A synopsis of the Making of the Labyrinth documentary
To begin at the beginning … This is a wonderful 56 minute documentary featuring interview snippets of a very cool David Bowie (must we add, with his normal hair and Jareth eyebrows!), Jim Henson, Jenny Connelly (who's very cute) and Terry Jones among other cast and crew (Shari Weiser, Brian Henson etc). The doco shows the filming of scenes from the movie, the creation of the sets and the filming logistics, such as the choreography and juggling, but the bulk of it is dedicated to separately showing how the different Laby creatures were made and operated.
DAVID BOWIE: There’s not that much Bowie for those hoping for lots of eye candy, as it is a Labyrinth doco, not a Bowie one. Bowie offers a few snippets of wisdom which you can kindly find a transcript of on at Elizabeth’s Jareth’s Realm The fun though, lies in Bowie’s outrageous ability to unintentionally steal the limelight in his weird combination of stagedness and genuine earnestness. David's always like one big child! He provides the majority of the (although definitely not enough) hilarious bloopers. Watch David trip and almost fall on top of Jenny; ballroom dance with a ‘14’ stuck on his back, get hair blown in his eye (and go to rub it, but realises he’ll smudge his makeup, bless him); play with Toby, get Dance Magic lessons; and stand around the Escher room in a bathrobe.JENNY CONNOLLEY: The poor girl on the other hand has all the work cut out for her as she had to do all the stunts herself . Watch poor Jennifer looking extremely unhappy while being drenched with fake rain, falling 20 feet down the shaft of hands, having no fun with rioting chickens and getting genuinely scared at a close call with the cleaners. There’s a really short, but sweet behind the scenes shot of David and Jenny rehearsing the ballroom waltz (as themselves), parting the sea of dancers. Also look for the quite perverted expression on Jennifer’s face in one of the ballroom out-takes.
HIGHLIGHT: The highlight I think, is watching juggler Michael Marsden work with Bowie on the juggling scenes. Michael had to literally become Jareth’s hands by wrapping his arms around Dave and working while not being able to see a thing, so there’s quite a lot of crystals being dropped everywhere and frustrated vexing by him. Bowie on the other hand seems to be quite amused by being hugged by Michael (watch for his cheeky trademark wink). Bowie offers his consolations though to try and make things better.
BEST ACHIEVER AWARD: Goes to Jim Henson who rides a bike to work, tries directing a reluctant (and so cute!) Toby, tries directing chickens (unsuccessfully, so the chickens got the chop) and asks where David has gone when David is standing right behind him. And who of course, had the superb taste to chose Bowie as Jareth out of his other considerations of Michael Jackson and Sting.
TRIVIA: I swear that conceptual goblin artist Brian Froud, who also helped design the masks and dresses, makes an appearance in the ball scene. Watch out for the guy with the moustache when Sarah gets confronted by all those leering faces shortly before she runs off.
