room for all of you in this luxurious Tub....Don't worry, Rock....there'll be 'split screen'...not a 'split'.... to reckon with in a Doris Day Picture, you know....But a Young Man With A Horn will just about always locate your Tunnel Of Love...especially, when led by the Morman Norell Perfume scent and Blackgama pelts, chomping on one another's tails.....   Don't worry, Wesley, Doris wasn't roasting 'Gregory' in that oven...you 'know that'..... any more than she was leading Gordon by the nose, even without the promise of a 'ring'..... 

SEE WHAT YOU CAN GET FOR A THIN DIME....