Who else but David Bowie could pull off playing a man who fell to Earth? His alien visitor is humanoid and yet from a different world – an eccentric inventor and businessman who erects a huge industrial conglomerate almost out of nothing. Yet he himself hides in his hotel room watching myriad televisions at once. Charismatic Mr. Newton arrives in the US with a British passport and an offer of incredible technology for our world. In reality, however, he has come from a faraway planet to investigate whether Earth is suitable for colonization because his own people are running out of water at home. He infiltrates human society – and this is what brings about his downfall: he ends up as an alcoholic ruin who has lost his willpower. As is often the case with the sci-fi genre, this artistically striking picture, benefiting from powerful images and wonderful period music, still comments on our own world with its ruthlessness and suffocating uniformity. After 39 years its topicality remains intact.