Diamond Dogs – An unfinished film by David Bowie

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In October 1973, David Bowie began work on a concept album, based on his experiences earlier in the year when he’d witnessed societies ravaged by totalitarianism during his journey across Eastern Europe via the Trans-Siberian Railway.

He combined his experiences and together with Playright Tony Ingrassia, Bowie planned a theatrical project: a stage adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984.

In November 1973 Bowie talked about a lavish television adaptation of it. However, Orwell’s widow rejected the proposal and withheld the rights.

But as Bowie had already written some songs and begun recording, this new material was redeveloped into what would become the Diamond Dogs album.

Combining the influences of Orwell’s novel together with German expressionism and the silent movies ‘The Cabinet of Dr Caligari’, ‘Metropolis’, and Todd Browning’s ‘Freaks’, Bowie also planned a film to accompany the new album.

The film was storyboarded in detail and character parts were written, to be played by Bowie himself, Iggy Pop, Lyndsey Kemp and Cyrinda Fox, among others.

In early 1974 and during his stay at New York’s Pierre Hotel, Bowie together with supervision from cameraman John Dove began to make a short demo video for the Diamond Dogs film.

The video was shot in black and white with a single RCA video camera, and included very basic opening titles, simple special effects and superimposed scenes using cardboard cutouts. Unfortunately the film project was never finished.

Compiled from various sources (including a short storyboard animation made originally for the ‘David Bowie Is…’ exhibition), some of Bowie’s original demo video footage has been recovered and although it remains incomplete, it does offer a tantalizing glimpse of what he had planned.

Via The Year Of The Diamond Dogs.