Velvet Goldmine - Connections To Other Works

Connections To Other Works

• The title of the movie takes its name from the song "Velvet Goldmine", written by David Bowie.
• The film's disclaimer reads "Although what you are about to see is a work of fiction, it should nevertheless be played at maximum volume," an allusion to David Bowie's album Ziggy Stardust, which contains the legend: "To be played at maximum volume."
• The name of the lead character, Brian Slade, is an allusion to the 1970s glam band, Slade. The name of Slade's persona "Maxwell Demon" was named after Brian Eno's first band, which in itself was influenced by James Clerk Maxwell's thought experiment character, "Maxwell's demon".
• Curt Wild's backing band, The Rats, shares its name with one of Mick Ronson's earliest groups. It also alludes to Iggy Pop's band, The Stooges in that both words share a similar meaning ("rat" and "stooge" both being terms for someone who is an informer).
• The scene where couples are shown walking into the Sombrero Club on New Year's Eve 1969 is similar to a shot of people entering a party from Welles' film The Magnificent Ambersons.
• Maxwell Demon's guitarist shares the same last name, Finn, as T. Rex percussionist Mickey Finn.
• "Venus in Furs" is a reference to a Velvet Underground song of the same name, whose title and lyrics in turn reference a novel of that name by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch.
• Flaming Creatures is also the name of Jack Smith's seminal piece of gay cinema.
• Much of the script consists of quotations from various works of Oscar Wilde, and several of the scenes involving the character Jack Fairy reference the novels of Jean Genet.
• The bleak, dystopian feel of the action taking place in 1984 alludes to the novel Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell, to Bowie's own dystopian song of the same name, and to Bowie's reinvention of himself as a mainstream entertainer during the Reagan and Thatcher era.
• The "pantomime dame" from the vaudeville troupe is played by influential dancer Lindsay Kemp, a former teacher of Bowie's who collaborated with him on several music videos, including "John, I'm Only Dancing".
• The little girl on the train is reading "Antigonish" (a poem by William Hughes Mearns), which was inspiration for David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold The World".
• Arthur Stuart's boss has mydriasis in his left eye, much like David Bowie's.
• "The Ballad of Maxwell Demon" contains the lyrics: "The boys from Quadrant 44 with their vicious metal hounds never come 'round here no more," referencing Ray Bradbury's dystopian novel, Fahrenheit 451.