Moonage Daydream, Brett Morgen’s spectacular David Bowie odyssey

Picture of the film MOONAGE DAYDREAM by Brett MORGEN © DR

The American director Brett Morgen, who had access to thousands of hours of archive footage, paints a spectacular portrait of David Bowie in Moonage Daydream, a film constructed as an experimental odyssey.

"I'm an alligator, I'm a mama-papa comin' for you, I'm the space invader, I'll be a rock 'n' rollin' bitch for you", sings David Bowie in 1972's "Moonage Daydream", one of the cult songs from The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars, and which has lent its name to the title of the film.

 

The feature film, which is neither a biopic nor a documentary, but a real cinematographic firework display, explores David Bowie's different artistic and spiritual journeys through a number of disciplines: music and cinema, but also theatre, dance, painting, sculpture, screenwriting and acting.

 

The film relies, in particular, on concert footage as it unfolds, and 48 of Bowie's songs have been remastered so that the audience's experience is as immersive as possible. Brett Morgen believes that it's "difficult to describe Bowie", as the singer "cannot be defined. He can only be experienced. That's why we conceived Moonage Daydream in such a way that the film would be an experience."

 

In, total production of the documentary – the first authorised by the estate since the death of David Bowie in 2015 – lasted five years. The director, a big Bowie fan since his adolescence, spent two years scouring the archives that were made available to him to pick out the rarest moments.