Stewart Clarke The early years
Documentary maker shines spotlight on David Bowie’s breakthrough
Francis Whately said making David Bowie: Finding Fame — his third film about the rock star — has given him a chance to tell the story of the singer’s earlier years, which was previously denied him. The film airs Saturday on the BBC.
Spiders From Mars band member Mick (Woody) Woodmansey, Bowie’s cousin and friend Kristina Amadeus, and former girlfriends Dana Gillespie and Hermione Farthingale, all of whom feature in the film, were among those at an emotionally charged London screening of David Bowie: Finding Fame, which chronicles the iconic rock star’s early years and attempts to find stardom.
Whately had wanted to cover Bowie’s efforts to break through when he was making an earlier documentary series, The Seven Ages of Rock, but was rebuffed. Programming execs have since changed their tune.
The 90-minute documentary traces the star’s early years, featuring hits such as Space Oddity and Star Man, as well as lesser-known earlier work. There’s footage from a famous 1973 gig in Hammersmith, West London, when Bowie announced that it was Spiders From Mars’ last show, and rare audio from a 1971 Glastonbury performance.
Whately’s new film covers lesser-known territory than its two predecessors.
“I was delighted the BBC gave me the opportunity to do this period because I think it is a lost period and it is really, really good. It’s not lost for a good reason,” the director said.
“I think it stands up and makes sense of everything that went after.”
The previous two films featured such songs as Rebel Rebel and The Jean Genie, which are instantly recognizable to legions of music fans.
“They are more familiar with that territory. Most of the audience don’t know London Boys, don’t know Let Me Sleep Beside You, don’t know All the Madmen, and possibly don’t know Letter to Hermione,” Whately said of the tracks in the latest film.
“In that way I think it’s more difficult. In narrative terms it’s quite easy, because it’s (about) a man trying to make it. It’s a man picking himself up off the floor.”
Although not an authorized film — “David never really wanted a film about him,” Whately said — BBC head of music TV commissioning Jan Younghusband said Bowie had written to the broadcaster after the first film expressing approval, which gave it the confidence to order the two further films. His relationship with the BBC was not always so smooth, with footage in Finding Fame showing its executives dismissing Bowie as an “amateur-sounding vocalist” after an early audition.
The film examines Bowie’s relationship with girlfriend and muse Farthingale. She was asked at the screening how she had felt upon hearing Bowie’s song Letter to Hermione after the couple had split.
“It wasn’t a letter that had a stamp on it and demanded an answer — it was rhetorical by that point,” she said. “Everything David writes has extraordinary acuity and a precision and he puts things absolutely beautifully and spot-on. So for that, of course, I appreciated it.”
BBC Studios is selling the series internationally. It’s not yet known whether a Canadian broadcaster or cable service will pick it up.
On another Bowie project, Bowie’s son Duncan Jones says his father’s music won’t appear in new biopic Stardust because he hasn’t signed off on it.
It was recently announced that British actor Johnny Flynn would portray Bowie in the feature, which will chart his rise, starting with the 1971 U.S. trip that inspired his creation of Ziggy Stardust. But Jones quickly said he hasn’t given his permission to use any of Bowie’s music.
“I think this journalist needs to do some investigative reporting,” he tweeted alongside an article announcing the project. “Pretty certain nobody has been granted music rights for ANY biopic ... I would know.”
He also hinted his family wasn’t being consulted on the film. Jones said he’d be more likely to give permission if author Neil Gaiman or Peter Ramsey, who co-directed Oscar-nominated animation Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, wanted to do a Bowie project.