Cracked Actor
Cracked Actor | |
---|---|
Original title | Cracked Actor |
Directed by | Alan Yentob (uncredited) |
Produced by |
|
Starring | |
Narrated by | Alan Yentob |
Cinematography |
|
Edited by | Tony Woollard |
Music by | David Bowie |
Distributed by |
|
Release date |
|
Running time | 60 min. |
Country | United Kingdom |
Cracked Actor (or full title, Cracked Actor: A Film About David Bowie) is a 1975 television
It was filmed in 1974 when Bowie was struggling with
Content
The documentary depicts Bowie on tour in
Production
The title of the documentary was originally to be The Collector, after a comment that Bowie had made to interviewer
Legacy
The tour and film coincided with a prolific time in Bowie's recording and acting career. During the summer of 1974, Bowie started recording at Sigma Studios Philadelphia for what became the
In 1987, while working on his album Never Let Me Down, Bowie reflected in an interview about his state of mind during the time the film was made:
I was so blocked ... so stoned ... It's quite a casualty case, isn't it. I'm amazed I came out of that period, honest. When I see that now I cannot believe I survived it. I was so close to really throwing myself away physically, completely.[7]
In 2013, Alan Yentob said of the film: "I'd caught him at what was an intensely creative time, but it was also physically and emotionally gruelling. Our encounters tended to take place in hotel rooms in the early hours of the morning or in snatched conversations in the back of limousines. He was fragile and exhausted but also prepared to open up and talk in a way he had never really done before."[8]
A BBC article published in 2023 described the airing of the documentary as one of Bowie's "key career moments".[9]
Commercial status
The documentary remains officially unreleased, though there are bootleg video copies circulating as a result of the programme being shown again by the BBC in the early 1990s and more recently in 2007, 2008, and 2013.[3][10]
References
- ^ "Omnibus: Cracked Actor – BBC One London – 26 January 1975". BBC Genome. BBC. Retrieved 1 May 2017.
- ^ a b Pegg 2016, p. 640.
- ^ a b c d Pegg 2016, p. 639.
- ^ "Bowie Golden Years : Cracked Actor". Archived from the original on 23 July 2008. Retrieved 22 July 2008.
- ^ Pegg 2016, pp. 639–640.
- ^ Trynka 2011, p. 276.
- ^ Isler, Scott (August 1987), "David Bowie Opens Up – A Little", Musician (106): 60–73
- ^ https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/latestnews/2013/imagine-beyonce-bowie.html [dead link]
- ^ "BBC Arts - BBC Arts - David Bowie: 12 key career moments". BBC. Retrieved 28 July 2023.
- ^ "Imagine: David Bowie - Cracked Actor". BBC.com. BBC Media Centre. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
Sources
- Pegg, Nicholas (2016). The Complete David Bowie (Revised and Updated ed.). London: ISBN 978-1-78565-365-0.
- Trynka, Paul (2011). David Bowie – Starman: The Definitive Biography. New York City: ISBN 978-0-31603-225-4.
External links
- Cracked Actor at BBC Online
- Cracked Actor at IMDb