Velvet Goldmine

For the song, see Velvet Goldmine (song).

"Maxwell Demon" redirects here. For the thought experiment, see Maxwell's demon.

Velvet Goldmine
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Todd Haynes
Produced by	Christine Vachon Michael Stipe Bob Weinstein Harvey Weinstein
Written by	Todd Haynes James K. Lyons
Narrated by	Janet McTeer
Starring	Jonathan Rhys Meyers Ewan McGregor
Music by	Carter Burwell Shudder to Think
Cinematography	Maryse Alberti
Editing by	James Lyons
Studio	Newmarket Capital Group Channel Four Films
Distributed by	CiBy Sales (Worldwide) Miramax Films
Release date(s)	November 6, 1998
Running time	124 minutes
Country	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Budget	$9 million
Box office	$1,053,788

Velvet Goldmine is a 1998 British/American drama film directed and co-written by Todd Haynes. The film tells the story of a pop star based mainly on David Bowie's 'Ziggy Stardust' character and is set in Britain during the days of glam rock in the early 1970s.

Sandy Powell received another Academy Award for Best Costume Design nomination for the film. However, Powell did win the award for another film, Shakespeare in Love.

Plot

The story follows a British journalist, Arthur Stuart (Christian Bale), who has to search his own past when writing an article about the mysterious disappearance of a former glam-rock star, Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), for an American periodical. The film turns Slade's paranoia of being murdered during a concert (a paranoia that Bowie incorporated into the Ziggy Stardust story in the climax of the Ziggy Stardust album) into a career-ending publicity stunt by Slade, after which he gradually disappears from the public view entirely. As Stuart locates and talks with people connected to Slade, trying to find out what happened, he revisits the glam-rock scene of the '70s in a series of vignettes, which recreate the stories of Slade, Slade's collaborator and one time lover Curt Wild (Ewan McGregor) and others involved in their lives.

Cast

• Janet McTeer as Voice of Narrator
• Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Brian Slade
• Christian Bale as Arthur Stuart
• Ewan McGregor as Curt Wild
• Toni Collette as Mandy Slade
• Eddie Izzard as Jerry Devine
• Emily Woof as Shannon
• Joseph Beattie as Cooper
• Michael Feast as Cecil

Production

The film centers on Brian Slade (Jonathan Rhys Meyers), a bisexual glam rock icon patterned after David Bowie and, to a lesser extent, Marc Bolan. Ewan McGregor co-stars in the role of Curt Wild, a genre defying performer who doesn't back down from sex, nudity, or drugs on or off stage, and whose biographical details are based on Iggy Pop (who grew up in a trailer park)^[1] and Lou Reed (whose parents sent him to electroshock therapy to 'cure' his homosexuality).^[2] Also featured are Christian Bale as a young glam rock fan and reporter, Arthur Stuart; Toni Collette as Slade's wife, Mandy; Eddie Izzard as his manager, Jerry Devine; and Luke Morgan Oliver as a young Oscar Wilde.

The tale strongly parallels Bowie's relationships with Reed and Pop in the 1970s and 1980s. Brian Slade's gradually overwhelming on-stage persona of "Maxwell Demon" and his backing band, "Venus in Furs", likewise bear a resemblance to Bowie's similar persona and backing band, Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. And like the relationship of Slade and Wild, Bowie produced records with both Iggy Pop and Lou Reed.

Haynes has said that the story is also about the love affair between America and Britain, New York and London, in the way each music scene feeds off and influences each other.^[3] Little Richard is shown as an early influence on Brian Slade. In real life Little Richard inspired the Beatles and Bowie, who in turn inspired many bands to come after. Little Richard has also been cited by Haynes as the inspiration for Jack Fairy.^[3]

The film is strongly influenced by the ideas and life of Oscar Wilde (seen in the film as a progenitor of glam rock), and refers to events in his life and quotes his work on dozens of occasions. The work of Jean Genet (the subject of Haynes' previous film, Poison) is referred to in imagery and also quoted in dialogue.

The narrative structure of the film is modeled on that of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, in that reporter Stuart tries to solve a mystery about Slade, traveling around to interview Slade's lovers and colleagues, whose recollections are shown in 1950s, 1960s and 1970s flashback sequences.^[4]

Connections to other works

• The title of the movie takes its name from the song "Velvet Goldmine", written by David Bowie.
• The name of the lead character, Brian Slade, is an allusion to the 1970s glam band, Slade. The name of Slade's persona "Maxwell Demon" was named after Brian Eno's first band, which in itself was influenced by James Clerk Maxwell's thought experiment character, "Maxwell's demon".
• Curt Wild's backing band, The Rats, shares its name with one of Mick Ronson's earliest groups.^[5] It also alludes to Iggy Pop's band, The Stooges in that both words share a similar meaning ("rat" and "stooge" both being terms for someone who is an informer).
• In addition to the similarity of the film's framing narrative device to that of Orson Welles' Citizen Kane, the scene where couples are shown walking into the Sombrero Club on New Year's Eve 1969 is similar to a shot of people entering a party from Welles' film The Magnificent Ambersons.
• Maxwell Demon's guitarist shares the same last name, Finn, as T. Rex percussionist Mickey Finn.
• "Venus in Furs" is a reference to a Velvet Underground song of the same name, whose title and lyrics in turn reference a novel of that name by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.
• "Flaming Creatures" is also the name of Jack Smith's seminal piece of gay cinema.
• Much of the script consists of quotations from various works of Oscar Wilde, and several of the scenes involving the character Jack Fairy reference the novels of Jean Genet.
• The bleak, dystopian feel of the action taking place in 1984 alludes to the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, to Bowie's own dystopian song of the same name, and to Bowie's reinvention of himself as a mainstream entertainer during the Reagan and Thatcher era.
• The "pantomime dame" from the vaudeville troupe is played by influential dancer Lindsay Kemp, a former teacher of Bowie's who collaborated with him on several music videos, including "John, I'm Only Dancing".
• The little girl on the train is reading "Antigonish" (a poem by William Hughes Mearns), which was inspiration for David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold The World".
• Arthur Stuart's boss has mydriasis in his left eye, much like David Bowie's.
• "The Ballad of Maxwell Demon" contains the lyrics: "The boys from Quadrant 44 with their vicious metal hounds never come 'round here no more," referencing Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451.

Reception

The film wasn't successful at the box office, making just $1.5m on a budget of $9m.

Awards and nominations

• 1998 Cannes Film Festival - Best Artistic Contribution - Todd Haynes; nominated for Golden Palm^[6]
• 1999 Academy Awards - nominated for Best Costume Design (Sandy Powell)
• 1999 BAFTA Awards - Best Costume Design - Sandy Powell; nominated for Best Make Up/Hair (Peter King)^[7]
• 1999 Independent Spirit Awards - Best Cinematography - Maryse Alberti; nominated for Best Director (Todd Haynes) and Best Feature
• 1998 Edinburgh International Film Festival - Channel 4 Director's Award - Todd Haynes
• 1999 GLAAD Media Awards - Outstanding Film (Limited Release)
• 1999 MOVIELINE Young Hollywood Award - Best Song in a Motion Picture - Hot One - Nathan Larson

Soundtrack and musicians

Although the character of Brian Slade is heavily based on David Bowie, Bowie himself disliked the script^[8] and vetoed the proposal that his songs appear in the film.^[9]

The finished soundtrack includes songs by glam rock and glam-influenced bands, past and present.

The English musicians who played under the name The Venus in Furs on the soundtrack were Radiohead's Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, David Gray, Suede's Bernard Butler, and Roxy Music's Andy Mackay. The American musicians who played as Curt Wild's Wylde Ratttz on the soundtrack were The Stooges' Ron Asheton, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and Steve Shelley, Minutemen's Mike Watt, Gumball's Don Fleming, and Mark Arm of Mudhoney.

The soundtrack features new songs written for the film by Pulp, Shudder to Think and Grant Lee Buffalo,^[10] as well as many early glam rock compositions, both covers and original versions. The Venus in Furs covers several Roxy Music songs with Thom Yorke channeling Bryan Ferry on vocals,^[10] Placebo covers T. Rex's "20th Century Boy," Wylde Ratttz and Ewan McGregor cover The Stooges' "T.V. Eye" and "Gimme Danger", and Teenage Fanclub and Donna Matthews cover The New York Dolls' "Personality Crisis." Lou Reed, Brian Eno, T. Rex, and Steve Harley songs from the period are also included. The album is rounded out by a piece of Carter Burwell's film score.

All three members of the band Placebo also appeared in the film, with Brian Molko and Steve Hewitt playing members of the Flaming Creatures (Malcolm and Billy respectively) and Stefan Olsdal playing Polly Small's bassist.

Tracklisting

Velvet Goldmine
Soundtrack album by various artists
Released	3 November 1998
Genre	Glam Rock, Soundtrack
Length	1:12:09
Label	Fontana Records London
Producer	Randall Poster, Todd Haynes, Michael Stipe
Professional reviews
The reviews parameter has been deprecated. Please move reviews into the “Reception” section of the article. See Moving reviews into article space. Allmusic link

1. Brian Eno: "Needle In The Camel's Eye" (Brian Eno/Phil Manzanera) – 3:09
2. Shudder To Think: "Hot One" (Nathan Larson/Shudder To Think) – 3:04
3. Placebo: "20th Century Boy" (Marc Bolan) – 3:42
4. Venus in Furs (vocals by Thom Yorke): "2HB" (Bryan Ferry) – 5:39
5. Wylde Ratttz (vocals by Ewan McGregor): "T.V. Eye" (Dave Alexander/Scott Asheton/Ron Asheton/James Osterberg, Jr.) – 5:24
6. Shudder To Think: "Ballad of Maxwell Demon" (Craig Wedren/Shudder to Think) – 4:47
7. Grant Lee Buffalo: "The Whole Shebang" (Grant-Lee Phillips) – 4:11
8. Venus in Furs (vocals by Thom Yorke): "Ladytron" (Bryan Ferry) – 4:26
9. Pulp: "We Are The Boys" (Cocker/Banks/Doyle/Mackey/Webber) – 3:13
10. Roxy Music: "Virginia Plain" (Bryan Ferry) – 3:00
11. Teenage Fanclub & Donna Matthews: "Personality Crisis" (David Johansen/Johnny Thunders) – 3:49
12. Lou Reed: "Satellite Of Love" (Lou Reed) – 3:41
13. T. Rex: "Diamond Meadows" (Marc Bolan) – 2:00
14. Paul Kimble & Andy Mackay: "Bitter's End" (Bryan Ferry) – 2:13
15. Venus in Furs (vocals by Jonathan Rhys Meyers): "Baby's On Fire" (Brian Eno) – 3:19
16. Venus in Furs (vocals by Thom Yorke): "Bitter-Sweet" (Andy Mackay/Bryan Ferry) – 4:55
17. Carter Burwell: "Velvet Spacetime" (Carter Burwell) – 4:10
18. Venus in Furs (vocals by Jonathan Rhys Meyers): "Tumbling Down" (Steve Harley) – 3:28
19. Steve Harley: "Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me)" (Steve Harley) – 3:59

References

1. ^ "Limping with the Stooges in Washington Heights" in The Brooklyn Rail
2. ^ Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk (1996)
3. ^ ^{a b} Moverman, Oren (1998) "Superstardust: Talking Glam with Todd Haynes", an interview in the introduction of Velvet Goldmine, A Screenplay by Todd Haynes, Hyperion: New York
4. ^ Ashare, Matt (9 November 1998). "'Velvet Goldmine' stirs up the glam past". Boston Phoenix. http://weeklywire.com/ww/11-09-98/boston_movies_1.html. 
5. ^ Velvet Goldmine: The Movie - The Ziggy Stardust Companion
6. ^ "Festival de Cannes: Velvet Goldmine". festival-cannes.com. http://www.festival-cannes.com/en/archives/ficheFilm/id/4918/year/1998.html. Retrieved 2009-10-02. 
7. ^ Awards for Velvet Goldmine, IMDb.
8. ^ Making of Velvet Goldmine, dvd of the movie 
9. ^ Guthmann, Edward (6 November 1998). "The Glitter of Glam Rock Doesn't Look Like Much Fun". San Francisco Chronicle: pp. C–1. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/1998/11/06/DD101783.DTL 
10. ^ ^{a b} Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Velvet Goldmine: Review", AllMusic.com.

External links

• Velvet Goldmine at the Internet Movie Database
• Velvet Goldmine at AllRovi
• Velvet Goldmine at Box Office Mojo
• Velvet Goldmine at Rotten Tomatoes
• David Bowie's Velvet Goldmine lyrics
• Unofficial Brian Slade site
• Unofficial Livejournal devoted to the movie A year of Daily Velvet Goldmine Trivia