Without ever being in a band Julien Temple has made a career out of music. He first came to attention in the late 1970s when he filmed hours of the Sex Pistols. Much of that footage later went into his 2000 documentary The Filth and The Fury. In the 1980s and 90s Temple directed dozens of music videos such as Tom Pettys Free Fallin, Van Halens Jump, Culture Clubs Do You Really Want To Hurt Me?, Accepts Balls to the Wall and many more.
But before that Temple directed The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle which was about the Sex Pistols breakup told from the point of view of Malcolm McLaren. Shout Factory has just put the movie out on DVD in the United States.
Check out the official site for The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
Daniel Robert Epstein: Was it a tough process to get The Great Rock and Roll Swindle out on DVD?
Julien Temple: Its taken about 25 years so it couldnt have been that easy. We made the DVD a long time ago so it was ready and waiting for someone to finally put it out. It had a weird history of not being released in the United States so it became an underground thing with terrible quality bootlegs.
DRE: But its more punk to see it on bad quality bootleg.
JT: Yeah youre right. Some of it is bog roll vision as we call it here.
DRE: How was it doing the commentary on the movie after 25 years?
JT: It was weird because youre trying to remember what happened 30 years ago. So it comes in spurts then something triggers a whole load of things but you dont have time to say them because they want you to do it in real time.
Ive done it for all the other movies that have come out on DVD but this is first time I tried to remember conversations I had in a room 25 years ago.
DRE: Who is tougher to deal with Malcolm McLaren or Johnny Rotten?
JT: I think they probably cancel each other out. They are yin and yang.
DRE: But yin and yang dont usually despise one another.
JT: I think John is probably more honest and certainly more loyal to his fellow human beings.
DRE: How did the film come about in the first place?
JT: It came about as most good things do, by default. Various projects fell through while I had been filming the Pistols. We thought we could piss off Sex Pistols fans with it.
DRE: So the Sex Pistols wanted to piss off their fans.
JT: That was their raison d'tre. The problem for them was that kids were worshipping them and kneeling down in front of large posters of them and praying. They were not meant to be worshipped but meant to inspire people to get up and do a similar thing. The idea of the film was to knock that notion on the head and confuse truth and reality in an infuriating way so fans would get angry again.
DRE: Did you feel like you accomplished confusing Pistols fans?
JT: I think it did. They loved it and hated it at the same time. Jean Luc Godard told me he loved it. He called the way it was edited the future of film. That was amazing. Soon after he said we were both attending a film festival and I saw him sitting at a caf by himself. I walked up to him and said Mr. Godard and he said Fuck off. That was all he said. Thats the way heroes behave.
DRE: What did the band think of the film?
JT: John didnt have anything to do with it so that explains what he thought. The others were in it so they were onboard. But by that time the Sex Pistols had ended and there was blood all over the walls. No one was really talking and certainly John and Malcolm werent.
DRE: I bet they did talk but nothing substantial.
JT: [laughs] All through lawyers.
DRE: Did you talk with any band members about the DVD release?
JT: I talked briefly with Steve [Jones] who thought it was a good idea. John must have allowed it to come out because basically they control it because its part of their estate and legacy.
DRE: How do you think this film influenced the way you made The Filth and The Fury 20 years later?
JT: It was just doing it in another way. Swindle was designed at a very specific time in a very punk line of approach to blow away some of the rock and roll secretions that accumulated around the Pistols. The Filth and The Fury was to tell a much more human story with 20 years of perspective on what the Sex Pistols and punk had done in terms of changing peoples consciousness. We also cannibalized some of the Swindle to make The Filth and The Fury which seemed appropriate.
DRE: Do you feel like they are two sides of the same coin?
JT: Well they are telling the story in different ways so you could say that. Swindle is very much a documentary of its time and was made in the heat of the moment.
DRE: When you were doing press for The Filth and the Fury you said that if you took the Sex Pistols circa 1976 and plopped them down in the year 2000, they'd look almost contemporary, what about 2005?
JT: Well it does come in waves. No one has come up with anything more modern than them. I dont think you can live without that punk feeling. I think the Sex Pistols were just one manifestation of ideas that are constantly around and bubbling under. People have to find new ways of expressing themselves rather recycling the punk look. But I think the attitude is just as modern as it ever was and just as important.
DRE: In doing my research on you I was surprised to find out how many amazing and classic music videos you did.
JT: I tried to make mischief on MTV as much as I could. In the beginning of MTV you could get away with stuff they wouldnt let you do now.
DRE: Its interesting if you take a modern music video director like Mark Romanek, you can pretty much tell by looking at a music video whether he directed it or not. But if you compare the Accept video you did to the Culture Club video you did, it doesnt seem like the same person directed it. You allowed the artist to shine rather than your own style. Did you figure out a way to distill a band into a video?
JT: Back then you didnt have to rely on a style to get work. I cant think of anything worse than doing the same thing twice. Even though Ive made two films about the same subject I didnt do it in the same way. I dont like videos where you can tell who the director is. I like to try to find out what is unique about that band and why that band means something good or bad and nail that rather than design a perfume.
DRE: I have one question about Earth Girls Are Easy. I heard that Jim Carrey didnt get his alien dialogue correct and kind of freaked out because of that. Is that true?
JT: Well he often freaked out. There were hundreds of guys who auditioned to be these aliens and they were absolutely risible and pathetic. Like Mario Van Peebles auditioned. Then suddenly this guy ran into the room, ran up the wall almost across the ceiling and down the other wall. That was Jim Carrey and as soon as he landed he got the part. He was capable of doing those extraordinary things and he is highly strung as a result. He would freak out because he was a perfectionist.
DRE: Have you ever heard of SuicideGirls?
JT: I have but I have never popped in. Ive only heard good things.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
But before that Temple directed The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle which was about the Sex Pistols breakup told from the point of view of Malcolm McLaren. Shout Factory has just put the movie out on DVD in the United States.
Check out the official site for The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle
Daniel Robert Epstein: Was it a tough process to get The Great Rock and Roll Swindle out on DVD?
Julien Temple: Its taken about 25 years so it couldnt have been that easy. We made the DVD a long time ago so it was ready and waiting for someone to finally put it out. It had a weird history of not being released in the United States so it became an underground thing with terrible quality bootlegs.
DRE: But its more punk to see it on bad quality bootleg.
JT: Yeah youre right. Some of it is bog roll vision as we call it here.
DRE: How was it doing the commentary on the movie after 25 years?
JT: It was weird because youre trying to remember what happened 30 years ago. So it comes in spurts then something triggers a whole load of things but you dont have time to say them because they want you to do it in real time.
Ive done it for all the other movies that have come out on DVD but this is first time I tried to remember conversations I had in a room 25 years ago.
DRE: Who is tougher to deal with Malcolm McLaren or Johnny Rotten?
JT: I think they probably cancel each other out. They are yin and yang.
DRE: But yin and yang dont usually despise one another.
JT: I think John is probably more honest and certainly more loyal to his fellow human beings.
DRE: How did the film come about in the first place?
JT: It came about as most good things do, by default. Various projects fell through while I had been filming the Pistols. We thought we could piss off Sex Pistols fans with it.
DRE: So the Sex Pistols wanted to piss off their fans.
JT: That was their raison d'tre. The problem for them was that kids were worshipping them and kneeling down in front of large posters of them and praying. They were not meant to be worshipped but meant to inspire people to get up and do a similar thing. The idea of the film was to knock that notion on the head and confuse truth and reality in an infuriating way so fans would get angry again.
DRE: Did you feel like you accomplished confusing Pistols fans?
JT: I think it did. They loved it and hated it at the same time. Jean Luc Godard told me he loved it. He called the way it was edited the future of film. That was amazing. Soon after he said we were both attending a film festival and I saw him sitting at a caf by himself. I walked up to him and said Mr. Godard and he said Fuck off. That was all he said. Thats the way heroes behave.
DRE: What did the band think of the film?
JT: John didnt have anything to do with it so that explains what he thought. The others were in it so they were onboard. But by that time the Sex Pistols had ended and there was blood all over the walls. No one was really talking and certainly John and Malcolm werent.
DRE: I bet they did talk but nothing substantial.
JT: [laughs] All through lawyers.
DRE: Did you talk with any band members about the DVD release?
JT: I talked briefly with Steve [Jones] who thought it was a good idea. John must have allowed it to come out because basically they control it because its part of their estate and legacy.
DRE: How do you think this film influenced the way you made The Filth and The Fury 20 years later?
JT: It was just doing it in another way. Swindle was designed at a very specific time in a very punk line of approach to blow away some of the rock and roll secretions that accumulated around the Pistols. The Filth and The Fury was to tell a much more human story with 20 years of perspective on what the Sex Pistols and punk had done in terms of changing peoples consciousness. We also cannibalized some of the Swindle to make The Filth and The Fury which seemed appropriate.
DRE: Do you feel like they are two sides of the same coin?
JT: Well they are telling the story in different ways so you could say that. Swindle is very much a documentary of its time and was made in the heat of the moment.
DRE: When you were doing press for The Filth and the Fury you said that if you took the Sex Pistols circa 1976 and plopped them down in the year 2000, they'd look almost contemporary, what about 2005?
JT: Well it does come in waves. No one has come up with anything more modern than them. I dont think you can live without that punk feeling. I think the Sex Pistols were just one manifestation of ideas that are constantly around and bubbling under. People have to find new ways of expressing themselves rather recycling the punk look. But I think the attitude is just as modern as it ever was and just as important.
DRE: In doing my research on you I was surprised to find out how many amazing and classic music videos you did.
JT: I tried to make mischief on MTV as much as I could. In the beginning of MTV you could get away with stuff they wouldnt let you do now.
DRE: Its interesting if you take a modern music video director like Mark Romanek, you can pretty much tell by looking at a music video whether he directed it or not. But if you compare the Accept video you did to the Culture Club video you did, it doesnt seem like the same person directed it. You allowed the artist to shine rather than your own style. Did you figure out a way to distill a band into a video?
JT: Back then you didnt have to rely on a style to get work. I cant think of anything worse than doing the same thing twice. Even though Ive made two films about the same subject I didnt do it in the same way. I dont like videos where you can tell who the director is. I like to try to find out what is unique about that band and why that band means something good or bad and nail that rather than design a perfume.
DRE: I have one question about Earth Girls Are Easy. I heard that Jim Carrey didnt get his alien dialogue correct and kind of freaked out because of that. Is that true?
JT: Well he often freaked out. There were hundreds of guys who auditioned to be these aliens and they were absolutely risible and pathetic. Like Mario Van Peebles auditioned. Then suddenly this guy ran into the room, ran up the wall almost across the ceiling and down the other wall. That was Jim Carrey and as soon as he landed he got the part. He was capable of doing those extraordinary things and he is highly strung as a result. He would freak out because he was a perfectionist.
DRE: Have you ever heard of SuicideGirls?
JT: I have but I have never popped in. Ive only heard good things.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
which was a fantastic film. whoever got julien temple on the line for this interview has my personal thanks.