Bowie: The First Five Years completes BBC film trilogy – at the beginning
THIS SPRING, one of the BBC’s highest-profile documentary series, on the life of David Bowie, comes home. The First Five Years concludes Francis Whately’s acclaimed film cycle, and tackles his early years, promising a new take on a man who was not only supremely creative, but extraordinarily tough; tough enough to turn his own death into an art event. At the time of writing, Whately hasn’t started an edit or completed clearances, although he’s convinced there’s unseen footage in Europe, and is likewise chasing new audio. But there will be genuinely riveting new insights. Among these will be Hermione Farthingale, David’s girlfriend from 1968, who in the last 50 years has never been filmed talking about her ex-lover. Hermione is insightful, exceptionally lucid, and one of the few collaborators in Bowie’s life who left him, rather than vice versa. Her footage includes her reading a love letter from David: “She called it her Letter To Hermione,” says Whately. “He’s written [it] at the beginning of their relationship. It was very sweet, like the letter that all of us have at the bottom of the drawer. Very touching and romantic. And it was quite a privilege to get her.” Cousin Kristina Amadeus is another intriguing new interviewee in a final episode that, via its focus on his early years, illuminates the work ethic that permeated his last months. Bowie’s career was always inextricably linked with the BBC; he was stung by its early rejections, one of which is featured in the latest episode in letter form, but later, alongside visionary radio producers like Jeff Griffin, he prototyped many key artistic leaps forward in BBC sessions or concerts. This relationship, Whately believes, underpinned his own work, for David was supportive of the first episode of the project in 2013. His support of Whately survived the latter’s refusal to show him an advance copy: “I said ‘absolutely not. You know the game. But I’ll send you a copy so you can watch it simultaneously.’ And he did that, and wrote to me the second it was finished to say, I’m very proud of you.” Now, Whately insists he’s done; the third documentary will be “the last. I can’t do any more.” Documenting what is likely a more sustained period of failure than any similar musician transformed Whately’s own relationship with Bowie: “This film has made me admire him more than ever. It was his absolute refusal to give up. The film is a catalogue of disasters – one thing after another goes wrong. Any normal person would be knocked sideways. He gets up off the floor and tries again.” As MOJO goes to press, a screening date is pencilled in for February or March; joining other major Bowie events including the recent Glastonbury 2000 film, a virtual reality app of the David Bowie Is exhibition, and at least one Record Store Day release in April which will, it’s suggested, be “something a bit unexpected”. Three years since Black Star day, Bowie has clearly achieved the fame the young David Jones craved; as Whately points out, the man’s reputation is now on a higher plane: “more valued than he ever was”.
“This film has made me admire him more than ever.” FRANCIS WHATELY, DIRECTOR
Bowie: The First Five Years screens in the spring, final date to be confirmed.