Moonage daydream

During the American Film Festival of Deauville, we were able to discover Brett Morgen's new documentary film dedicated to one of the greatest artists of the music scene, David Bowie. While many music documentaries seem to follow the same pattern, Moonage Daydream wants to be and succeeds in being a true cinematographic experience and immerses viewers in the world of an artist in perpetual evolution as comfortable creating songs as drawing paintings and creating art in all possible forms we follow with great interest the journey of an artist of genius who knew how to remain faithful to his will not to reproduce indefinitely the same musical lock. David Bowie was not only a gifted musical genius and at times pushing his art of disguise to all possible excesses, he was an artist capable of reinventing himself in each musical era and through more than fifty years.

Moonage Daydream is an original approach to the work of David Bowie, but also seeks to understand who he really was. Far from a world famous artist adulated by millions of people, we feel through this immersive portrait a fragile being trying to find his place in society and to leave a trace in the history of his passage on earth. Like artists such as Michael Jackson, Prince, Bruce Springsteen and Madonna, David Bowie is one of the most illustrious artists who has not only transcended the music world but also had a significant impact on the world of cinema. Whether it be the use of his music in numerous films or his actual participation as an actor as in The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), The Hunger (1983), Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1983), Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992), The Prestige (2006). 

Brett Morgen is not at his first music documentary film and we remember in particular Crossfire Hurricane (2012) devoted to the group The Rolling Stones or more recently Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck (2015). The experience assimilated throughout his career finds here all its meaning by delivering us simply one of the best music documentaries discovered in cinema. The result is all the more impressive that this film is practically only made up of archival images selected with the greatest care and avoiding to show images too known which would have thus attenuated the pleasure taken by the spectators to discover this film.

It would also be interesting to look at the clothing aspect and its evolution concerning David Bowie, whether it was the character he created for himself Ziggy Stardust in the 70's. To the point of wondering who was really this artist who knew how to change his appearance and live different lives and especially travel around the world to find new sources of inspiration. Even the biggest fans of Davie Bowie will be able to learn new things about him as this film is full of anecdotes and information of different kinds. It is easy to understand that director Brett Morgen found in David Bowier's work and in his life the means to draw a more general portrait of our society, of the artists' fans and of a world that seems to want to move forward perpetually and therefore leads many artists to change their musical genres.

Another asset of this exceptional documentary film is to propose many musical numbers and shows us well as the excellent documentary film Rattle and Hum (1988) that it is on stage that an artist finds all his musical dimension and David Bowie gave unforgettable and striking concerts.

David Bowie died two days after the release of his final album Blackstar on January 8, 2016. Like many artists who died too young, we will think in particular of Freddie Mercury his work will remain eternal and this film is to date a vibrant and unforgettable tribute. We can only advise you to go and see it at the cinema when it will be released on September 16th in the United States and on September 21st in France.

Moonage Daydream
Written, directed, edited, produced by Brett Morgen
Starring David Bowie
Production companies: HBO Documentary Films, BMG, Public Road Productions, Live Nation Productions
Distributed by Neon
Release dates: May 23, 2022 (Cannes), September 16, 2022 (USA), September 21, 2022 (France)
Running time: 140 minutes

Seen on September 4, 2022 at the Deauville international centre

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