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Velvet Goldmine is by no means a perfect movie. In fact, I think it's a pretty flawed movie. At times I could feel the movie get a little bit dragged down by the central, Citizen Kane-inspired conceit, which is that Arthur, played by the amazing Christian Bale, is going around interviewing people who were associated with a former glam superstar, Brian Slade (played by Jonathan Rhys-Meyers) who fakes his own death several years prior. As the film goes along, we learn bits and pieces about Brian Slade by way of the aforementioned interviews, and flashbacks into Arthur's youth. In AV Club's article on Velvet Goldmine, Scott Tobias discusses how the interviews serve to keep Brian Slade a mysterious character, which is an essential element of the film. While I totally get that, and do agree that Brian would be much less interesting if we knew everything about him, at the same time the interview segments are just really boring to me.
But man, when the film focuses on the music and the past, it completely comes to life. I love the experimental little bits connecting the film to Oscar Wilde, as tenuous as those connections may be. You can tell that this film is about one person's specific obsessions, and that's part of what I like about it. What's a good film without an idiosyncratic point of view? The whole thing is shot and edited together beautifully. When that opening sequence comes in, blaring Brian Eno's "Needle in the Camel's Eye," the film completely jumps off the screen and comes to life. It feels like you were there, at that time, letting the music move you and change your life as it does for the characters onscreen.
Even though Brian Slade is ostensibly the central character of the film, for me the movie is all about Christian Bale. He gives a really beautiful, sad performance – he barely speaks, yet every emotion plays out plainly on his face. I love the scene when he throws his coat off outside his house to reveal a conspicuously tight, purple shirt, trying to establish himself in a world that's trying to keep him down. The best part is when he runs into a few other kids dressed in a similar style, from whom Arthur still feel terribly far removed. When I watch that scene, I'm like Arthur in the fantasy scene where he points at Brian Slade on the television and yells, "THAT'S ME! THAT'S ME!" I could relate to that on so many levels – trying to be myself and ~different~, but still feeling like I'd never fit in with other people with similar interests. Which makes Arthur so tragic, ultimately – he does find some people he could fit in with, for a short time, and then it was gone. Now he lives in a bleak future where he'll repress himself forever and ever.
But that short time – what an amazing time it was. Forget all that stuff I said about Christian Bale – the real, real star is the music. Okay, I'm gonna make this about me for a second. It sounds ridiculous to state it so plainly, but I've always been a big fan of music. Like, I really love music. A lot. I once had a screenwriting teacher who told us that if he had any real talent he'd be a musician. His reason was that music can capture the intangible (like emotions and whatnot) so much better than any movie or piece of writing because music itself is intangible. I was like, OMG, that is totally true, at least for me. What I love about this movie is that the whole thing feels like a love letter to music, and its capacity to change your life, but not in a cheesy Almost Famous kind of way.
One of my favorite scenes is when Arthur comes home from the record store with a beloved new record, and he simply puts it on, and lays on the floor to listen to it. I was like, wow, today that scene would go like this: kid gets home, goes online to download music, and listens to it idly while checking Facebook or whatever. The simplicity of just listening to music, and having that be enough – that seems so radical to me now. What I ultimately love about Velvet Goldmine, past any rational misgivings, is that this film reminded me of what I love so much about music, and sort of by connection, life in general. Sometimes I get so bogged down in the logical, I forget about how beautiful things can be when you just slow down and just let yourself float sometimes. I've taken music for granted, but I shouldn't ever forget the way music can make me feel, how music is completely irreplaceable in my life. For that, I'll always have a soft spot for this weird, deeply personal movie.
P.S. Y'all should also check out Todd Hayne's short film Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story. It's really chilling, especially for a film entirely acted by Barbie dolls. You can completely see his potential for great things. This is the first Todd Haynes film I've seen all the way through (I've seen Mildred Pierce and parts of I'm Not There) and I can't wait to see more.
