I saw this movie years ago and I thought it was bad, and now after a second view, I found it even worse. Bowie was a great entertainer and a fine musician, but not such a good actor, not by chance his greatest success was "The Man Who Fell To Earth" where he played an alien, and his weirdness came with the territory. However, with this script and editing, I doubt even the best actor could have managed a decent performance.
The movie starts in black and white, with Bowie's character Prussian officer Paul standing rather stupidly next to a trench on the last day of WWI. Then a bomb explodes and Paul ends up in a French hospital where a grotesque scene ensues. Back in Berlin, haunted by an abysmally dreadful music score, Paul finds that he needs a job to help his impoverished family. He tries some jobs like advertising walking inside a bottle (it's supposed to be funny? It just looks silly), and then he joins a thuggish group that will evolve into the Nazi party. Finally, due to a chance meeting, Paul is dragged into the world of gigolos.
Allegedly, the scene with Marlene Dietrich, as the "madame" was what convinced Bowie to be in the movie. He wanted to meet Marlene, but she was in Paris and did not go to Berlin, where most of the film was shot. During the scene, Dietrich and Bowie never appear together and their dialogue is sort of silly because of the lack of interaction. Besides, Bowie is stiff, awkward, and totally unconvincing as a gigolo. When Kim Novak appears as a wealthy widow, the movie turns to worse.
Besides the awful, unbearable score, the problem is that the movie doesn't work as a farce or as a drama, ending up being neither. Paul manages to look simultaneously proud and deeply stupid, definitely not funny, as in the scene with Cissy, the Sidney Rome character trying to seduce him. Cringeworthy embarrassing... and who would name a character Cissy?
Bowie himself said that this was "all of Elvis's bad movies rolled into one" and who am I to contradict him?
The movie starts in black and white, with Bowie's character Prussian officer Paul standing rather stupidly next to a trench on the last day of WWI. Then a bomb explodes and Paul ends up in a French hospital where a grotesque scene ensues. Back in Berlin, haunted by an abysmally dreadful music score, Paul finds that he needs a job to help his impoverished family. He tries some jobs like advertising walking inside a bottle (it's supposed to be funny? It just looks silly), and then he joins a thuggish group that will evolve into the Nazi party. Finally, due to a chance meeting, Paul is dragged into the world of gigolos.
Allegedly, the scene with Marlene Dietrich, as the "madame" was what convinced Bowie to be in the movie. He wanted to meet Marlene, but she was in Paris and did not go to Berlin, where most of the film was shot. During the scene, Dietrich and Bowie never appear together and their dialogue is sort of silly because of the lack of interaction. Besides, Bowie is stiff, awkward, and totally unconvincing as a gigolo. When Kim Novak appears as a wealthy widow, the movie turns to worse.
Besides the awful, unbearable score, the problem is that the movie doesn't work as a farce or as a drama, ending up being neither. Paul manages to look simultaneously proud and deeply stupid, definitely not funny, as in the scene with Cissy, the Sidney Rome character trying to seduce him. Cringeworthy embarrassing... and who would name a character Cissy?
Bowie himself said that this was "all of Elvis's bad movies rolled into one" and who am I to contradict him?