[Commlist] New Book: David Bowie and Film

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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