David Bowie’s Son Shares Touching Photo After Death Of ‘The Man Who Fell To Earth’ Director Nicolas Roeg
David Bowie’s son Duncan Jones has shared a touching childhood photograph of himself with his father and Nicolas Roeg, after the death of The Man Who Fell to Earth director at the age of 90.
As the NME report, the beloved British director Nicolas Roeg, who was responsible for films like Performance, The Witches, Don’t Look Now, and Walkabout has left a startlingly long legacy in his wake and Bowie’s son Duncan Jones has celebrated his life and work by thanking the director for getting him excited about movies at a young age.
“Just heard another great storyteller, the inimitable Nicolas Roeg left us today. What an incredible body of work he’s left us with! All my love to his family. Thank you for making so many brave choices, and giving this strange little lad in pyjamas an ongoing love of filmmaking.”
The photograph that Jones shared of Bowie and Roeg takes us back to the 1976 film The Man Who Fell To Earth, where Bowie played protagonist Thomas Jerome Newton. The film was based upon a 1963 science fiction novel by Walter Tevis, and according to Syfy Wire, during filming of the movie, Nicolas Roeg “really came to believe that Bowie was a man who had come to Earth from another galaxy. His actual social behavior was extraordinary – he hardly mixed with anyone at all. He seemed to be alone – which is what Newton is in the film – isolated and alone.”
Just heard another great storyteller, the inimitable Nicolas Roeg left us today. What an incredible body of work he’s left us with!
All my love to his family.
Thank you for making so many brave choices, & giving this strange little lad in pajamas an ongoing love of filmmaking. pic.twitter.com/QVg2znq3Rs— Duncan Jones (@ManMadeMoon) November 24, 2018
As i-D has reported, the actress Candy Clark also has many fond memories of being on the set during The Man Who Fell To Earth and recalls just how closely Nicolas Roeg worked with those on the set, calling him a “real actor’s director.”
“I’m really proud of the whole thing. The acting, the cinematography, working with Nic Roeg. I mean, he is a real actor’s director. He is right there like a coach, and that was before they had all those stations where they watch your acting on a video screen. I prefer the old style, where they’re next to you. It’s a warmer feeling when the director is right there, right out of frame just watching. I like that.”
Roeg did appear to have a penchant for working with musicians and long before his time with David Bowie he also directed the seminal 1970 film Performance with Mick Jagger. This was a movie that the Guardian once noted confused many people, with one reviewer from the the New York Times stating, “You do not have to be a drug addict, pederast, sadomasochist or nitwit to enjoy Performance, but being one or more of those things would help.”
With Nicolas Roeg’s death at the age of 90, many are remembering this British film director today, and David Bowie’s son Duncan Jones has kindly given us his own personal tribute of the man who left left a huge impression upon him as a child.
