The rock idol says so in ‘Tell me Iggy’, a documentary-interview dedicated to him presented at the Biografilm festival in Bologna. But in fact we all know that the iguana is immortal. in this movie too
“The problem with life is that it stops at some point.” This cannot be argued, especially if a 76-year-old gentleman named James Newell Osterberg Jr., better known as Iggy Pop, is affirming such an irrefutable truth. Yes, Iggy reached this venerable age last April 21, the same day as her birthday in Rome, but it’s doubtful she may live much longer than the Eternal City (we’ll ultimately thank Gualtieri for that). In any case, the iguana is still alive and well and talkative too, at least with whoever it wants to. In this case Sophie Blondi, a French director who hired her in 2012 for her second film, day star, in which Iggy played the conscience of a clown played by Dennis Lavant; The reason the cultured actor originally accepted the role was: he wanted to work with the fetish actor of Leos Carax.
The friendship with the director continued and Sophie flew to Miami in 2021 to meet him and have a good chat with him, which later became the backbone of the film. tell me iggyDocumentary in television format (52 minutes), presented in the Italian preview in the Art and Music section of the Biografilm Festival of Bologna, which tells without much frills and gives the person concerned the mundane (and even ultra) tells the story. Fifty-plus years of pop and rock culture crossed the paths of Andy Warhol, Lou Reed, David Bowie, just to mention the first three asses that come to mind. With puppets or alone, Iggy has made herself the perfect stage animal, moving and giving of herself to the audience with body and soul, and this is not a metaphor. The documentary begins with one of his many memorable performances, during which he poses naked, showing the absolute beauty of being free, with the awareness of offering a work of art to the world.
He hasn’t changed, Jimmy, he’s just calmed down a bit, but he never stopped. Of course, scoliosis cannot make him happy: although so far his right leg, also thanks to a worn hip, is four centimeters shorter than the other, this does not prevent him from moving on stage like no other. If you don’t believe it, watch an excerpt from one of his concerts in San Francisco last April on YouTube: He’s better than you and me. That’s why it’s funny to see him talking amiably about himself after parking his Rolls-Royce in front of his home in Miami, the homeland of American pensioners. «I’ve been here since 1998, this is where I’ve lived the longest in my life. I spent 25 years traveling between New York, Berlin, London and Hollywood and I couldn’t take it anymore, I wanted to be away from space, the light, the sea and too many lousy people».
Iggy Pop moves to Miami. Photo: 10.7 Productions
Not going to talk about him in the documentary, of course they’re all friends. Denise Lavant and Beatrice Dell, who she met on set day star, Johnny Depp, who thanked John Waters (also asked the question, and as always with a unique elegance) shared the screen with him cry Baby (They also collaborated later arizona dream Kusturica and in Veer – Heroic, Depp’s only direction to date). Debbie Harry, old friend of Warhol’s Factory New York. And everyone has only sweet words for this wild man who must have a rare humanity. You can tell by how he tells himself, calm, smiling, with an apparent inner calm, of someone who has seen and experienced so much, and he knows it. “My life has always been a succession of very high and very low moments. Now I would like the mountains to turn into hills. Because in the end time passes for everyone, even for The Passenger, who however unable to dissipate the energy that has always been with him, and which he explains so well by understanding his connection with music and the public. “Suppose you have a lamp in your house. And you want to switch it on. And in order to light it up, you have to connect it to an energy source, to a socket. Well, I am the plug, my band is the energy and I am the device to mesmerize the audience».
And to be honest, he can even do it sitting comfortably in his studio. If you don’t believe it, tune into BBC6 on Sundays at 4pm GMT (an hour later for those in the Mediterranean). iggy confidential It’s the best two hours of music you’re ever going to hear, with a warm voice from this gentleman that seamlessly transitions from Frank Sinatra to the Beastie Boys. He carefully examined the importance of Sciantos on the seventies punk scene, once I heard it out of my ears.
tell me iggy was presented at the Biografilm Festival with director Sophie Blondi, who summed up what it means to be Iggy Pop in a few words: «When he came to shoot day starEvery day there were photographers on the set who wanted to take pictures with him. Iggy was always very helpful, until at one point she asked them to leave because she had something to do and needed concentration to do it well. The money was not much and the means were also few, but he did not care about it. Because when he decides to do something like this he gives his 100%. It was wonderful”.
Today he is an amazing survivor, his friends gone one by one. Andy, David, Lou and many others are gone. And whether some Rolling Stones and some Beatles are alive matters little. Iggy Pop himself survived, and that’s no small feat. In the documentary, more than one interviewee thinks he is immortal. He has a precise idea about it: «I believe that every means of communication is a piece of immortality. Which doesn’t really exist, because one day some savage will decide to destroy all digital archives. But until then, this is a way to stretch your luck a bit.’ The prophet of punk has become a wise old philosopher. And to be honest, there is nothing strange in this.