When it comes to the subject of an artist like David Bowie, it is truly difficult to pinpoint exactly what he is and who he is as the man himself never stuck to one style let alone any style. Up till his death in January 10, 2016, the man continuously maintained a sense of intrigue as well as keep people guessing as he refused to live life by anyone’s expectations. What this film does isn’t really go into the many aspects of his life as an artist and as a person but rather a man who is often trying to find something and continue to find out whoever he is. A traditional documentary would’ve played by the numbers and sometimes tell things that people already know but what Brett Morgen does is have the man himself tell his own story through archival audio and video footage including rare and unseen material that had been kept by Bowie for years with the permission from his estate to allow Morgen to tell Bowie’s story.
Using all sorts of footage from Bowie’s lifetime including concerts, rare home films, pictures, paintings, interviews, and the films that Bowie had appeared in. Morgen creates a film that doesn’t have a traditional narrative as it play more into a man growing up and finding himself as this alien rock star from Mars, a troubled singer with a serious cocaine problem, a nomad living in Berlin, a traveler in transition as he goes around the world and do movies, a superstar who reached the masses only to compromise himself as an artist, and a man who found stability and love in all aspects of life while living in the present. Throughout the course of the film, there are these images of outer space as if the cosmos are being created as they kind of serve as structure breaks to play into Bowie moving from one persona and into another.
While the film doesn’t dwell too much into Bowie’s personal life other than bits about his early life including his love for his older half-brother Terry and later his second marriage to the model Iman. Morgen chooses to focus mostly on Bowie as he constantly changes and goes from one place to another in his own search for identity and meaning while it doesn’t include bits about Bowie’s time in Tin Machine from 1989 to 1992 which is just a minor omission as it doesn’t have any effect on the film’s unconventional narrative. Notably as it play on these key events such as Bowie’s stardom in the 70s to becoming this mega-superstar in the early 80s only to struggle with who he is as an artist and what people want in the second half of the decade. In the 1990s, Bowie found personal happiness in both as an artist and as a person up till the end of his life as he also talks about the idea of embracing chaos early and then eventually into finding some form of order with elements of chaos.
Among some of the footage shown in the film aren’t just films that Bowie starred in but also other films that play into Bowie’s own philosophies on life and art that include some of his own paintings where he explained why he never did an art gallery mainly because he considers his own paintings to be personal. Among some of the rare footage include some live performances as well as outtakes from music videos, promotional bits, his 1980 stage performance for The Elephant Man on Broadway, and other rare films including projects such as Love You Till Tuesday and the documentary Ricochet. One notably rare bit that is given some restoration is from the D.A. Pennebaker’s 1983 concert documentary film Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars that features Bowie and the band playing The Jean Genie with the Beatles’ Love Me Do with Jeff Beck that never made it to the final film and had often been shown in poor condition. What the film shows is a new look and the performance itself is among one of the gems shown.
Serving as the editor, Morgen does use a lot of footage, TV interviews, and rare footage presented and mix it with some film footage as well as some unique animated pieces by Stefan Nadelman and Vello Virkhaus that includes a rotoscope animated piece from outtakes for the music video Fame ’90 by Gus Van Sant in which Bowie is dancing with Louise Lecavalier of the Quebecois contemporary dance group La La La Human Steps who toured with Bowie in 1990 as it played into Bowie’s new outlook on life in the 1990s. Sound designers Samir Foco, Nina Hartstone, and John Warhurst help gather many of the audio from the many interviews that Bowie did in his lifetime along with excerpts from films and his music.
The film’s music is presented in a bit of a remix and collage style as it play into his many evolutions and periods in those years as a lot of it is supervised by Bowie’s longtime producer Tony Visconti with Morgan also doing some of the mixing as well. Using not just some of Bowie’s hits but also deep cuts and instrumentals made throughout his career as it adds to the dramatic presentation of the film. Even as some of the deep cuts are presented in a new lights along with some of the live performances as the music sounds not just broader but also effective in their live setting.
Moonage Daydream is a tremendous film from Brett Morgen. While for anyone that doesn’t know much about David Bowie or are new to him are going to be confused at first by its unconventional structure yet will be amazed by the footage it does provide. For fans of Bowie, this film is a must to watch in terms of the rare footage as well as the chance to experience something that is more than just an audio/visual tribute to Bowie but also as a film that play into the man and his many guises and journeys he took into being this great figure of popular culture that the universe know and love. In the end, Moonage Daydream is a spectacular film from Brett Morgen.
Brett Morgen Films: The Kid Stays in the Picture - Crossfire Hurricane - Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck - (Jane (2017 film))
Related: Cracked Actor - Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars - Jazzin' for Blue Jean - David Bowie: Five Years - David Bowie: The Last Five Years - David Bowie: Finding Fame
© thevoid99 2022
Based on the autobiography by Robert Evans, The Kid Stays in the Picture is about the life and career of film producer Robert Evans who was the production chief of Paramount Picture in the late 1960s and early 1970s as well as becoming a successful producer of his own. Directed by Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen and screenplay by Morgen, the film is a documentary told by Evans himself through excerpts of his 1994 autobiography from his years as an actor to being one of the top producers of the 1970s. The result is a stylish yet mesmerizing film from Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen.
Robert Evans is a man that is considered a legend in Hollywood as he was running Paramount Pictures in the late 1960s where he would take the studio and put it back in prominence through hit films such as Rosemary’s Baby, True Grit, Love Story, and The Godfather while becoming a producer in the 1970s for films such as Chinatown, Black Sunday, Marathon Man, and Urban Cowboy. Evans was also notorious for his liaisons with many women as he was briefly married to actress Ali MacGraw in the early 1970s before she left him for actor Steve McQueen. Though he started off working for his brother Charles Evans in the Evans-Picone fashion company, it was a moment where he was swimming in a pool and taking phone calls at the Beverly Hills Hotel in 1956 that changed everything where was discovered by film legend Norma Shearer.
Shearer would give him the chance to star as her late husband Irving Thalberg for the film Man of a Thousand Faces as he would also be hired for an adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises against the wishes of Hemingway and the film’s stars in Ava Gardner and Tyrone Power. Yet, it was then 20th Century Fox studio chief Darryl F. Zanuck who liked Evans and told them “the kid stays in the picture”. Though his acting career was brief, Evans’ knack for finding projects for studios did get him a job working at Paramount Pictures which was going through a very dire period of flops and management shake-ups once it was purchased by Gulf+Western. Through one of its executives in Charles Bluhdorn, Evans would be made head of productions as he would get the studio out of its funk with the help of journalist Peter Bart who would be an executive at the studio.
The film doesn’t just play into Evans’ rise as a prominent figure in Hollywood as Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen choose not just pictures but also some archival interviews into how Evans would become this revered figure in Hollywood. Even as there’s some rare footage such as a presentation filmed by Mike Nichols for the people at Gulf+Western into what Paramount Pictures was to do in the 1970s. The film also has many new images shot inside Evans’ Woodland home with the aid of cinematographer John Bailey who would bring in elements of beauty into the lighting for its scenes at night as it was Evans’ own paradise. Especially as Evans describes the time he invited Ali MacGraw into his home where she went into the pool and they fell in love that night. Aided by visual effects supervisors Yorgo Alexopoulos and Jason Stoff in bringing color and 3-D images to the photos, Burstein and Morgen would showcase many of the good things that was happening to Evans in the 1970s despite his split with MacGraw in 1972 as it would crash in 1980 when he was busted for cocaine trafficking.
Editor Jun Diaz help create montages as well as gather footage of archival interviews Evans has made throughout his life and career including footage of the Roy Radin murder trial which Evans was unfortunately tied to due to the fact that he met Radin who helped finance the 1984 film The Cotton Club. Sound designer Claude Letessier and sound editor Ahmad Shirazi would help gather many of the audio from the audio book that features everything Evans says about his life as it help add some humor into the film as well as unique personality. The film’s music by Jeff Danna is very low-key for its usage of strings and piano to play into some of the lively moments and dark moments involving the Radin murder trial while music supervisor Anita Serwacki provides a soundtrack that feature a lot of the music from the 70s that played into Evans’ rise in Hollywood.
The Kid Stays in the Picture is a phenomenal film from Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen. It’s a documentary that doesn’t exactly play by the rules in telling the life of Robert Evans where it has the man himself telling everything including all of the good and bad that he’s done in his illustrious life. In the end, The Kid Stays in the Picture is an incredible film from Nanette Burstein and Brett Morgen.
© thevoid99 2017
Written, co-edited, and directed by Brett Morgen, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck is a documentary about the life and death of the Nirvana vocalist/guitarist who struggled with fame that led to his suicide at the age of 27 in April 5, 1994. Through various archival and rare footage provided by Cobain’s family as well as several animated sequences by Stefan Nadelman and Hisko Hulsing. The film plays into Cobain’s life and career as he was considered the voice of a generation during a turbulent period in the early 1990s. The result is a fascinating yet haunting film from Brett Morgen.
In the early 1990s, a little band that blended punk rock aesthetics, heavy metal rage, and pop sensibility known as Nirvana went from being this obscure band from Aberdeen, Washington to becoming the biggest band in the world in the span of a few years. Its leader in Kurt Cobain became an unlikely spokesman for a generation of disaffected and angry youth who had enough of 1980s Republican propaganda and big-haired rockers wearing spandex. Yet, Cobain would have trouble adjusting to his new fame as his addiction to heroin to cope with a stomach ailment and other things eventually led to his suicide at the age of 27. The film isn’t about his death but rather his entire life up until his suicide attempt in March of 1994 in Rome, Italy while on tour.
Featuring new interviews from Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, Cobain’s widow Courtney Love, Cobain’s parents Don Cobain and Wendy O’Connor, Cobain’s sister Kim, Cobain’s stepmother, and a few that also knew him. The film doesn’t just explore the life of a young man whose idyllic childhood was destroyed upon his parents’ divorce at the age of 9 as his life would become very tumultuous as Cobain’s parents and stepmother revealed how bad things were as he was forced to live from one relative’s home to another before eventually settling to live with his mother. Since he was also a social outcast by the time he was a teenager, it was through punk rock where he found salvation as he would form a band with high school friend Krist Novoselic that would eventually become Nirvana.
Through some re-created animated sequences by Stefan Nadelman and Hisko Hulsing based on Cobain’s own drawings and notes from his own notebook, the film not only plays into the evolution of Cobain as an artist but how his art would express the rage and despair that would loom all over him. Even as they would use some archived audio to recreate stories about Cobain’s life such as the time he would hand out with stoners and do things with a mute fat girl. The animation plays into not just some of the music Cobain did with Nirvana but also into how complicated his life was even when he did become successful. With the aid of editor Joe Beshenkovsky and sound designer Cameron Frankley, Brett Morgen captures the intensity of Nirvana’s sudden success from being this little band playing in small clubs in Washington and in houses where only a few people show up to suddenly playing stadiums in Brazil.
One notable moment in the film that is really striking about how bad Cobain was to adjust from this sudden change is an interview with her mother where she talked about the day she first heard the band’s 1991 breakthrough album Nevermind. She would tell her son that this album will change his life and he’s not going to be ready for this change as her premonition wasn’t just spot-on but also terrifying. There’s also a moment where Courtney Love talks about their relationship as she revealed why Cobain tried to kill himself in Rome in March of 1994 for something she thought about doing. She also revealed what happened in 1992 when Nirvana took a break on tour as it is revealed through rare home movies as it reveals exactly what the two were doing at that time. On the one hand, it shows a couple just absolutely in love and having fun but it’s also scary considering that the two were junkies at a time when Love didn’t know she was pregnant with their daughter Frances Bean.
With the aid of cinematographers Jim Whitaker and Nicole Hirsch Whitaker, many of the new interviews are presented in a straightforward manner while Morgen and Beshenkovsky would create edits to explain some of the things that were happening as some of the editing is shown in montages to play into the band‘s sudden rise. Music supervisor Howard Paar would provide some contributions from the Everly Brothers, the Brady Bunch Kids, The Jury (a super group featuring members of Nirvana and Screaming Trees), and variations of Nirvana songs by other people into the mix as much of the music is from the band and some audio montages and rare recordings from Cobain including a cover of the Beatles’ And I Love Her.
Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck is an incredible film from Brett Morgen. It’s a film that doesn’t just reveal what kind of person Kurt Cobain was but also why he didn’t live very long. It’s a film that is quite adventurous but also very scary considering how flawed of a person Cobain was. Especially as he was put into a pedestal that only made things worse as all he ever wanted was something normal. In the end, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck is a phenomenal film from Brett Morgen.
Related: (The Kid Stays in the Picture) - Crossfire Hurricane
© thevoid99 2015
