More about: David Bowie
Actress Tilda Swinton has spoken out to pay an emotional, heartfelt tribute to her friend and collaborator, the late, great David Bowie. Watch it below.
Swinton, Bowie's equally androgynous doppelganger, appeared in his now iconic video for The Next Day single 'The Stars (Are Out Tonight)'. She was speaking "on behalf of all of us fanboys" at the Berlinale Film Festival before a showing of his classic film, The Man Who Fell To Earth, when she opened up about her friendship and Bowie's lasting impact on film, music and culture.
Thanking Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick, she said: "“Dieter has done what we’ve wanted someone to do for a month, which is to give an opportunity for us all to be together and sit in the dark and look at the leader of our tribe.”
Speaking of The Man Who Fell To Earth, Swinton said: "I have an interesting relationship to this film, I come from a family that has no connection to film at all, and when I was 17 I was ill in bed with glandular fever and I had read every book in the house. And my mother’s cousin was married to a screenwriter, and he bought me a screenplay to read. I’d never seen a screenplay in my life, and it was The Man Who Fell to Earth.
"And I’ve always felt a connection to the film for that reason, and also of course the first album I ever bought, several years before I had a record player, was Aladdin Sane, and I used to carry it around with me even though I couldn’t hear it, I could look at that picture.”
Admitting that it was "tough" to watch Bowie on screen so soon after losing him, she continued: "Looks what he’s left us with, acres and acres of sound and vision.”
David Bowie Tribute | Berlinale 2016 | Tilda Swinton Honorific...Last night Tilda Swinton introduced the commemorative screening of THE MAN WHO FELL TO EARTH to honour David Bowie.'A very Berlinale cultural moment'..
Posted by Berlinale - Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday, 13 February 2016
Closing her speech, she concluded: “We’re going to watch a great film, a masterpiece I’d say, about a soul who leaves their home and their family in dire circumstances and goes to a pretty hostile place, looking for welcome and refuge,” she said. “This is one of those pictures that couldn’t be more modern.”
This week also saw Bowie's son, acclaimed director Duncan Jones, announce that he and his wife were expecting a child - revealing the news in a touching card he made for his father.
Meanwhile, David Bowie's wife Iman recently broke her silence for the first time since his death. This month also saw the release of a beautiful Bowie covers tribute album by Amanda Palmer, featuring the likes of Anna Calvi and many more.
Details of Bowie's will, fortune and funeral have been revealed - amid reports that he planned more music to be released before his death.
More about: David Bowie