Bowie the spaced-out starman

Published on 14/06/2012 14:41

STUDIOCANAL’S Best of British cinema season continues at Cineworld and The Cameo this week with Nicolas Roeg’s 1976 science fiction classic, The Man Who Fell to Earth.

Based on Walter Tevis 1963 novel, the films charts the experiences of an alien who crash lands on Earth while on a mission to transport water back to his drought-stricken home world.

The movie, which saw David Bowie take on the mantle of the extraterrestrial in what was his first lead film role, has since become a cult favourite thanks to its surreal nature, perhaps due to Bowie’s own ‘fragile state of mind’ during filming. In 1983 he revealed, “I just threw my real self into that movie as I was at that time. It was the first thing I’d ever done. I actually was feeling as alienated as that character was. It was a pretty natural performance - a good exhibition of somebody literally falling apart in front of you. I was totally insecure with about 10 grams [of cocaine] a day in me. I was stoned out of my mind from beginning to end.”

The Man Who Fell To Earth, Tuesday, www.cineworld.co.uk / www.picturehouses.co.uk