Musical Mondays Week 85 Velvet Goldmine

[Quasar Sniffer 4174]

Gun to my head, "Ashes to Ashes" is probably my favorite Bowie song as well. But one thing that always fascinated me about Bowie is he influence on collaborators and how they influenced him, from the 1960s until his death. I think a perfect encapsulation of that is the ABSOLUTELY FUCKING PERFECT song "I'm Afraid of Americans" and the paranoia-soaked video that accompanied it. I still feel this song and video. Real hard. The end coda of "God is an American" still gives me chills, as Bowie's voice is played out and overtaken by the NIN-ish keyboards. It doesn't hurt that I still love Mr. Reznor like I am a 16-year-old Angsty Boi.

 

 

[GrahamS. 803]

Ok, I just tried watching this tonight and could not get into it. The constant narration felt like I was being given a lecture on who these people were and how amazing they were and blah blah blah. The characters barely spoke for themselves. The narration was only broken up for the musical numbers which felt like a 90s movie trying to be a hip 70s movie and feeling fake in that weirdly ironic 90s way. I don’t know who they got to do the music but I wish they had just gotten Pulp to do the entire thing.

All of this to say, when a movie is THIS RELIANT on narration and songs that I do not like (and I like glam rock, just not THIS glam rock) I stop at the 40 minute mark. Perhaps the next 80 minutes are filled with brilliance, but I’m ok on missing out.

I’m glad other people liked it. I could see how it could be fun to watch! For me, no, but for you!
 

 

 

[tomspanks 9039]

Is this movie saying that Oscar Wilde is the first glam rock star? 

[grudlian. 4725]

1 hour ago, tomspanks said:

Is this movie saying that Oscar Wilde is the first glam rock star? 

Are you saying he wasn't?!?!?!

[tomspanks 9039]

1 hour ago, grudlian. said:

Are you saying he wasn't?!?!?!

Is he really?  Serious question.  I don't know much about his life and I've only read a few of his short stories.  

[grudlian. 4725]

28 minutes ago, tomspanks said:

Is he really?  Serious question.  I don't know much about his life and I've only read a few of his short stories.  

I don't know. I was just making a joke. I guess if there is a Victorian era version of a glam rock star, he's the closest thing I can think of.

[Cameron H. 23786]

41 minutes ago, tomspanks said:

Is he really?  Serious question.  I don't know much about his life and I've only read a few of his short stories.  

Oscar Wilde was all about being flamboyance, androgyny, and “art for art’s sake.” Maybe not the first glam rock star, but maybe a patron saint.

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

As a side project, we have to watch a movie that shares a word or words with the title of the selected movie.  Therefore, this weekend, everyone has to watch National Velvet with Elizabeth Taylor in it.

[Cameron H. 23786]

20 minutes ago, Cinco DeNio said:

As a side project, we have to watch a movie that shares a word or words with the title of the selected movie.  Therefore, this weekend, everyone has to watch National Velvet with Elizabeth Taylor in it.

I own this movie and may actually do this

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

9 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

I own this movie and may actually do this

It was either that or Inside the Goldmine but that only has a 2.2 rating on IMDB.

[GrahamS. 803]

1 hour ago, Cinco DeNio said:

As a side project, we have to watch a movie that shares a word or words with the title of the selected movie.  Therefore, this weekend, everyone has to watch National Velvet with Elizabeth Taylor in it.

Why not Blue Velvet?

[GrahamS. 803]

I’d say Velvet Buzzsaw but that Netflix movie BLOWS.

[tomspanks 9039]

Y’all can rewatch Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire, since baize is velvet-adjacent 

[Cinco DeNio 5290]

Watched National Velvet tonight for the first time. I had read the book when I was a kid but don’t remember ever seeing the movie. I loved the dynamic between the husband and wife. Yes, the husband was a blowhard throughout but he wasn’t nearly as strict or out of touch as the dad in Meet Me in St. Louis.

[Cockney Mackem 514]

Fun fact: Ewan McGregor tells a story of how he and Christian Bale had to film a rooftop sex scene where the director and camera crew were positioned on the next building. There were instructions beforehand but once they were, so to speak, up there, they were on their own.

So Ewan and Christian got on with it, and did their sexy acting for what seemed like a very long time. They then thought, "well they must have enough footage now" and Ewan turned to the next rooftop and shouted to the crew "Was that OK!?!?"

At which point they saw that the director and crew had already packed up and left.