Velvet Goldmine

“The birth of Oscar Wilde; the staged death of a flamboyant rock star modeled closely after David Bowie; the delirious inebriation of London at the height of the glam era: Haynes’s second discourse on celebrity culture was as sprawling and multi-tracked as Safe had been clinically restrained. Much of Velvet Goldmine, the story of a journalist who tries to reconstruct the sordid life story of the failed glam-rock star he’d idolized as a young man, was shot in London, and the move gave Haynes a chance to abandon the cloister-like suburbs of his earlier films for a much more colorful, Dionysian milieu. Working with a stellar cast and a staggering roster of musicians, Haynes crafted one of the most thrilling music movies of the 1990s.”
— Film Society of Lincoln Center

“The astounding Mr. Haynes…reimagines the glam-rock ’70s as a brave new world of electrifying theatricality and sexual possibility….Velvet Goldmine tells a story the way operas do: blazing with exquisite yet abstract passions, and with quite a lot to look at on the side.”
— Janet Maslin, The New York Times

Film Details

Country: USA
Language: English
Year: 1998
Running time: 123 min
Format: 35mm
Director:Todd Haynes
Screenwriter: Todd Haynes
Producer: Christine Vachon
Cinematographer: Maryse Alberti
Editor: James Lyons
Source: Park Circus

Films and schedules may be subject to change.

Modern Cinema’s Founding Supporters are Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein. Support is provided by Nion T. McEvoy and the Susan Wildberg Morgenstein Fund. This season of Modern Cinema is generously supported by James C. Hormel and Michael P. Nguyen.