Two Bowie Tracks On Intimacy Soundtrack

On another floor, in the back of a car…

A recently released soundtrack CD that includes two Bowie tracks seems to have slipped through the BowieNet, erm… Bowie net. Details are a little sketchy at the moment but this is what I know to be fact. There are at least two versions of the CD (see covers above) one released in Germany and another in France, both versions released through Virgin France. Not sure just yet about plans for the rest of the world.

The two versions have the same tracklisting, including David Bowie’s ‘Candidate’ and ‘The Motel’. The latter is the normal album version, but the former is the first time that ‘Candidate’ has been made available as a track in its own right.

This is a unique mix of the song that fades at the point where ‘Candidate’ would normally run into ‘Sweet Thing (reprise)’. But, as incredible a piece of music as ‘Candidate’ is, it does sound a little odd out of context like this to be honest, a bit like removing the middle panel of that really famous triptych that everybody knows all about, and showing it without the outer panels…having said that, it probably works in isolation for those not familiar with the full ‘Sweet Thing’/’Candidate’/’Sweet Thing (reprise)’ track from the ‘Diamond Dogs’ album which we all know and love.

Other artists on the CD that help make this a pretty stunning line-up include: Tindersticks, The Clash, (the criminally overlooked) Clinic, Dream City Film Club, Iggy Pop (‘Consolation Prizes’ and the awesome, and appropriately entitled ‘Penetration’), Nick Cave (incredible and hard to find version of the Elvis song, ‘In The Ghetto’) and Eyeless In Gaza. The second half of the album comprises the original score by Eric Neveux, which I don’t think would be too lazy to say was ambient in an Eno style at times, and particularly on the last track, ‘Last Wednesday In New Cross’, which wouldn’t sound out of place on Eno’s own ‘Apollo album.

‘Intimacy’, or ‘Intimité’ as it is known to the French, is the soundtrack to Patrice Chéreau’s film of the same name, that, despite it’s success elsewhere, was made entirely on location in London…The Elephant & Castle, Battersea and Brixton to be precise. The film’s cast includes: Mark Rylance, Kerry Fox, Timothy Spall, Alastair Galbraith, Philippe Calvario, Marianne Faithfull, Susannah Harker and Rebecca Palmer.

‘Intimacy’ is based on a story by Hanif Kureishi, who you will remember was also responsible for ‘The Buddha of Suburbia’, which is currently being re-run on the BBC’s Knowledge channel. (08/23/01 NEWS: BUDDHA OF SUBURBIA ON BBC KNOWLEDGE)

For the German version of the site go here, and go here, for the French version of the site, that has a rather saucy and emotionally charged trailer that is probably only meant to be viewed by the French.

Thanks very much to BowieNetter Markus Michels who pointed out the German version of the CD to me in the first place.