"You're afraid to be in love; you're afraid to lose control"

In the past two days, I have watched two beautiful, incredibly moving films, and both of them have been about musicians.

The first: Velvet Goldmine.

This is yet another film that Hayley (who is a film student at uni) introduced me too. It's the story of Brian Slade, a David Bowie-esque character, his rise to super stardom and the question of his disappearance and possible faked death. It also features an adorably young Christian Bale (sporting a lush mint green velvet blazer) and his teenage years listening to and obsessing over Brian Slade's band, and also ten years later as a reporter reliving his childhood memories and trying to discover what really happened to Slade.

The film also features Ewan McGregor as Curt Wild (the 'Iggy Pop' wild card character) who Slade falls in love with, as well as Eddie Izzard (always excellent) and Placebo! Yes, the band, and yes, they are stellar.

To put it simply, I was blown away. When Brian Molko introduced the 'farewell to glam rock' concert and started playing 20th Century Boy, one of my all-time favourite songs, my heart was pounding so fast I thought I was going to hyperventilate. The last time a film affected me like that, Sam Worthington was a 9ft tall blue alien on the back of a CGI pterodactyl, swooping around a 3D fictional landscape.

Obviously it's not everyone's cup of tea (homophobes, stay away), but I abdolutely adored it. Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Brian Slade was perfection - he had obviously studied David Bowie very closely, because if you let your eyes blur a teeny bit, it was exactly like watching Bowie during his Space Oddity period.

The soundtrack was one of thes best that I have ever heard. Also, there was an extortionate amount of glitter. My kinda thing.


The second film, which I've seen portions of before but only managed to see in full tonight, was Walk the Line.

Now I am a huge Johnny Cash fan, so I was both attracted to and dubious of this film. I shouldn't have worried - it is beautiful. It's such a shame that Joaquin Phoenix is a whacko nowadays, because he is both astoninishingly talented and an absolute babe in this film. His Johnny Cash is so absdolutely, absolutely, on the mark, it's eerie.

The film chronicles Cash's early life and rise to fame, as well as his relationship with his wife June Carter, played by Reese Witherspoon. Both actors sing and play their own instruments in the film, which I think is a fact worth knowing before you watch it, because it is unbelievably impressive. Phoenix evens gets the little inflections in Cash's voice perfected when he performs the songs. Johnny Cash himself actually requested that Phoenix portray him in the film before his death in 2003.

Aside from the perfect music and Joaquin Phoenix's undeniably sexy curled upper lip, the film made me cry my eyes out. Cash's relationship with his father is heartbreaking, as is his drug addiction and self-destructiveness. But - SPOILER ALERT - there is a happy ending. And it's so uplifting; I cried then too. True love stories make me an emotional wreck.


So there we have it - two more films that I adore. I'll leave you with a Velvet Goldmine quote that delighted me, and a film still from one of my favourite moments in Walk the Line. Now - any more film suggestions for me to watch and love?

"To save your wild, wild lives
To ne'er your fans embitter
To cease your sad demise
Tonight we toast: THE DEATH OF GLITTER"



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