UK, 2000, 108 min
Director: Julien Temple
Cast: Paul Cook, Steve Jones, John Lydon, Glen Matlock, Sid Vicious (archive footage), Malcolm McLaren
Awards: for best documentary, CFCA Award (2001), OFCS Award (2000), audience award in Sao Paulo International Film Festival in the category of best documentary in a foreign language (2000).
Selection: Planet Rock
The Filth and the Fury is a documentary with many awards. It is about a British band, Sex Pistols, one of the most influential and certainly the most controversial music projects – seen through the history of music. Apart from the fact that they managed to found a music genre that is known as “punk-rock” and give it an ideology, the band is one of the key social phenomena in Britain of the late seventies. Their main motive, according to John Lydon (aka Johnny Rotten) was to allow, through music, the freedom of speech to people who did not have it before.
The movie is made of time playing, where realities from the present and the past mix, with the elements of unreal. In the form of interviews, silhouettes of the living band members appear, and they cast a glance on the late seventies from the present point of view.
Moreover, the content is enriched with skillfully embedded archive footage from concerts, TV shows, as well as short historical film videos. The Filth and the Fury tries to present the importance of each member of the band, negating their manager, Malcolm McLaran, and his selfish rule over the whole music project. The movie also captures strong friendly relationships between band members, especially noticeable in Lydon’s speech about deceased friend, Sid Vicious.
Julien Temple was born on 26th of November 1953 in London, England. This four-time prestigiously awarded director is also known by successful direction of music videos (David Bowie - Absolute Beginners; Dexy’s Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen; Whitney Houston – I’m Your Baby Tonight; Janet Jackson - Alright, When I Think of You; The Rolling Stones - Undercover of the Night; Sade - Smooth Operator; Neil Young – Rockin’ in the Free World, and many others).
The showing of The Filth and the Fury within Planet Rock Selection is an adequate film prelude to the Sex Pistols performance on this year’s Exit Festival.
