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This is Dennis' Indie Film column. He has another STORY in the system for this week too. This is the column.
It's jarring when an entertainer dies, our grief at the loss we feel intertwined with the feelings his works have elicited in us. The news of David Bowie's death from cancer on Jan. 10 was shocking, in equal measure because of its suddenness and how his ever-evolving, multifaceted artistic career touched on so many genres.
As much as I came to love Bowie's music, it was his intermittent foray into the movies that first drew me to him. Bowie always considered himself more of a dabbler than a proper actor, but, in his often-brief appearances in movies, he was a striking, indelible presence. As in life, he was impossible to ignore.
"The Man Who Fell To Earth" (1976)
It's inconceivable that anyone else on Earth could have embodied Thomas Jerome Newton, the crash-landed alien protagonist of this eerie, visually striking sci-fi drama from director Nicholas Roeg. Partaking of Bowie's inherent otherworldliness and seeming fragility, the film writes its satirical message about America's excess and corruption directly on the pale flesh of Bowie's androgynously magnetic visitor, a pure soul unable to bear the weight placed upon him.
"The Hunger" (1983)
Bowie, again, was the perfect choice...