The Man Who Fell to Earth: 60 years of the groundbreaking novel that made David Bowie fall in love

The first look is usually superficial. The man and his horse, the shepherd with his sheep and even a boat near the shore of the island are the elements that stand out the most. But a closer look reveals the center of the work: in the sea, in front of which seems to be the only conscious witness of the scene, the legs of young Icarus reveal the exact moment of his fall and, consequently, the failure of the plan imagined by Daedalus, his father, so that both can escape from Minos and regain their freedom.

Up to a certain point, the contours of this painting – baptized Landscape with the Fall of Icarus- and the Greek myth it depicts have something of the history of Thomas Newton the solitary Anthean fallen to Earth charged with the difficult task of effecting the salvation of his compatriots on this fertile planet. In Anthea there were barely 300 survivors of the multiple wars and conflicts that ended up destroying the expectations of life in their world, and whose future depended exclusively on the success of Newton’s mission.

The training was not easy. Before embarking on the solitary interplanetary journey that led him to land in the United States, he had to undertake extensive research on the Earth and North American culture. . Their sophisticated technological advances allowed them to intercept television signals and modulated frequency radio stations. It was years of studying films, cultural programs and news bulletins.

Then came the design of the costume that would hide his extraterrestrial features – like the lack of fingernails or nipples – in the skin of a tall, fragile, thin and androgynous alien genius eager to found a company dedicated to the sale of products of point. technology patents. . A million-dollar business that would be run by Newton and that, in the medium term, would make possible the construction of a spacecraft capable of interplanetary travel. Journeys that would eventually bring the rest of the Antheans to Earth.

But just as in the painting of Icarus, What at first glance might seem like a typical science fiction story quickly turns into an existential ode to man’s inevitable path to loneliness. . In The man who fell to the groundthe second novel of the american Walter Tevis , the stranger Thomas Newton will have to face multiple challenges: the fear of being discovered, the pressure to carry out his plans before it is too late and the constant suffering that accompanies his body adapting to the physical conditions. of our planet. On the other hand, it will be much easier for him to immerse himself in states as intrinsically human as melancholy and loneliness, two sensations which are difficult to learn by simple expectation, and which will end up compromising the accomplishment of his mission.

For all that, its publication in 1963 revolutionized science fiction literature . Stories of violent beings who arrived on Earth for the sole purpose of conquering and destroying were the tonic that, until then, had the majority of alien stories. It suffices to review such fundamental works of the genre as War of the Worldsof HG Wells . However, it was the incredible human condition of the protagonist of Tevis that made his proposal a breath of fresh air that, 60 years after its first edition, it continues to win over new readers.

But its initial impact wasn’t just in sales success. This also motivated the filming of a film directed by Nicolas Roeg, which had exactly the same david bowie as Thomas Newton . Bowie’s first starring film role, and that he found it at a time when his life was at various times intertwined with that of the Anthean.

For 1976, Bowie was already shining as one of the most outstanding creative minds in the industry. . Few years ago The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders of Mars (1972), an all-concept album chronicling an alien’s path to rock star transformation, had conquered the mainstream terrain, and with it came the rapid rise of his fame.

In addition to his interest in audiovisual, It was no wonder that, sooner or later, the white duke ended up being called by a director to venture into the cinema. . And the filming of the first adaptation of The man who fell to the ground It came like a glove. First there was the theme of his discography, where everything related to space manifests itself as a constant inspiration, with the story of Ziggy Stardust as one of the most critical points of this exploration. But there were also his physical characteristics: a man with androgynous features, a symbol of sexual liberation and with an eccentric aspect that even manifested itself in the aniscornia of one of his students. Two elements that made Nicolas Roeg think of as the only possible Thomas Newton.

It is enough to recall one of the descriptions of Newton contained in the book to reaffirm, at least, the physical similarities between the two: “He was six feet tall. His hair was as white as an albino’s, but his face was slightly tanned and his eyes were pale blue. His skeleton was incredibly light, his features delicate, his fingers long and slender and his skin almost transparent, hairless. There was something mysterious in his childish face, a pleasing expression of youth in his large, intelligent eyes.

Despite his inexperience in acting, the musician’s performance as a wistful, eccentric alien worked perfectly. And not only for his physical qualities. The fact that his own life was going through a period of loneliness, addictions and disorientation probably also contributed to the plausibility of his interpretation.

A year before the film’s premiere, the BBC aired the documentary cracked actor, who toured the album North American Diamond dogs. There, the journalist Carlos Novellas describes the artist with rather harsh words: “It is 1974, Bowie is only 27 years old and he is (very) exhausted. His emaciated face is that of a budding cocaine addict who wanders the Yankee West between limos, stages and hotel rooms. ”. Substitute cocaine for a bottle of gin – the addiction Newton gradually acquired during his Earthling years – and the backdrops of business meetings, to turn the scene into a solid depiction of the decadence of life. ‘Antheen.

This year has been particularly complex for the musician. Not only was he starting to let go of Ziggy, who now functioned as an alter ego for him . He also moved to the United States to record the album Young Americans (1975). While dealing with an addiction to hard drugs. Its consumption was problematic: it had already made him anorexic, since he only ate milk and peppers, and he suffered from a kind of delusion of persecution which led him to urinate in jars that he kept at home. him for fear that someone would use it to do dark magic against him.

It is in this context that his first meeting with Roeg takes place. Bowie met him at a bar at 10 p.m., but he didn’t show up until 5 a.m. . The director was still waiting for him, persuaded to stay there as long as necessary to convince the Briton to play the role. When he arrived, it looked like he hadn’t even read the script. Still, Roeg got a positive response.

“At that time, I lived in two completely separate worlds,” the musician recalled in an interview in 1996. “My mental state was fractured. It was easy for me to stay out of everything around me. I think Nic saw that I had a hard time making emotional connections and that’s why he sought me out. His recommendation to play the alien was just “be yourself” ”.

Initially, His contract also provided for the composition of the film’s soundtrack, but the constant delays in the presentation of the demos and the excessively raw state they were in ended up displacing the idea. . Let us recall that at that time, the artist was immersed in the recording of station to station (1976), which will be his next album. It is not known exactly what happened to these recordings. Some postulate that the tapes were destroyed. Others, that some of them were taken over by Bowie to be part of the instrumental side of the album. weak (1977).

Despite everything, the film succeeded and, over time, became a true cult piece. We remember another anecdote from the days of recording: while they were filming one of the scenes in which the Anthean was examined by the doctors, they noticed that the blood of the accessories did not look good on cameras. Cinematographer Tony Richmond’s solution was to use pig’s blood, which Bowie adamantly refused or would agree to have the blood of any animal shed on him. Between frustration, Roeg proposed to use human blood. And as strange as it may seem, the idea had no major objections . Finally, it was Richmond himself who gave part of his blood to carry out the filming.

Even with all the details that filled the life of the musician when it came to getting involved in the project, the novel ended up impacting him in a much deeper way . So much so that it was one of the last projects he worked on in his life. Along with the release of the album Black Star (2016), the musician wrote his first musical with the playwright Enda Walsh baptized as Lazarus. There, and through the articulation of several reversions of classics from his discography, he addresses events after the end of Tevis’ work. through the book album by album (which browses and analyzes the entire discography of the white duke), the journalist Paul Hewitt he sought a response to Bowie’s impulse to return to Newton’s story. His conclusion was that, according to the same Antheano affirms in one of his dialogues, he is “a dying man who cannot die”. Something that makes a lot more sense when you remember that these were the last days of the Briton’s life, who died the same year of liver cancer.