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Velvet Goldmine
Directed By Todd Haynes
As any fan of David Bowie and Iggy Pop, I excitedly awaited for Velvet Goldmine, a Todd Haynes film (Safe) that was supposed to emphasize their relationship during the Glam Years. Even if that era was not exactly the musical turning point of the century, a close-up of these two colorful icons should have been interesting. Unfortunately, the surprises in this film were totally unexpected, and it made for a disappointing time.
Velvet Goldmine is not in any way about Bowie, Pop or the Glam Years; it's about homosexuality. When you learn that Haynes is the creator of the Queer Cinema it shouldn't come as a surprise. The problem here is not homosexuality itself—Gus Van Sant & Stephen Frears successfully approached the subject—but the way Haynes uses this music era as a pretext for more than two hours of debauchery. Never in the film are the talents of the protagonists mentioned; on the contrary their mentor-protégé relationship is transformed into a simplistic story of love and sex. No colorful description of Glam here either, just tantalizing transvestites. It's not surprising that Bowie and Pop refused to let their songs be used in the film as Velvet Goldmine could easily have been renamed: Bowie, Queen of the Desert.
Except for T Tex's "20th Century Boy", we get an imitation Bowie-Pop-esque musical throughout the film which is to Glam what Canada Dry is to Guinness, despite the presence of talented guests such as Radiohead's Tom Yorke, the guitarists from Suede & Sonic Youth and the rhythmics of Grant Lee Buffalo.
The absence of rhythm that created the claustrophobia of Safe only creates tedium here while the screenplay is rather a sucession of scenes—mostly orgies—than a homogenic work. Jonathan Rhys-Meyers' Bowie-esque character is excruciating while the Marc Bolan character is also ridiculed. Only Pop seems to have been spared through Ewan McGregor's interpretation, the actor easily gliding under the skin of his provocative character.
Beyond outraging the fans, Velvet Goldine needs to be avoided mostly for having travestied reality, thus fooling neophytes who would believe this fable.
Fred Thom
 Far from Heaven
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Velvet Goldmine review
