Themes: Success is the Best Revenge, Musician's Life, Rise and Fall Stories
Main Cast: Ewan McGregor, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Toni Collette, Christian Bale, Eddie Izzard
Release Year: 1998
Country: UK/US
Run Time: 123 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
At the 1998 Cannes Film Festival, American independent director Todd Haynes (Safe) received the "Artistic Achievement" award for this re-creation of the UK glam rock scene of the early '70s. Glam rock star Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), who does a character named Maxwell Demon, predicts his own death onstage. As per his prediction, this happens, but when the killing is exposed as a hoax, it marks the end of Slade's stardom. A decade later, in 1984, Brit reporter and former Slade fan Arthur Stuart (Christian Bale), who witnesses the hoax murder, gets the assignment to do a "Whatever Happened To..?" article, and the film's plot suddenly goes into a prismatic Citizen Kane mode, reflecting various angles on Slade's life and career. Arthur visits the wheelchair-bound Cecil (Michael Feast), who discovered Slade, and then tracks Slade through his early life and his initial encounter with outrageous, maniacal American singer Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor). Slade's rise begins as manager Jerry Divine (Brit comedian Eddie Izzard) moves in to take over the performer's career. Ex-wife Mandy Slade (Toni Collette), interviewed by Arthur in a dimly lit nightclub, has memories going back to their initial 1969 Sombrero Club encounter. Their marriage paralleled his Bowie-like ascent to fame as an innovative, bisexual rock star pushing the limits. Idolized by teens, Slade teamed up for a while with the drug-addicted Wild. Eventually, the marriage of Mandy and Slade comes to an end, and she hasn't seen him in seven years when she's interviewed by Arthur. The soundtrack features vintage music by Bryan Ferry, Lou Reed and Brian Eno, plus new tunes. Some background on the making of Velvet Goldmine is documented in producer Christine Vachon's book Shooting to Kill: How an Independent Producer Blasts Through the Barriers to Make Movies That Matter (Avon, 1998) by Vachon with Slate film critic David Edelstein. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
Review
A richly detailed, vibrant examination of the 1970s glam rock scene, Todd Haynes' colorful follow-up to his acclaimed 1995 film Safe is slightly more accommodating to mainstream audiences, but retains his trademark allegorical singularity and almost-Kubrickian chilliness. The film is cast to perfection, with Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Ewan McGregor completely convincing as sullen, wayward rock stars, and Christian Bale's reporter character a most sympathetic figure. Interestingly, Bale's subplot plays as an homage to Orson Welles' landmark 1941 masterwork Citizen Kane, its overlapping narrative combining the past with the present in an attempt to investigate the film's central mystery. An unfortunate misfire in theaters, where it never connected with its core audience, Haynes' film is a terrific example of uncompromised independent filmmaking, recalling the days of Ken Russell and Richard Lester more than anyone. The film was also a surprise Oscar nominee for its exceptional costume design by Sandy Powell, who ended up winning the prize that year for the more audience-friendly Shakespeare in Love. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
Emily Woof - Shannon; Michael Feast - Cecil; Janet McTeer - Narrator; Ganiat Kasumu - Mary
Credit
Andrew Munro - Art Director, Susie Figgis - Casting, Laura Rosenthal - Casting, Olivia Stewart - Co-producer, Sandy Powell - Costume Designer, Waldo Roeg - First Assistant Director, Todd Haynes - Director, James Lyons - Editor, Sandy Stern - Executive Producer, Michael Stipe - Executive Producer, Scott Meek - Executive Producer, Chris J. Ball - Executive Producer, William Tyrer - Executive Producer, Peter King - Hair Styles, Carter Burwell - Composer (Music Score), Randall Poster - Musical Direction/Supervision, Peter King - Makeup, Christopher Hobbs - Production Designer, Maryse Alberti - Cinematographer, Christine Vachon - Producer, Peter Lindsay - Sound/Sound Designer, Eliza Paley - Sound Editor, Paul Soucek - Sound Editor, Todd Haynes - Screen Story, James Lyons - Screen Story, Todd Haynes - Screenwriter, Lou Reed - Featured Music, Brian Eno - Featured Music, Bryan Ferry - Featured Music
Glam rock was all about style as substance, finding truth through image. Todd Haynes realized this, constructing Velvet Goldmine, his ode to glam, as a hallucinatory experience where the surface means as much, if not more, than the underlying meanings. Which means, of course, that Haynes' view of glam was based on the artier inclinations of David Bowie and the sinister cabaret and full-blown dementia of Brian Eno-era Roxy Music. Bowie refused to have any of his songs in Velvet Goldmine, possibly due to the anti-Bowie slant of the script, and the filmmakers squeezed their way out of a potentially fatal situation by hiring Shudder To Think and Grant Lee Buffalo to write Ziggy soundalikes. They work smashingly, as Shudder To Think's "Ballad of Mawell Demon" captures the sweeping ballad feeling of "All the Young Dudes," while Grant Lee Buffalo's "The Whole Shebang" is an uncanny recreation of Hunky Dory's skipping vaudevillian pop. Their contributions stand out on the Velvet Goldmine soundtrack, which is primarily devoted to songs from the era, either in their original incarnations or in newly minted covers. It's actually a risky move to stand Roxy Music's classic first single "Virginia Plain" next to a wealth of Roxy interpretations by the Venus in Furs, yet their recreations are stunning, enhanced by Thom Yorke's remarkable imitation of Bryan Ferry's vocals. Similarly, the Iggy Poptribute band, Wylde Ratttz do an admirable job with "TV Eye." The other covers don't fare as well, yet the other new songs are first-rate (particularly Pulp's stomping, horn-driven Slade extravaganza "We Are the Boys") and all the original recordings are terrific, highlighted by cult items as Eno's fantastic "Needle in the Camel's Eye," T. Rex's "Diamond Meadows" and Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel's British hit "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)." The soundtrack, like the film itself, may be more of a collection of moments than a coherent experience, but those moments are pretty spectacular. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
Lou Reed (Performer), T. Rex (Performer), Teenage Fanclub (Producer), Teenage Fanclub (Performer), Shudder to Think (Producer), Shudder to Think (Performer), Pulp (Producer), Grant Lee Buffalo (Performer), Carter Burwell (Performer), Greg Calbi (Mastering), Brian Eno (Performer), Don Fleming (Producer), Steve Harley (Performer), Paul Kimble (Vocals), Paul Kimble (Producer), Paul Kimble (Performer), Andy Mackay (Performer), Roxy Music (Performer), Michael Stipe (Producer), Michael Stipe (Executive Producer), Brian Zee (Engineer), Carl Glanville (Producer), Bill Emmons (Engineer), Randall Poster (Producer), Randall Poster (Music Supervisor), Placebo (Producer), Ewan McGregor (Vocals), Thom Yorke (Vocals), Donna Matthews (Performer), Bryan Zee (Engineer), Christine Vachon (Producer), Venus In Furs (Performer), Wylde Ratttz (Performer), Todd Haynes (Producer), Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Vocals)
Velvet Goldmine is a 1998 film directed and co-written by Todd Haynes. The film tells the story of a pop star based mainly on David Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust' character and is set in Britain during the days of glam rock in the early 1970s.
The film centers on Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a bisexual glam rock icon patterned after David Bowie and, to a lesser extent, Marc Bolan. Ewan McGregor co-stars in the role of Curt Wild, a genre defying performer who doesn't back down from sex, nudity or drugs on or off stage, and whose biographical details are based on Iggy Pop ("lead singer and founder of the greatest garage band known to mankind" who grew up in a trailer park[citation needed]) and Lou Reed (whose parents sent him to electroshock therapy to 'cure' his homosexuality[1]). Also featured are Christian Bale as a young glam rock fan and reporter, Arthur Stuart, Toni Collette as Slade's wife, Mandy, Eddie Izzard as his manager, Jerry Devine, Luke Morgan Oliver as a young Oscar Wilde.
The tale strongly parallels Bowie relationships with Reed and Pop in the 1970s and 1980s. Brian Slade's gradually overwhelming on-stage persona of "Maxwell Demon" and his backing band, "Venus in Furs", likewise bear a resemblance to Bowie's similar persona and backing band, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. And like the relationship of Slade and Wild, Bowie produced records with both Iggy Pop and Lou Reed.
Haynes has said that the story is also about the love affair between America and Britain, New York and London, in the way each music scene feeds off and influences each other.[2] Little Richard is shown as an early influence on Brian Slade, who in real life inspired the Beatles and Bowie, who in turn inspire many bands to come after. Little Richard has also been cited by Haynes as the inspiration for Jack Fairy. [3]
As an American, Haynes sees the glam scene as an outsider, just as the character of Arthur sees the world of his idols, Slade and Wild. Although the film is described as being about Bowie / Slade, the film is really about[original research?] the teenage fans of glam rock and the adolescent experience of finding one's identity. The notion of self-invention, a theme in the life and works of Oscar Wilde as well as in the personas of Ziggy and Iggy, gives teenagers a natural impetus to emulate the outrageous clothes and make-up of Glam rockers.
The film is strongly influenced by the ideas and life of Oscar Wilde (seen in the film as a progenitor of glam rock), referring to events in his life and quoting his work on dozens of occasions. The work of Jean Genet (the subject of Haynes' previous film, Poison) is referred to in imagery and also quoted as dialogue.
The narrative structure of the film is modeled on that of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, in that reporter Bale tries to solve a mystery about Slade, traveling around to interview Slade's lovers and colleagues, whose recollections are shown in 1950s, 1960s and 1970s flashback sequences.[4]
Synopsis
The story follows a British journalist, Arthur Stuart (Christian Bale), who has to search his own past when writing an article about the mysterious disappearance of a former glam-rock star, Brian Slade, for an American periodical. The film turns Slade's paranoia of being murdered during a concert (a paranoia that Bowie incorporated into the Ziggy Stardust story in the climax of the Ziggy Stardust album) into a career-ending publicity stunt by Slade, after which he gradually disappears from the public view entirely. As Stuart locates and talks with people connected to Slade, trying to find out what happened, he revisits the glam-rock scene of the 70s in a series of vignettes, which recreate the stories of Slade, Wild, and others involved in their lives.
Connections to other works
The title of the movie takes its name from the song "Velvet Goldmine", written by David Bowie.
The name of the lead character, Brian Slade, is an allusion to the 1970s glam band Slade. The name of Slade's persona "Maxwell Demon" was named after Brian Eno's first band, which in itself was influenced by James Clerk Maxwell's thought experiment character, "Maxwell's demon".
Curt Wild's backing band, The Rats, shares its name with one of Mick Ronson's earliest groups.[5] It also alludes to Iggy Pop's band, The Stooges in that the names of both words share a similar meaning ("rat" and "stooge" both being terms for someone who is an informer).
Maxwell Demon's guitarist shares the same last name, Finn, as T.Rex percussionist Mickey Finn.
Much of the script consists of quotations from various works of Oscar Wilde, and several of the scenes involving the character Jack Fairy reference the novels of Jean Genet.
The "pantomime dame" from the vaudeville troupe is played by influential dancer Lindsay Kemp, a former teacher of Bowie's who collaborated with him on several music videos, including "John, I'm Only Dancing".
Reception
The film wasn't successful at the box office, making just $1.5m on a budget of $9m, according to Christine Vachon's 2006 account of independent film producing, A Killer Life.
1999 BAFTA Awards - Best Costume Design - Sandy Powell; nominated for Best Make Up/Hair (Peter King)[7]
1999 Independent Spirit Awards - Best Cinematography - Maryse Alberti; nominated for Best Director (Todd Haynes) and Best Feature
1998 Edinburgh International Film Festival - Channel 4 Director's Award - Todd Haynes
1999 GLAAD Media Awards - Outstanding Film (Limited Release)
1999 MOVIELINE Young Hollywood Award - Best Song in a Motion Picture - Hot One - Nathan Larson
Soundtrack and musicians
Although the character of Brian Slade is heavily based on David Bowie, Bowie himself disliked the script[8] and vetoed the proposal that his songs appear in the film.[9]
The finished soundtrack includes songs by glam rock and glam-influenced bands, past and present.
All three members of the band Placebo also appeared in the film, with Brian Molko and Steve Hewitt playing members of the Flaming Creatures (Malcolm and Billy respectively) and Stefan Olsdal playing Polly Small's bassist.
^Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (1996)
^ Oren Moverman, SUPERSTARDUST Talking Glam with Todd Haynes, an interview in the introduction of Velvet Goldmine, A Screenplay by Todd Haynes, Hyperion: New York, 1998.
