\u201cAnd I did not want people to think that I was presenting the definitive film on David Bowie. I\u2019d love to see the guy who thinks they\u2019re doing the definitive film on David Bowie \u2013 it\u2019s not to be captured, it\u2019s a fool\u2019s errand!\u201d<\/p>\n
The film is a two-and-a-half hour immersive experience that includes a raft of never-before-seen footage and interviews, and Morgen said it was essential for him to find a focus before he dug into the archive \u2013 to which he was granted access by Bill Zysblat, the executor of Bowie\u2019s estate.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy rule for making films, going back to The Kid Stays in the Picture [about Hollywood producer Bob Evans],\u201d he says, \u201cis like\u2026 Bob Evans lived one of the greatest lives of the 20th Century \u2013 how do you package that in 90 minutes?<\/p>\n
\u201cI learned on that film something I\u2019ve carried with me throughout my whole career, which is, you have to pick a lane. You\u2019re not gonna get everything in, so you need your throughline.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"""\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/3\/2022\/09\/Moonage-Daydream-2-980be58.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C413"\" "\\"\"\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div> On this occasion, though, creating a throughline proved \u201ca little bit elusive\u201d for Morgen. He intended his film to be first and foremost a cinematic experience and wasn\u2019t interested in being beholden to the traditional rules of narrative \u2013 something which made the process rather tricky.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat f**ked with my head,\u201d he explains. \u201cI didn\u2019t know how to do that. I was like, I knew the throughline was transience and chaos and fragmentation, and the various kind of iterations of that. But I\u2019d spent eight months trying to crack the script after I went through all the material, and I just couldn\u2019t figure out how to write the experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so then I needed to reorientate how I worked and the answer ended up being kind of simple: I reached on my bookshelf and pulled up Joseph Campbell\u2019s The Hero with a Thousand Faces. And I was like, \u2018Let me see what happens when I drop Bowie into the hero\u2019s myth.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I basically adopted this idea that it\u2019s like Ulysses, except he\u2019s creating his own storms: he\u2019s creating Berlin, he\u2019s creating the mainstream success, he\u2019s creating all of these challenges for himself.<\/p>\n