The underrated genius of Bowie’s acting
In many ways, this is Bowie’s straightest performance. Tanned and movie-star handsome, aside from his endearingly crooked British teeth, Bowie’s Celliers initially embodies dignified masculine power. Yet, as is always the case with his best performances, Bowie brings to the surface a subversive subtext, drawing out the queerness that lies beneath many war-movie tropes. As the film progresses, Celliers infuriates his captors with increasingly transgressive acts of rebellion, showing his contempt for authority through flamboyant performances, singing songs, collecting flowers and even by kissing Yonoi. By casting Bowie alongside fellow musician Sakamoto (a legendary popstar in his own right), Ōshima presents us with a face-off between two titans of 20th-Century music. The homoerotic tension between the pair culminates in an ambiguous moment when, having sentenced Celliers to be buried alive, Yanoi visits the condemned man to cut a lock of his hair, like a fan or a lover would. The film’s climactic image of Celliers buried neck-deep in the sand, his hair bleached by the blazing sun, is an arresting tableau fit for an album cover.
In the aftermath of the star’s death, such indelible images have gained new significance. Bowie’s death robbed us of future music, but it also took away the possibility of more film roles, of more opportunities for this most unusual of artists to enchant and surprise us at the cinema. Not all of Bowie’s roles were worthy of his talent, but those that were have at least left us with some kind of compensation. The Starman may be gone, but some element of his extraordinary charisma will always remain, a glittering after-image burned forever on to the silver screen.
Bowie: Starman and the Silver Screen is at BFI Southbank, London, until the end of January, with select films available to stream on BFI Player.
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