Velvet Goldmine (Widescreen)

The film is very symphonic and atmospheric, and flutters thru the celluloid sky. It can be confusing at first viewing, because everything is juxtaposed and jumbled. It flickers between eras, characters, and storylines in a half-remembered dream way. The movie must be watched as a feeling, not a sit-back-and-relax caper.

The movie is NOT based on David Bowie and Iggy Pop, at least not entirely. They never had such an affair and never had such lives. The movie is fiction. Brian Slade is no more David Bowie than he is Marc Bolan or Jobriath, and Curt Wilde is no more Iggy Pop than he is Lou Reed and David Johansen. And neither of them are any of them. They're composites of the essence of real people - or of the feeling of them - thrown into a London backdrop thru the lens of Citizen Kane and an Oscar Wilde fairy tale.

Many of the events are real events (Brian's Top of the Pops performance, as well as his relationship with Cecil, is very much akin to Marc Bolan's performance and relationship with Simon Napier-Bell -- The Maxwell Demon album cover is an almost exact remake of Jobriath's self-titled album cover, etc...). Many of the events are real fictions (the movie plays out threw a Citizen Kane-like sequence -- Oscar Wilde's story "Star Child" is carried throughout the movie via a green pendant which is passed around, not to mention many Wilde quotes and parables from stories such as "The Remarkable Rocket" and "The Picture of Dorian Gray"). But nothing in the movie is real. It's simply beautiful fancy.

The film is based around reporter Arthur Stewart, who is, in 1984, on a quest to discover the mysteries behind a fake murder/publicity stunt of Brian Slade in 1974. Everything and everyone in the movie circles back to him, and his discovery. What does he eventually discover? Symbolicly, himself. Literally... watch the movie.

The real Star of the film is Jack Fairy, a beautifully elusive archeotype with the grace of Garbo, the fantasy of Oscar Wilde, and the power of Marc Bolan who silently glides thru the movie, not saying a word until the end, but playing one of THE MOST VITAL ROLES in the movie (he and Arthur make the movie... Brian and Curt are just vehicles for everything to happen).

Many great songs too, from T. Rex, Roxy Music, Lou Reed, Cockney Rebel, etc... Most of them covers, though. As well as newbies such as Shudder To Think and Pulp.

It's a beautiful film. Not action packed, kinda confusing, and not too tethered to a plot. But beautiful - ethereal. It's very layered. If you enjoy Glam rock, Oscar Wilde, Citizen Kane, fairy tales, or just things and people to fall in love with, you'll probably like the movie.

Oh, one interestingly thing to point out is the surplus of Roxy Music songs, but the lack of a Bryan Ferry-like character. Bryan was a consultant for the film, so methinks that's intentional - he made sure they kept him out of the muck.