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.