Film Notes: Velvet Goldmine

Come see Velvet Goldmine with us on Fri, Jul 21 at the Paramount Theatre

Part Citizen Kane pastiche, part failed David Bowie biopic, part vehicle for Ewan MacGregor penis shots, Velvet Goldmine is a fairy-tale about glam rock and all its promises. While the 1998 film preoccupies itself firstly with documenting fictional rock star Brain Slade’s life and times, the truth is the story is so much bigger.

His follow-up to the 1995 Julianne Moore-starring Safe, director Todd Haynes initially approached Goldmine as a David Bowie biopic. However, as the used bookstore cashier who first sold me my DVD copy of the movie said, Bowie refused to hand over his rights and that refusal caused the entire script to be rewritten. In place of the standard music biography grew a fable of sorts – beginning with a fictionalized account of Oscar Wilde and a magical broach, which then was passed down to the film’s main obsession: Brain Slade. The power of Slade is his malleable identity, from long-haired hippie strumming an acoustic guitar to alien superstar in glitter jumpsuits to, debatably, big-suited and capitalism friendly pop singer. Slade is bisexual in the way all celebrities are, with a wink and nod; he is free-spirited only when the crowd demands freedom; and he is close to everyone around him until closeness rubs away the masks he’s made for himself.

Without a real-life star to pin itself too, Goldmine is able to explore the wider consequences of the 1970s glam rock scene freely and does so through secondhand accounts told to a journalist and former Slade super-fan played by Christian Bale – who appears both as an adult in the 80s and a just-blooming teen in the ‘70s. This distance from the actual voice of Slade emphasizes that his story is not actually his own: Brian Slade is rather a summarization of all the triumphs and follies of youth, fame, and the pursuit of capitalistic creative success. His story was never truth but always hearsay, which makes it all the more interesting.

In a 2018 GQ interview with Jaya Saxena, actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers spoke on his experience playing Slade. At the time, he was one of the youngest actors on set: only 19 years old, surrounded by performers like Ewan MacGregor and Toni Collette who were already settling into successful careers. His reflection on the film is bittersweet but clear-eyed. “I’m sure there were roles that I would never get [because] hell, I was just too damned pretty,” he says. “[From] that point of view was doing Velvet Goldmine a good career move? I don’t know.” Continuing, he poses a second, perhaps more important question and answer. “Is it a good piece of art? Yes.”