A new documentary about David Bowie has been spotted in Cannes, with unpublished photos and a trailer

Moonage Daydream is the title of a new documentary about David Bowie, presented at the Cannes Film Festival. It’s the brainchild of director Brett Morgen and promises to be a film once again as it breaks down genre barriers.

Based on unpublished files, with no chronological but thematic sequence, the documentary is a kind of musical rehearsal, with none other than the voice of Bowie himself, the great Ziggy Stardust who came from outer space. and changed the rock scene in the ’70s.

There are synthetic images, created primarily to open and close chapters, playing with galaxies and stars. Y 48 special remastered songsoffering the viewer an “immersive experience, like in a planetarium,” Brett Morgen explained in an interview with the AFP agency.

A job of years

Presented from the competition, this documentary has a warmer tone than Morgen’s predecessor, Montage of Hell. about Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain. The filmmaker needed five years for this work, the first authorized by Bowie’s legal heirs since the artist died in 2016.

Ziggy Stardust, or Halloween Jack, one of David Bowie’s invented identities early in his career, was an actor who “had a huge impact on different stages of my life,” Morgen explains. puberty, when I discovered it. It’s a powerful thing, at a time when I’m looking for myself, ”he added.

Morgen finally met his idol in the 2000s during the development of another project. “It’s not yet the right time, thank God, because I’m not yet in the place I need for a Bowie movie,” he laughs.

After Bowie’s death, one of his estate officers confessed to Morgen that the actor had preserved an extensive archive. “Not for a traditional job, but more for something engaging, like what I’m planning.”

However, Morgen had a heart attack and went into a coma. Once restored, he realized that “Bowie’s philosophy, his words, his art” were more important to him than ever.

“Death, reincarnation, they were the topics Bowie talked about from the beginning, as in his song. Silly Boy Blue“, insisted the 53-year-old American documentary filmmaker.

And to prove it, he took out his mobile phone and put it down Silly Boy Bluecompared to black star, Bowie’s last hit, taken from the album he recorded at the gates of death.

A title with a wink

Moonage Daydream is also the title of a song from Bowie’s famous album The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust.

The documentary shows Bowie cutting out phrases and joining them at random, a creative process that may be reminiscent of Dadaism or surrealism. And as well as curiosities like a young Jeff Beck, guitarist of the British group Yardbirds, on stage with Bowie.

The film is not a hagiography: Bowie’s drug or eating problems can be felt. Or her contradictions about money and art, during the recording of an ad with Tina Turner. And as well as his ability as an artist, one of his hidden parts.

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