David Bowie: The Last Five Years (2017) (original) (raw)

Synopsis

In the last five years of his life, David Bowie ended nearly a decade of silence to engage in an extraordinary burst of activity, producing two groundbreaking albums and a musical. David Bowie: The Last Five Years explores this unexpected end to a remarkable career. Made with remarkable access, Francis Whately’s documentary is a revelatory follow-up to his acclaimed 2013 documentary David Bowie: Five Years, which chronicled Bowie’s golden ‘70s and early-‘80s period.

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Alternative Titles

David Bowie - Les Cinq Dernières Années, Девід Боуї: Останні п'ять років, David Bowie: Os Últimos Cinco Anos, David Bowie: Los últimos cinco años, David Bowie - Die letzten fünf Jahre, 大卫·鲍伊：最后五年, 데이빗 보위: 지기 스타더스트 마지막 날들, David Bowie, les cinq dernières années

Genres

TV

07 Jan 2017

• UK

10 Jan 2017

• SpainAPTA

13 Jan 2017

• Germany

08 Jan 2018

• USAG

11 Mar 2020

• BrazilL

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• 
  Structurally this isn't much more than a "making of" for Black Star, Lazarus & The Next Day, but that's enough. Thankfully this avoids ruminating on his death or prying into his life in the final moments despite the title which leads one to believe that would be the case. Instead, this is basically a celebration of Bowie's final projects. I expected to cry, but instead I found this rather uplifting as a call to arms to follow your creative impulses no matter the circumstances.
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  When he was gasping for breath in the recording booth, all I wanted was to give him mine...but by then, all the air had been taken from my lungs, as well.
  Please...grant me the grace to someday leave this planet with the strength and conviction of a person ready to conquer whatever the next world has to offer.
  Look up here, I'm in heaven
  I've got scars that can't be seen
  I've got drama, can't be stolen
  Everybody knows me now
  Just like that bluebird
  Oh, I'll be free
  Ain't that just like me?
• 
  I'd been aware of David Bowie since he scared the shit out of me in childhood viewings of Labyrinth, but it wasn't until the start of the new century - a century that Bowie, in Francis Whately's new film, declares a terrible disappointment - that I became a fan. It was 2002's Heathen that tipped me over, and that's still one of my favourite Bowie albums. (His take on the Pixies' 'Cactus' is worth the cover price alone)
  As a new fan, though, I didn't realise the scale of what he was doing in that era of his career. For the first time, Bowie seemed to be performing as David Jones. He would show up on chat shows and be…
• 
  A pretty decent HBO Max documentary that offers footage that has never been previously seen before. Solid interviews and archival footage.
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  As a massive fan of David Bowie, this documentary was a treat to watch. It had immense insight of the subject and treated him as accurately as possible in film, using the correct interviewees (instead of random famous people like many music documentaries do), to get a perception of what was going on in the mind of a genius musician.
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  Looking at David Bowie over and over again. Album covers, to music videos, to Instagram photos and more shit, I didn’t know that he had two different eye colors
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  i just fuckin love crying and sobbing and being heartbroken and devastated
• 
  “We could steal time, just for one day”
  “I’ve got scars that can’t be seen”
  If only we could steal time I might not be sitting here reflecting on mortality through the eyes of poignantly written lyrics by a master craftsman. If I were to tell you my eyes are dry right now that would be a lie. I have a lot of memories regarding the music of a spaceman who blessed humanity for a short time with his songs.
  While I was expecting this be a bit more in-depth about his last albums you get a retrospective that lead to those last albums and musical. At first I was thrown off but was willing to go for the ride.…
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  Bowie anduvo por delante del tiempo en su época de esplendor, se contentó después con caminar un paso —o dos— por detrás y, tras sus diez años en blanco, regresó para convertir en arte el ejercicio de echar la vista atrás. Esta obra desgrana este fructífero último lustro del artista, estableciendo múltiples conexiones entre su sorprendentes últimos trabajos y su inagotable legado del pasado siglo, y cuenta para ello con material de archivo espectacular y con la presencia, entre el respeto y la reverencia, de pesos pesados del universo Bowie: desde los clásicos Carlos Alomar, Earl Slick o Mike Garson hasta los recientes Donny McCaslin o Maria Schneider, pasando por su intermitente mano derecha, un Tony Visconti que no puede evitar emocionarse escuchando las últimos registros vocales de su amigo en el tramo final del film.
  Yo no puedo pagar esto con menos de cinco estrellas...y un corazón.
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  "David wanted to be famous. David wanted to be an icon like he is now."
  A year ago we lost David Bowie and it was a huge, huge loss (not the biggest of the year for me, that came with Leonard Cohen a couple of months ago), the removal of a musical icon.
  This programme deals with the last few years of his life following his 2003 'Reality' tour. A new period of creativity. A new David, relaxed in his middle age, and enjoying his life as well as his music.
  This is a superb and of course bittersweet tribute and farewell to the laughing gnome, the chameleon, the rebel, the queen bitch, the thin white duke, and essentially an…
• 
  David Bowie quis que sua despedida fosse uma obra musical. E, ele não desapareceu por completo, apenas voltou para o seu planeta. E seu legado continua atual e presente entre nós.
• 
  On the 10th of January 2016 a co-worker approached my desk and said the words "Bowie is dead".
  That scene felt completely surreal as he then just stood there staring at me with a tear in his eye and I was not able to say a thing. I felt a shiver running down my spine and went outside to catch some air.
  For me Bowie was the greatest artist to ever walk the earth and this documentary is a very thoughtful look on Bowie's career with a strong focus on his last years.
  The thin white duke will never be forgotten.
  Highly recommended!