David Bowie: Paranoia, drugs and rock’n’roll!

At the last Cannes Film Festival, the revolutionary pop icon, already legendary in his lifetime by making his life a work of art far beyond his songs, returned to full light.

Six years after the disappearance of David Bowie at barely 69 years old, following a courageous fight against liver cancer which became widespread, an original documentary was screened as a world exclusive, retracing the incredible journey of this extraordinary artist.

In the room for a few days, Moonage Daydream of Brett Morgen, also reveals the parts of shade and mystery of the interpreter of let’s dance, among the planetary hits he left us. Dazzling, twilight, elusive, inspiring and above all brilliant, the star would have celebrated the 50th anniversary of his debut in 1972 this year. to shake up the genres, often choosing an androgynous look like with his character of Ziggy, ultra-made up.

One day, an animator will be sharply put back in place by asking him if he was wearing men’s, women’s or bisexual shoes. “These are shoes, big beta! “, dryly retorted the singer. On stage or on the covers of his albums, Bowie has metamorphosed so many times. “His different characters were a way of exorcising his fear of becoming schizophrenic like his brother (whom he admired and who committed suicide, editor’s note) or other members of his maternal family”, estimates in the magazine ne” She our colleague Christophe Conte. Religion was very important to the late artist, but his beliefs could go in all directions: “Buddhist on Tuesday, Nietzschean on Friday!” “, often confided the one who was just as fascinated by the conquest of space, kabuki theater or the novels of Jean Genet. But Bowie will also try to cohabit with some demons, in particular high-dose drugs, while understanding that he was putting himself in danger.

Settled in California in the mid-1970s, he wasted away, summing up his life to a fly in a glass of milk: “I feel like that fly… A stranger in a hostile place…” “It’s the time he lives under mountains of cocaine…”, reveals Christophe Conte again. “He only eats milk and peppers because he is so paranoid that he thinks we want to poison him or that aliens are going to come and kidnap him…” Worse: for a while, Bowie will keep his urine in the refrigerator , while he covers the walls of his house with cabalistic signs. Erives which will however nourish our inspiration. However, the artist understands that he is in great danger: As he knows that coke and witchcraft are eating him alive, he leaves LA for Europe. He asks Angie, his companion, whom he still presents to the press in 976 as the woman of his life, to find him a house in Switzerland. They understood that if they settled there, it would be fiscally interesting…”, says the singer and biographer Jérôme Soligny. “And suddenly, I found love…”: we are in 1992. While he has returned to a healthier life, “Ziggy” marries Iman, his last companion, who gives him a daughter, Alexandria Zahra . In 2014, Bowie learned that he was suffering from liver cancer, with no hope of getting out of it.

Despite heavy treatment, he signs a final album just in time. Blackstar (Dark Star) arrives in stores on January 8, 2016, the day of his 69th birthday.

Mission accomplished. David Bowie dies two days later. According to his last wishes, his ashes were scattered on the island of Bali, according to the Buddhist rite.

Francois Perret