Ten years after the death of the artist of a thousand faces, Arte presents an unprecedented look at an aging David Bowie in search of reinvention, and invites distinctive artists to reinterpret his signature tracks. A moving tribute.
It’s been ten years since David Bowie died. For the occasion, the Arte channel dedicates a special programming block this Friday, January 16 starting at 10:30 p.m. Beginning with a documentary: David Bowie, Last Act, also available on arte.tv. If one remembers well the glam icon of the 70s, the Bowie after Let’s Dance (1983) is less known to the collective memory: using archival footage and interviews with his friends and collaborators, the director Jonathan Stiasny revisits this part of the life of the British artist.
Without reducing his career to the album Blackstar, released two days before Bowie’s death on January 10, 2016, the film shows an artist in decline, trapped in a success and an image he no longer recognizes. Bowie in his forties is no longer Ziggy, bored and imagining he could dissolve into Tin Machine, a metal band widely vilified by critics at the time. In vain: the press as well as the public expect him to remain what he was, and do not forgive him for wanting to extricate himself from his superstar status. Haunted by the fear of becoming outdated, these are years of depression that open for him according to his friend, the writer Hanif Kureishi, for whom Bowie composed the soundtrack of the adaptation of The Buddha of Suburbia.
In the 1990s, it is with the alternative music stemming from the rave culture (techno, jungle, industrial…) that the Thin White Duke finds a means of reinvention on the fringes of the mainstream. He collaborates in particular with Moby and Goldie. For some critics, the whole sounds hollow and forced. Yet this period testifies to the appeal of a Bowie now in his fifties for novelty and subcultures.
David Bowie Never Dies
Despite this relative flop, his image is not tarnished. The public turns out for a memorable performance at the Glastonbury Festival in 2000, which the documentary presents as a moment of grace, if not another resurrection. But the comeback is short-lived: in 2004, while on tour, Bowie is urgently hospitalized for a heart problem. He withdraws for nine years until the unexpected release, on January 8, 2013, of Where Are We Now?. A mere three years later, the artist releases Blackstar, his farewell album recorded in utmost secrecy including the prophetic “Lazarus”. He dies two days later.
To try to show too much, David Bowie, Last Act sometimes loses sight of its subject – also treated by Alexander Larman in his forthcoming biography on February 3, Lazarus: The Second Coming of David Bowie. Yet it offers, without seeking mythification, a sensitive and honest portrait of an aging rock star who remains razor-sharp, providing a fresh perspective on an artist who continues, ten years after his death, to inspire generations of artists.
Arte also shines a light on these generations of artists with Heroes Never Die, also available on the arte.tv platform. Between live performances and documentary, the French directors Thierry Gautier and Sylvain Leduc invited artists, more or less young (The Molotovs, Anna Calvi, Jeanne Added, La Roux, Peter Doherty and Carl Barât, The Divine Comedy…) to reinterpret David Bowie’s signature tracks, from “Starman” to “The Man Who Sold The World” via “Rock’n’Roll Suicide” or “Heroes”, and to testify to the influence he had on their music. A classy tribute, which will speak to fans as well as younger listeners discovering Bowie.
