{"id":658829,"date":"2026-10-27T18:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-27T18:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/658829\/"},"modified":"2026-10-27T18:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-27T18:42:10","slug":"how-on-earth-is-this-man-not-sweating-the-director-who-spent-10-years-painstakingly-remastering-bowies-greatest-filmed-performance-david-bowie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/658829\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018How on earth is this man not sweating?\u2019 The director who spent 10 years painstakingly remastering Bowie\u2019s \u2018greatest filmed performance\u2019 | David Bowie"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 2017, when Brett Morgen began work on his acclaimed 2022 David Bowie documentary, Moonage Daydream<\/a>, he was given complete access to the late star\u2019s entire, cavernous archive. \u201cMy eyes were immediately drawn to a stack of gleaming 35mm cans with the word \u2018Stage\u2019 written on them,\u201d he remembers.<\/p>\n

At first, the director \u2013 whose work also includes Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck<\/a> and the Rolling Stones documentary Crossfire Hurricane \u2013 assumed the cans might contain some sort of footage shot around Bowie\u2019s 1978 live album, Stage, recorded in mostly in Philadelphia. However, he soon realised they actually contained the holy grail of Bowie artefacts: footage of the legendary Earl\u2019s Court shows later that year, which had remained unseen for almost 50 years. \u201cMaking Moonage Daydream, I had access to every filmed performance in existence of David Bowie,\u201d he says, \u201cbut when I saw this one I knew this was without question the greatest filmed performance of his career.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1978, Bowie had commissioned Just a Gigolo director David Hemmings to film two of the three sold-out summer shows at the venue \u2013 where the star was touring Low and \u201cHeroes\u201d \u2013 with a view to showing the film in theatres in lieu of a physical tour (he wouldn\u2019t take the road again until 1983). However, the singer subsequently started making the Lodger album, moved to Switzerland, was reportedly unhappy with the film\u2019s editing and the entire project was subsequently left behind. \u201cHe was moving on to other things at the speed of light,\u201d Morgen explains. \u201cSo at that point I think the idea of looking backwards was distasteful to him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The trailer for David Bowie: Stage \u2013 video<\/p>\n

Before his death in 2016, though, Bowie had floated the idea of finally putting it out. In the new year it will debut in arenas \u2013 not cinemas \u2013 almost half a century after it was made. Morgen and team spent nearly 10 years readying it for 2027 as a multimedia experience. \u201cIt became something of an obsession,\u201d he admits. \u201cWe spent over 1,000 hours colour-grading the footage, which I believe is some sort of record, but we really wanted it to look and feel like something you would experience today.\u201d<\/p>\n

It helped that the footage had been beautifully shot and perfectly preserved in Bowie\u2019s storage unit, with excellent sound recorded by Bowie\u2019s producer, Tony Visconti. Missing from Morgen\u2019s film will be the extraneous stuff Hemmings added to the concerts. \u201cI found a lot of footage of a young boy playing David that I was a bit confused by,\u201d the director grins. \u201cThat\u2019s not in the film.\u201d Instead, it focuses on Bowie \u2013 in wonderfully billowing trousers and makeup \u2013 at the peak of his performance powers. \u201cHe looks amazing,\u201d Morgen smiles. \u201cI\u2019ve looked at close-ups and I think: how on earth is this man not sweating?\u201d<\/p>\n

By the time the Isolar II tour reached Earl\u2019s Court, Bowie and band were at the pinnacle of their game, signposting the future. \u201cTo have an electric violin, a piano and a synth player in a rock show in 1978 was extraordinary,\u201d says Morgen, whose film combines songs from both nights because \u201cIt was very improvisational. Different arrangements two nights running. You can feel the danger and excitement that it could have gone off the rails at any moment and David was very charged by that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe audacity of starting the show with Warszawa, perhaps the lowest-energy first song of any rock concert ever \u2013 but that\u2019s Bowie. By the end of the first set he\u2019s reeled them in and by the end of the second set the place is just insane. The performance of Station to Station is incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bowie in a still from Brett Morgen\u2019s remastered Stage. Photograph: PR<\/p>\n

During the second show, on 1 July, Bowie quips, \u201cOK, this will be interesting\u201d, and performs Sound and Vision for the first time ever. \u201cAnd he\u2019s cracking up throughout the song because I think the electric violin was trying to do the horn section, which David thought was kind of amusing. It\u2019s a great moment. Then the camera stays with David when he goes off to the sides, having a glass of beer or smoking a cigarette, and he\u2019s so engaged, dancing and smiling. It\u2019s very joyous. I think this was the first time he\u2019d performed without a mask, or \u2018character\u2019, so to speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morgen isn\u2019t giving everything away but promises \u201csurprises\u201d as well as \u201ca new medium of entertainment\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not a movie that\u2019s being shown in arenas,\u201d he insists. \u201cThere\u2019s multiple screens, a fully integrated lighting package, a 7.1 [surround sound] sound mix. The performance is 1978 but the presentation is 2027. The audience is invited to gaze where they want to gaze: choose your own adventure. Eleven years after his passing, it makes perfect sense that Bowie will be trailblazing again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stage premieres at the Berlin film festival, Germany<\/a>, in February 2027, before touring.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 2017, when Brett Morgen began work on his acclaimed 2022 David Bowie documentary, Moonage Daydream, he was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658830,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[146,85,46],"class_list":["post-658829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}