Wednesday, June 1, 2022

๐ŸŽ‡๐ŸŽฌ ๐—ฉ๐—˜๐—Ÿ๐—ฉ๐—˜๐—ง ๐—š๐—ข๐—Ÿ๐——๐— ๐—œ๐—ก๐—˜ ๐—œ๐—ก ๐—–๐—”๐—ก๐—ก๐—˜๐—ฆ ๐—™๐—œ๐—Ÿ๐—  ๐—™๐—˜๐—ฆ๐—ง๐—œ๐—ฉ๐—”๐—Ÿ๐ŸŽฌ๐ŸŽ‡

 Cover of Velevet Goldmine, unknown, Screenshots / Edit by Laetitia

✨ The ๐‘ช๐’‚๐’๐’๐’†๐’” ๐‘ญ๐’Š๐’๐’Ž ๐‘ญ๐’†๐’”๐’•๐’Š๐’—๐’‚๐’ has just ended on 28 May 2022 for its 75th edition. And I remembered that ๐‘ฝ๐’†๐’๐’—๐’†๐’• ๐‘ฎ๐’๐’๐’…๐’Ž๐’Š๐’๐’†, ๐‘ป๐’๐’…๐’… ๐‘ฏ๐’‚๐’š๐’๐’†๐’”' film in which ๐™‹๐™ก๐™–๐™˜๐™š๐™—๐™ค makes an appearance and performs 20๐’•๐’‰ ๐‘ช๐’†๐’๐’•๐’–๐’“๐’š ๐‘ฉ๐’๐’š, was nominated for the 51st edition in 1998.

✨ Indeed, ๐‘ฝ๐’†๐’๐’—๐’†๐’• ๐‘ฎ๐’๐’๐’…๐’Ž๐’Š๐’๐’† was nominated and won the award for the ๐›๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ ๐š๐ซ๐ญ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐œ ๐œ๐จ๐ง๐ญ๐ซ๐ข๐›๐ฎ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐š๐ญ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ˆ๐ง๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ง๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง๐š๐ฅ ๐…๐ข๐ฅ๐ฆ ๐…๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐ฏ๐š๐ฅ. When you think about it, it's not surprising at all ! The film is marked by a very strong aesthetic concern.

✨ Glam rock is not only about music. It was also a style of dressing. It emphasized outrageously flamboyant fashions: platform shoes, sequined suits, women's make-up for men, flashy jackets, and many other accessories outside 'the norm'. Bowie was the most important trendsetter, and his image was at least as important to many fans as the music itself.

✨ It is a revolution that emphasizes the self and experiments with identity, self-expression and sexuality. Glam rock is arguably more about style and individuality than about music.

✨ As ๐‘ป๐’๐’…๐’… ๐‘ฏ๐’‚๐’š๐’๐’†๐’” himself reveals, ๐‘ฝ๐’†๐’๐’—๐’†๐’• ๐‘ฎ๐’๐’๐’…๐’Ž๐’Š๐’๐’† was a long-term project, requiring a lot of investigative work (see quote below).

Photo credit: Screenshots from Velvet Goldmine

๐ŸŽ‡ ๐‘๐„๐•๐ˆ๐„๐–
⭐ ๐‘ฝ๐’†๐’๐’—๐’†๐’• ๐’Ž๐’†๐’Ž๐’๐’“๐’š

A glittering evocation of the glam rock world of the 1970s. Awarded Best Artistic Contribution at the last Cannes Film Festival.

Beware of appearances: "Velvet Goldmine" is not a nostalgic film about the seventies, but rather an initiation film, like initiation novels. Of course, it retains the music (the director warns us to turn the sound up as loud as possible), the style (the glitter, the platform boots and the sexual ambiguity), and the legendary figures: David Bowie of "Ziggy Stardust", Iggy Pop of the Stooges and Lou Reed of "Transformer". For those in their forties who are in search of memories, the film may be a good choice, but it also leads the viewer into a kaleidoscope of stories, images and impressions where it is easy to get lost.

What would you expect from an American filmmaker of the 90s, telling the story of an English journalist of the 80s who investigates a rock star of the 70s ? A film that ultimately resembles "glam rock", where everything is fake enough to seem real. A film about identity under the mask, suffering under the provocation and the passage from a tormented adolescence to an adulthood where everything is not rosy. It is far from nostalgia…

 Jonathan Rhys Meyer by Max Vadukul

⭐ ๐‘ผ๐’๐’†๐’™๐’‘๐’†๐’„๐’•๐’†๐’… ๐’“๐’†๐’‡๐’†๐’“๐’†๐’๐’„๐’†

Strangely, the film begins with an evocation of the childhood of Oscar Wilde who dreamed of becoming a rock star. More than the writer, it is the dandy and the sulfurous artist, condemned for his "deviant" morals, that director Todd Haynes refers to. He finds in this character two of the ingredients of his film: glitter and bisexuality. But behind it all, there is the eternal story of the rising generation that takes pleasure in shattering the certainties of the previous one. And the "glam rock" generation has done so brilliantly, sweeping away the rustic and naive desire for authenticity of "flower power" with an open cynicism, a taste for kitschy excess and a new sexual revolution that their elders had not foreseen.

"Velvet Goldmine" does not escape (it seems) certain formal defects, often due to the back and forth between past and present. But its tone and the presence of actor Christian Bale _ excellent as a teenager and then as a journalist in search of his own identity _ quickly make you forget them. The past, as told by a former manager, a former wife and a former partner-lover, could be tinged with bitterness, but the memory remains velvety.

If the soundtrack seems to have retained more the dark side of "glam rock" than its "glitter" side, the era is indeed there with its immaturity and energy, its ambiguity and certainties. It remains in the film until the end, which, with its aftertaste of unfinished business, reminds us that the glitter quickly faded and eventually disappeared. "They wanted to change the world and they only succeeded in changing themselves", says one of the characters, a replica of 1970s Iggy Pop in the film. Indeed, the open cult of emptiness and worked-out belonging have led nowhere. The music and the decadent baroque are there again. And, in the end, nostalgia may not be so far away. They provide the material for an ambitious, original, eye-catching and ear-catching film that will appeal to all those who are not put off by "glam rock" and its decorum.
✔️ ๐™น๐šŽ๐šŠ๐š—-๐™ผ๐šŠ๐š›๐šŒ ๐™ด๐šœ๐š™๐šŠ๐š•๐š’๐š˜๐šž๐šก ๐š๐š˜๐š› ๐™ป๐šŽ๐šœ ๐™ด๐šŒ๐š‘๐š˜๐šœ - ๐™ณ๐šŽ๐šŒ๐šŽ๐š–๐š‹๐šŽ๐š› ๐Ÿท๐Ÿบ, ๐Ÿท๐Ÿฟ๐Ÿฟ๐Ÿพ

Photo credit: Screenshots from Velvet Goldmine

๐ŸŽ‡ ๐“๐Ž๐ƒ๐ƒ ๐‡๐€๐˜๐๐„๐’ ๐€๐๐Ž๐”๐“ ๐•๐„๐‹๐•๐„๐“ ๐†๐Ž๐‹๐ƒ๐Œ๐ˆ๐๐„

๐Ÿ’ฌ Before I even shot Safe, I worked on Velvet for four years, which involved a lot of research, documentation of the period, and many versions of the script. I didn't live through that Glam period directly. I was living in the States at the time, I was 12 years old, and it was much more underground in California than in England. They had nail polish and lipstick in violent colours, they smoked in the street, and they talked to each other about Iggy, Ziggy, Bowie, and people who were all bi. I remember the cover of Bowie's Aladdin Sane album, which I found disturbing and fascinating, and which I never dared to buy at the time. I didn't realize until later, in college, that all the music I loved, Bowie, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed and Roxy Music, was born out of that little-known chapter in pop history, which mixed American underground rock with a very British excess, showmanship and provocation.
✔️ ๐šƒ๐š˜๐š๐š ๐™ท๐šŠ๐šข๐š—๐šŽ๐šœ - ๐šŒ๐šŠ๐š—๐š—๐šŽ๐šœ-๐š๐šŽ๐šœ๐š.๐šŒ๐š˜๐š–

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๐Ÿ’ฌ I was shaking up real history with [Velvet] Goldmine and people resented that. They want their historical dramas to be authentic and that was the least of my intentions because it was the least of the intentions of glam rock itself. I took [the glam] tenets — dressing up and being fantastical and non-authentic — and tried to apply them to a film. But I think people — at least people in the rock world — missed that. Unfortunately.
✔️ ๐šƒ๐š˜๐š๐š ๐™ท๐šŠ๐šข๐š—๐šŽ๐šœ - ๐™ท๐š˜๐š›๐š—๐šŽ๐š.๐šŒ๐š˜๐š–

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๐Ÿ’ฌ The mixture of those elements, the theatricality mixed in with the raunchy sex, franc sexuality of it all is apparent in the music itself. You don't even have to listen to the words or understand them to feel that in the music.
✔️ ๐šƒ๐š˜๐š๐š ๐™ท๐šŠ๐šข๐š—๐šŽ๐šœ ๐š’๐š— ๐š๐š‘๐šŽ ๐š–๐šŠ๐š”๐š’๐š—๐š ๐š˜๐š ๐š…๐šŽ๐š•๐šŸ๐šŽ๐š ๐™ถ๐š˜๐š•๐š๐š–๐š’๐š—๐šŽ


Photo credit: Screenshot from Velvet Goldmine

✨ Actually, I could quote everyone present in this documentary ! ๐Ÿ˜„
You can watch it here ๐ŸŽฅ https://bit.ly/3M7AfZT ๐ŸŒ 


๐ŸŽ‡ ๐๐‹๐€๐‚๐„๐๐Ž ๐€๐๐Ž๐”๐“ ๐•๐„๐‹๐•๐„๐“ ๐†๐Ž๐‹๐ƒ๐Œ๐ˆ๐๐„

๐Ÿ“ข ๐™’๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐™™๐™ž๐™™ ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช ๐™ก๐™ค๐™ค๐™  ๐™ก๐™ž๐™ ๐™š ๐™ž๐™ฃ ๐™ฎ๐™ค๐™ช๐™ง ๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™–๐™œ๐™š ๐™˜๐™ก๐™ค๐™ฉ๐™๐™š๐™จ ?

๐Ÿ’ฌ ๐‘ฉ๐’“๐’Š๐’‚๐’: Steve looked like one of the Jacksons.

๐Ÿ’ฌ ๐‘บ๐’•๐’†๐’—๐’†: Yeah, Latoya Jackson. I had Jimmy Page's pants on with all these flames down the side of the flared legs and big red platforms. And I had all this mad long hair extensions in. I looked like a big sexy lion.

๐Ÿ’ฌ ๐‘ฉ๐’“๐’Š๐’‚๐’: We all looked pretty stupid, basically.
✔️ ๐™ผ๐šŽ๐š•๐š˜๐š๐šข ๐™ผ๐šŠ๐š”๐šŽ๐š› - ๐™พ๐šŒ๐š๐š˜๐š‹๐šŽ๐š› ๐Ÿท๐Ÿฟ๐Ÿฟ๐Ÿพ

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๐Ÿ“ข ๐‘พ๐’‰๐’š ๐’…๐’ ๐’š๐’๐’– ๐’•๐’‰๐’Š๐’๐’Œ ๐‘ฝ๐’†๐’๐’—๐’†๐’• ๐‘ฎ๐’๐’๐’…๐’Ž๐’Š๐’๐’† ๐’˜๐’‚๐’” ๐’”๐’–๐’„๐’‰ ๐’‚ ๐’๐’๐’• ๐’๐’‡ ๐’”๐’†๐’๐’‡-๐’Š๐’๐’…๐’–๐’๐’ˆ๐’†๐’๐’• ๐’ƒ๐’๐’๐’๐’๐’„๐’Œ๐’” ?

๐Ÿ’ฌ ๐‘ฉ๐’“๐’Š๐’‚๐’: Because you obviously didn’t understand it. It’s a great love story, it’s a feast of colour and music.

๐Ÿ’ฌ ๐‘บ๐’•๐’†๐’‡๐’‚๐’: And it has the most beautiful scene of two men kissing, ever.
✔️ ๐™ฝ๐™ผ๐™ด - ๐™ณ๐šŽ๐šŒ๐šŽ๐š–๐š‹๐šŽ๐š› ๐Ÿท๐Ÿฟ๐Ÿฟ๐Ÿพ


Photo credit: Screenshots from Velvet Goldmine

๐ŸŽ‡ ๐๐‹๐€๐‚๐„๐๐Ž ๐€๐๐Ž๐”๐“ ๐‚๐Ž๐•๐„๐‘๐ˆ๐๐† ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐ญ๐ก ๐‚๐„๐๐“๐”๐‘๐˜ ๐๐Ž๐˜

20๐’•๐’‰ ๐‘ช๐’†๐’๐’•๐’–๐’“๐’š ๐‘ฉ๐’๐’š ๐ŸŽฅ https://bit.ly/3NKsZEt ๐ŸŽต

๐Ÿ’ฌ That version wouldn't never be made by ourselves, just for the pleasure of it. It is not a song that has a special cling to us, we did the version cause it was needed for the film. We don't even own any T-Rex records. But naturally it was a song that we knew for many years..we listened to it on the radio. We have never been T-Rex fans, and we just do versions of songs that we like and from artists we are fond of.
✔️ ๐™ฑ๐š›๐š’๐šŠ๐š— ๐™ผ๐š˜๐š•๐š”๐š˜ - ๐™ณ๐™ฝ๐™ผ๐™ฐ๐š’๐šœ - ๐™พ๐šŒ๐š๐š˜๐š‹๐šŽ๐š› ๐Ÿธ000

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๐Ÿ“ข 20๐™ฉ๐™ ๐™˜๐™š๐™ฃ๐™ฉ๐™ช๐™ง๐™ฎ ๐™—๐™ค๐™ฎ ๐™—๐™ฎ ๐™-๐™๐™š๐™ญ. ๐™’๐™๐™ฎ ๐™˜๐™ค๐™ซ๐™š๐™ง๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™œ ๐™ˆ๐™–๐™ง๐™˜ ๐˜ฝ๐™ค๐™ก๐™–๐™ฃ ๐™ž๐™ฃ๐™จ๐™ฉ๐™š๐™–๐™™ ๐™ค๐™› ๐˜ฟ๐™–๐™ซ๐™ž๐™™ ๐˜ฝ๐™ค๐™ฌ๐™ž๐™š ?

๐Ÿ’ฌ Maybe because Bowie would have been too obvious... And then, this cover was commissioned for Todd Haynes' film Velvet Goldmine about the glam-rock epic, so it's in the film. By the way, as surprising as it may seem to you, none of us have any T-Rex albums at home. I promise, none of them !
✔️ ๐š‚๐š๐šŽ๐š๐šŠ๐š— ๐™พ๐š•๐šœ๐š๐šŠ๐š• - ๐™ผ๐š’๐š๐š’ ๐™ป๐š’๐š‹๐š›๐šŽ - ๐™พ๐šŒ๐š๐š˜๐š‹๐šŽ๐š› ๐Ÿธ๐Ÿฝ, ๐Ÿธ00๐Ÿน

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๐Ÿ“ข ๐™’๐™๐™–๐™ฉ ๐™ฌ๐™–๐™จ ๐™ฉ๐™๐™š ๐™๐™–๐™ง๐™™๐™š๐™จ๐™ฉ ๐™ฅ๐™–๐™ง๐™ฉ ?

๐Ÿ’ฌ Finding myself standing onstage without a guitar for the first time in my life and not knowing what the f*** to do. I thought "Hmm, I haven't researched this, have I ?" Steve had to be my Seventies dancing coach. He showed me some moves, lots of legs kicks and ass wiggles.
✔️ ๐™ฑ๐š›๐š’๐šŠ๐š— ๐™ผ๐š˜๐š•๐š”๐š˜ - ๐™ผ๐šŽ๐š•๐š˜๐š๐šข ๐™ผ๐šŠ๐š”๐šŽ๐š›, ๐™พ๐šŒ๐š๐š˜๐š‹๐šŽ๐š› ๐Ÿธ๐Ÿบ๐š๐š‘ ๐Ÿท๐Ÿฟ๐Ÿฟ๐Ÿพ

 Photo credit unknown

✨ ๐‘ฝ๐’†๐’๐’—๐’†๐’• ๐‘ฎ๐’๐’๐’…๐’Ž๐’Š๐’๐’† is a glittering work of art that has highly deserved its award. And even though the film was generally misunderstood by most people, it is clear that this love story between two strong personalities is beautifully directed by Todd Haynes.

✨ I would share this excerpt of the film, the video Tumbling Down, fantastically performed by Jonathan Ryhs Meyer. This clip is, in my opinion, a concentration of what Haynes wanted to dismantle in this film, which is to take "๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’ ๐‘”๐‘™๐‘Ž๐‘š ๐‘ก๐‘’๐‘›๐‘’๐‘ก๐‘  - ๐‘‘๐‘Ÿ๐‘’๐‘ ๐‘ ๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘ข๐‘ ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘๐‘’๐‘–๐‘›๐‘” ๐‘“๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘Ž๐‘ ๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘๐‘Ž๐‘™ ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘›๐‘œ๐‘›-๐‘Ž๐‘ข๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’๐‘›๐‘ก๐‘–๐‘ - ๐‘Ž๐‘›๐‘‘ ๐‘ก๐‘Ÿ๐‘–๐‘’๐‘‘ ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘Ž๐‘๐‘๐‘™๐‘ฆ ๐‘กโ„Ž๐‘’๐‘š ๐‘ก๐‘œ ๐‘Ž ๐‘“๐‘–๐‘™๐‘š. "

๐‘ป๐’–๐’Ž๐’ƒ๐’๐’Š๐’๐’ˆ ๐‘ซ๐’๐’˜๐’ ๐ŸŽฅ https://bit.ly/3zaLgX8 ๐ŸŽต

Photo credit: Screenshots from Velvet Goldmine

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