Archive for November 2022

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[Commlist] New Book: David Bowie and Film

Thu Nov 03 13:00:10 GMT 2022





Colleagues may be interested in this new publication from Palgrave Macmillan – */David Bowie and Film: Hooked to the Silver Screen /*by Stephen Glynn.

Book description:

This book constitutes the first monograph dedicated to an academic analysis of David Bowie’s appearances in film. Through close textual analysis together with production and reception histories, Bowie’s ‘silver screen’ career is explored in full. The book covers performance documentaries such as /Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars/, star vehicles ranging from the eulogised /The Man Who Fell to Earth/ to the excoriated /Just a Gigolo/, plus roles from the horror chic of /The Hunger/ and cult fantasy of /Labyrinth/ to the valiant high-brow /Baal/ and vainglorious high-budget /Absolute Beginners/, ending with Bowie as Bowie in /Bandslam/ and others as ‘Bowie’ in /Velvet Goldmine/ and /Stardust/. Alongside showing his willingness to experiment (and at times fail) across a variety of genres, this study investigates Bowie’s performative style that, while struggling to accommodate the requirements of cinematic realism, fits more harmoniously with alternative production codes and aesthetics. More broadly, by exploring the commercial, socio-cultural and ideological significance of Bowie on film, the book demonstrates how notions of gender, sexuality and identity formation, plus commodity and cultural capital, function and fluctuate in contemporary society.

//

/David Bowie and Film: Hooked to the Silver Screen/ is an important book. It analyses Bowie’s crossover stardom and provides new knowledge of not only Bowie as a cultural figure but also of the films Bowie acted in. As such, the book also offers a very useful and original case study of the ways in which one star can have a profound impact on British cinema history and cultural history.

-      Paul Newland, University of Worcester

Further details are available at the Palgrave Macmillan/Springer website:

https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-13401-2 <https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-13401-2>

While perhaps stretching a point to recommend the book as that perfect Christmas gift for the Bowie fan in your life, do please consider requesting a copy for your library. It should be relevant to module reading lists not only in Film Studies, but also Popular Music, History, Sociology, Television, Media and Cultural Studies.


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