Back in my college days the jewel in the crown of my record collection was "David Bowie in Bertolt Brecht's Baal." It got the loudest groan from my friends, especially from my friends who were graduate students in the German department- much louder than my Alan Ginsberg sings albums.
I'm glad I finally got the chance to see the movie thanks to BBC 4. I'm still haunted by the music. I was never a Bowie fan or a rock fan. I thought some of his songs were very good but I wondered when I saw the Christiane F film back in the 1980s why the young characters idolized him. I remember when Christiane F was reviewed in the US the film critics also treated Bowie like an icon. I saw Just a Gigolo and I thought his acting was okay: it was really Marlene Dietrich's appearance that made me want to see the film.
Bowie's performance in Baal is impressive. The film is very stagey: it does feel like a theatre production that was filmed for TV rather than a movie. Most of the actors are stagey aside from Zoe Wanamaker. I felt the movie could have given more for her Sophie to do in the final scenes where she's mostly used by Ekart but mostly unused as a character. Watching Ekart paw at her breasts in the middle of the crowded pub is still shocking. Bowie gives his all to Baal and and is more than convincing as the magnetic scandalous artist and enfant terrible who draws everyone to their destruction. I take my hat off to his courage to risk what was very challenging material for a rock star and his embracing looking repulsive and derelict: I wouldn't have been tempted to sleep with Baal for all his genius because his stained broken teeth would have revolted me. Even at the opening fancy dinner party he looks full of fleas. His murdering Ekart feels staged in every sense and the last scene where Baal begs woodcutters to stay with him as he lies dying seems contrived and pat as the ending, but Bowie manages to give pathos to Baal's final moments. I want to watch Baal a second time, especially for Bowie's singing "Reminiscence of Marie A" and "The Drowned Girl". I still love Brecht and Bowie makes the songs deeply haunting. Back in the day I played the album over and over.
Baal is well worth watching even if you're not a Bowie fan. It's well worth watching along with Zoe Wanamaker's 2023 special looking back at the show and the making of the film.
I'm glad I finally got the chance to see the movie thanks to BBC 4. I'm still haunted by the music. I was never a Bowie fan or a rock fan. I thought some of his songs were very good but I wondered when I saw the Christiane F film back in the 1980s why the young characters idolized him. I remember when Christiane F was reviewed in the US the film critics also treated Bowie like an icon. I saw Just a Gigolo and I thought his acting was okay: it was really Marlene Dietrich's appearance that made me want to see the film.
Bowie's performance in Baal is impressive. The film is very stagey: it does feel like a theatre production that was filmed for TV rather than a movie. Most of the actors are stagey aside from Zoe Wanamaker. I felt the movie could have given more for her Sophie to do in the final scenes where she's mostly used by Ekart but mostly unused as a character. Watching Ekart paw at her breasts in the middle of the crowded pub is still shocking. Bowie gives his all to Baal and and is more than convincing as the magnetic scandalous artist and enfant terrible who draws everyone to their destruction. I take my hat off to his courage to risk what was very challenging material for a rock star and his embracing looking repulsive and derelict: I wouldn't have been tempted to sleep with Baal for all his genius because his stained broken teeth would have revolted me. Even at the opening fancy dinner party he looks full of fleas. His murdering Ekart feels staged in every sense and the last scene where Baal begs woodcutters to stay with him as he lies dying seems contrived and pat as the ending, but Bowie manages to give pathos to Baal's final moments. I want to watch Baal a second time, especially for Bowie's singing "Reminiscence of Marie A" and "The Drowned Girl". I still love Brecht and Bowie makes the songs deeply haunting. Back in the day I played the album over and over.
Baal is well worth watching even if you're not a Bowie fan. It's well worth watching along with Zoe Wanamaker's 2023 special looking back at the show and the making of the film.