Synopsis

In a stark artist's studio, David Bowie works on a self-portrait while singing of a mysterious angel and a long wait for salvation. As the performance unfolds, the image on the canvas remains handsome and idealized, while Bowie's own face deteriorates beneath increasingly grotesque makeup. The video turns the song's angel-of-death imagery into a compact horror tableau, with the artist trapped between creation and decay. Its unsettling transformation gives the otherwise studio-bound performance a distinctly surreal and theatrical edge.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video's central idea draws on Oscar Wilde's *The Picture of Dorian Gray*: the portrait retains its beauty as Bowie physically decays.

• It was filmed at Ewart & Co's studios in Wandsworth, London, over April 21-22, 1979.

• The production was made during the same weekend as the videos for "Boys Keep Swinging" and "D.J." The set designer for all three productions was Michael Minas.

• "Look Back in Anger" was issued as a US and Canadian A-side single on August 20, 1979. In the United Kingdom, the *Lodger* singles were "Boys Keep Swinging" and "D.J." instead.

• The North American single arrived without a picture sleeve or press advertising and failed to chart.

• The song was written by Bowie and Brian Eno for *Lodger*. Eno's unusual instrumental credits include synthesizer, horse trumpet, and Eroica horn.

• The video helped establish "Look Back in Anger" as one of the more disturbing visual pieces from the *Lodger* era, largely because of the makeup-driven shift from Bowie's familiar appearance to a decayed, almost corpse-like figure.