Wednesday, July 24, 2013

The Film Society of Lincoln Center Presents David Bowie Series August 2-8


The Film Society of Lincoln Center (FSLC) will present a weeklong series, Watch That Man: David Bowie, Movie Star, August 2 through August 8. After the release of a new album (The Next Day) and a sold-out museum exhibition in London (David Bowie Is), this tribute continues the year’s focus on Bowie’s fascinating career.



Of course there's the epic Man Who Fell to Earth, where Bowie needed no introduction in 1976 as a perfectly cast alien. (I sat through an extended Director’s cut, quite the marathon and let’s just say I saw more than I ever needed to of David Bowie with the nudity involved!) However, his work in the 80s is well represented: The Hunger (1983), Labyrinth (1986), and Absolute Beginners (1986).  Plus another one I can’t believe I sat through with its horrific torture scenes, Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence (1982). 

There’s also Bowie’s take as Andy Warhol in Basquait (1996) and as the inventor Nicola Tesla in The Prestige (2006).
 
Two rarities from the BBC’s archives include the U.S. Premiere of Alan Clarke’s musical adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s Baal with Bowie in the title role, and a rare screening of Alan Yentob’s BBC documentary Cracked Actor (1975) which will be paired with a fun retrospective I can’t miss, David Bowie: The Music Videos 1979 – 2013.  Another offering features D.A. Pennebaker’s concert film Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars – The Motion Picture (1973). 
 


All screenings will take place at the Walter Reade Theater, 165 West 65th Street. For further information visit the FSLC website here.