The first collection dedicated to David Bowie's acting career shows that his film characterisations and performance styles shift and reform as decoratively as his musical personas. Though he was described as the most influential pop artist of the 20th century, whose work became synonymous with mask, mystery, sexual excess and ch-ch-ch-changing genres, Bowie also applied his genius to the craft of acting. Bowie's considerable filmography is systematically examined in 12 scholarly essays that include tributes to Bowie's performance craft in other media forms. Classic films such as The Prestige and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, cult hits Labyrinth and The Man Who Fell To Earth, as well as lesser-known roles in The Image, Christiane F. and Broadway hit The Elephant Man are viewed, not simply through the lens of Bowie's mega-stardom, but as the work of a serious actor with inimitable talent. This compelling analysis celebrates the risk-taking intelligence and bravura of David Bowie: actor, mime, mimic and icon.

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Yes, you can access I'm Not a Film Star by Ian Dixon, Brendan Black, Ian Dixon,Brendan Black in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Media & Performing Arts & Music. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

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Year

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eBook ISBN

Edition

Topic

Media & Performing Arts

Subtopic

Music

Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Contents
List of Figures
Lilst of Editors
Lilst of Contributors
Foreword: Acting as medium
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1: Ziggy Stardust, Direct Cinema and the multimodal performance of Gesamtkunstwerk
Chapter 2: David Bowie is . . . actor, star and character: Entangled agencies in The Man Who Fell to Earth
Chapter 3: The posed and the unposed: Inhabited clowns and grotesques in Bowie’s Scary Monsters and The Elephant Man
Chapter 4: Consuming Bowie: Christiane F. and the transgressive allure of Anglo-American pop culture in Cold War West Berlin
Chapter 5: Gesturing Dust: Sensing David Bowie’s performance in Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence
Chapter 6: The Hunger’s deathly shadow: The sweet annihilation of David Bowie, NYC, c. 1980–3
Chapter 7: ‘Who can I be now?’: Codpieces, carnival and the blurring of identity in Labyrinth
Chapter 8: Bowie as actor/Bowie as icon: Authenticity versus iconography in Martin Scorsese’s The Last Temptation of Christ
Chapter 9: The surveillant power of the (a)temporal cameo in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me (1992)
Chapter 10: Loving the alienation: Bowie, Basquiat, Brecht
Chapter 11: Performative emotional symbolism and stylistic gesture in Christopher Nolan’s The Prestige
Chapter 12: ‘Just like the films’: Lazarus and cinematic melancholia
Filmography
Discography
Bibliography
Index

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