A new documentary about Bowie's last five years is coming to HBO on January 8, his birthday and almost two years to the day since he passed away. Here is the trailer.

The BBC Five Years' documentary was excellent. Don't know if I'm ready for this one yet; think I'll wait until after the holidays...

purplethunder3121 said:

The BBC Five Years' documentary was excellent. Don't know if I'm ready for this one yet; think I'll wait until after the holidays...

You'll have to. It doesn't debut until January.

I've always been fascinated with great documentaries on musicians. So I'm ready to watch this. Sometimes, you just have to give yourself to the program and ride the wave of emotions. It's cathartic.

TrivialPursuit said:

purplethunder3121 said:

The BBC Five Years' documentary was excellent. Don't know if I'm ready for this one yet; think I'll wait until after the holidays...

You'll have to. It doesn't debut until January.

I've always been fascinated with great documentaries on musicians. So I'm ready to watch this. Sometimes, you just have to give yourself to the program and ride the wave of emotions. It's cathartic.

Well, I'm good then! A case of not reading the whole post...

BBC one was perfection, this one is HBO so I ahve low expectations, lots of gossip, lies and American style embellishment no doubt.

Adorecream said:

BBC one was perfection, this one is HBO so I ahve low expectations, lots of gossip, lies and American style embellishment no doubt.

Now now, we don't' know that yet. HBO usually has better programming, by far, than some shit stain like Reelz gossipy bullshit. HBO has been doing some great music related things lately, some about Rolling Stone magazine, and even had a great one on Washington Post executive editor Bill Bradlee (who headed up the eventual exposing of Watergate with Richard Nixon). Even PBS shows like Frontline or Independent Lens can sometimes be slanted.

This trailer with Bowie shows some behind the scenes in-studio stuff, which is what I'm hoping for. I'm sure there is home video in there, too. There has to be. January 8, we'll know. I need to find the BBC doc.

Edit: Wait, this might be the BBC documentary. The IMDB says that this documentary is from the UK and that it's from the BBC. So maybe HBO has the US rights to it. Wouldn't be the first time.

[Edited 12/19/17 19:02pm]

TrivialPursuit said:

Adorecream said:

BBC one was perfection, this one is HBO so I ahve low expectations, lots of gossip, lies and American style embellishment no doubt.

Now now, we don't' know that yet. HBO usually has better programming, by far, than some shit stain like Reelz gossipy bullshit. HBO has been doing some great music related things lately, some about Rolling Stone magazine, and even had a great one on Washington Post executive editor Bill Bradlee (who headed up the eventual exposing of Watergate with Richard Nixon). Even PBS shows like Frontline or Independent Lens can sometimes be slanted.

This trailer with Bowie shows some behind the scenes in-studio stuff, which is what I'm hoping for. I'm sure there is home video in there, too. There has to be. January 8, we'll know. I need to find the BBC doc.

Edit: Wait, this might be the BBC documentary. The IMDB says that this documentary is from the UK and that it's from the BBC. So maybe HBO has the US rights to it. Wouldn't be the first time.

[Edited 12/19/17 19:02pm]

This might be a BBC documentary but it isn't The Five Years doc that I saw; David was still alive and Black Star hadn't come out. Someone from the UK was kind enough to send me that doc which I still have. The BBC probably came out with one after his death that I haven't seen... It is probably excellent if the BBC did it. One thing I still can't bear to watch is the Lazarus video which I saw before his death. David Bowie is the only person I know who made music videos during and about his own death and this video is a stark example of it. When he is writhing and pulsating in the bed, now I know why. And when he goes into the closet at the end, now I know why. Great song but I don't think I can ever watch that video again... But, I will watch the new documentary.

Here's info on the Five Years doc from 2013:

This programme is not currently available on BBC iPlayer

David Bowie: Five Years

An intimate portrait of five key years in David Bowie's career. Featuring a wealth of previously unseen archive this film looks at how Bowie continually evolved, from Ziggy Stardust to the soul star of YoungAmericans and the 'Thin White Duke'. It explores his regeneration in Berlin with the critically acclaimed album Heroes, his triumph with Scary Monsters and his global success with Let's Dance. With interviews with all his closest collaborators, this film investigates how Bowie became an icon of our times.

[Edited 12/19/17 19:46pm]

Thanks

I think it's also interesting to note that David Bowie chose Michael C. Hall, who survived cancer, from the Dexter TV series to portray the main character in Bowie's play "Lazurus" in NYC. Bowie actually attended the show before his death. Here is Michael C. Hall performing the song "Lazarus":

And, of course, the original haunting song "Lazarus" by David himself sans the video I can't watch...

TrivialPursuit said:

A new documentary about Bowie's last five years is coming to HBO on January 8, his birthday and almost two years to the day since he passed away. Here is the trailer.

I think I saw this this last year on the BBC.

TrivialPursuit said:

Adorecream said:

BBC one was perfection, this one is HBO so I ahve low expectations, lots of gossip, lies and American style embellishment no doubt.

Now now, we don't' know that yet. HBO usually has better programming, by far, than some shit stain like Reelz gossipy bullshit. HBO has been doing some great music related things lately, some about Rolling Stone magazine, and even had a great one on Washington Post executive editor Bill Bradlee (who headed up the eventual exposing of Watergate with Richard Nixon). Even PBS shows like Frontline or Independent Lens can sometimes be slanted.

This trailer with Bowie shows some behind the scenes in-studio stuff, which is what I'm hoping for. I'm sure there is home video in there, too. There has to be. January 8, we'll know. I need to find the BBC doc.

Edit: Wait, this might be the BBC documentary. The IMDB says that this documentary is from the UK and that it's from the BBC. So maybe HBO has the US rights to it. Wouldn't be the first time.

[Edited 12/19/17 19:02pm]

Okay will give it a shot. Bowie's alst album was great but just struck me as very dark - Black Star looks like some Satanic ceremony.

Adorecream said:

Okay will give it a shot. Bowie's alst album was great but just struck me as very dark - Black Star looks like some Satanic ceremony.

You mean the "★" video? There is a lot of symbolism in it for death, and other things. "Lazarus" was pretty straightforward of course. From Wikipedia:

"It was Bowie who requested that the woman have a tail, his only explanation being "it's kind of sexual". Renck has speculated that Bowie may have been contemplating his own mortality and relevance to history while developing the video, but said that the crucified scarecrows were not intended as a messianic symbol. Renck has also stated that Bowie portrays three distinct characters in the video: the introverted, tormented, blind "Button Eyes"; the "flamboyant trickster" in the song's middle section; and the "priest guy" holding the book embossed with the "★" symbol.^[11]Saxophonist Donny McCaslin said that Bowie had told him the song was about ISIS, but a spokesperson for Bowie denied that the song was about the Middle East situation.

With Bowie, there is always either purposeful or ambiguous symbolism, which so totally Bowie. There's even a dance move from "Fashion" in the third section of the video. We do have to remember, he knew these were probably going to be the only two videos from the album, so he was certainly not going out with some shitty tossed together vignette.

All that aside, I'm anxious for this documentary. I am going to try and find the BBC one online somewhere.

I did some other digging just now. I found the same-titled documentary on a torrent site "BBC David Bowie The Last Five Years 2017".

So I think my assumption was correct. HBO has the rights to the BBC documentary. It's the same one. I'm grabbing it now to watch it later.

Yes I loved Lazarus, came out the same time he died, did not realise Bowie was the first of many greats we would lose in that horrible year.

.

3 of my favourites - David Bowie, the Prince and finally George Michael, a year I just wanted to end.

Are reading the Classic Pop magazine about Bowie at the moment and its pretty good as an overview.

Adorecream said:

BBC one was perfection, this one is HBO so I ahve low expectations, lots of gossip, lies and American style embellishment no doubt.

HBO docs are really good. They are a real network not like the Reelz gossip channel.

laurarichardson said:

Adorecream said:

BBC one was perfection, this one is HBO so I ahve low expectations, lots of gossip, lies and American style embellishment no doubt.

HBO docs are really good. They are a real network not like the Reelz gossip channel.

HBO does good docs, I agree.

But as stated, this one is the same doc. I felt like it went too far back and lost sight of the final five years. But, it was good.

TrivialPursuit said:

A new documentary about Bowie's last five years

.

Unless I am massively mistaken, this is the same one broadcast by the BBC a year ago. I don't see anything in the trailer that wasn't in the BBC doc, and its concept looks a lot like BBC's. I really don't get why this was held back for a year and then announced with much fanfare.

.

Also: no such doc could be done about Prince. There was a massive trove of Bowie interviews (audio and video) they could use, whereas for Prince there isn't. Also, Bowie was always very insightful, whereas Prince traded in blandness.

purplethunder3121 said:

The BBC Five Years' documentary was excellent. Don't know if I'm ready for this one yet; think I'll wait until after the holidays...

I was confused thats the one I saw and it was amazing, I loved it. Very thorough and I felt like I learned alot about the creation of his albums too.

It was very good.