Filth revisited

>> Julien Temple's The Filth and the Fury takes another look at the Sex Pistols saga

by CHRIS BARRY

 You might think, almost a quarter century later, that interest in the Sex Pistols would be deader than Maurice Richard. After all, they were only around for two years, recorded one measly record, played less than 30 gigs and stole all their best riffs from the New York Dolls.

 Nevertheless, over the years the Sex Pistols legend has grown to the point where even the most conservative rock fan came to accept them as an important chapter in the history of rock and roll--the temporary and righteous saviours of a genre and attitude that started with Elvis and which had disintegrated into the corporate schlock that they still play on CHOM.

 Julien Temple certainly feels this way. In fact, he's so enthralled with the Sex Pistols myth that he's gone ahead and directed his second film on the subject, The Filth and the Fury, an answer of sorts to his earlier Malcolm MacLaren-influenced flick about the band, 1980's The Great Rock and Roll Swindle. Temple, who was involved with the Pistols right from the start, is also the man responsible for Absolute Beginners and a whole slew of music videos by crappy artists like Whitney Houston and Duran Duran. But don't hold that against him; his heart is in the right place and The Filth and the Fury is unquestionably the best rockumentary on the Pistols to date.

 Mirror: So what inspired you to make yet another film on the Sex Pistols now?

 Julien Temple: I admit that it's a little mad, in a way, to make a film about the same subject. But I feel that the Sex Pistols are still current, partly because I think nothing contemporary is as extreme or as strongly stated as what the Pistols were able to do in their time, the late '70s. When I started making this film I found it bizarre that the band came across as modern contemporary figures, whereas the newscasters and weathermen and chat-show people I edited in were kind of monstrous freaks of nature. Obviously, at the time, it was completely the other way around.

 M: There doesn't seem to be a lot of new information in this film. Who are you hoping it appeals to?

 JT: Obviously, Sex Pistols aficionados already know most of the story. But there were a lot of things that even I wasn't aware of when I went to make this movie. I didn't realize how close John and Sid were before the band. I didn't know that they'd busked together, that they'd sung other peoples' songs in the Underground. There were a lot of things like that which I thought to be kind of interesting.

 You know, when we tested the film in England we found that a lot of the younger kids thought it was a fictional piece, like Spinal Tap or something. They thought the band were actors playing the part of deranged rock stars. And I think, in that context, when a generation of kids is that ignorant of their recent history, it does a good job of showing the kind of things that the Pistols were up against. I've really made this film for kids.

 M: But don't you think that any culturally astute teenager would already be familiar with the Sex Pistols' legacy, and that those who aren't probably won't be inspired to head on over to the rep house to check out The Filth and the Fury anyway?

 JT: Well, you try to reach as many people as you can. And you'd be surprised where this film is showing up, screens in strip malls in Orange County and places like that. I think it's important that this group remain a challenge. Kids can do what they want with the Sex Pistols--don't worship them or anything--but use what they went through to learn about what is and isn't possible and push the limits even further.

 M: The Filth and the Fury and The Great Rock and Roll Swindle present the Pistols story in two very different lights. What were you thinking? And did Malcolm McLaren have anything to do with the new film?

 JT: Only to the extent that we used taped interviews with him. This is very much the band's take on what happened to them. It's meant to be a much more human film than the somewhat Godardian Rock and Roll Swindle. Malcolm's take is valid, but this is from the band's perspective. It's the band's real feelings about where they came from and I think that this makes it a lot more accessible to people. The band as individuals actually had a lot of impact. The Pistols weren't some sort of premeditated scam in the way that some people in rock 'n' roll quarters have taken them to be.

 M: Did the members of the band have any say in what was and wasn't included in the film?

 JT: At first John [Lydon] wanted the interview scene where he breaks down about Sid's death to be cut from the movie but, in the end, I think he realized that it was a strong moment. I think John was as surprised as anyone about his reaction at that moment. It's not a side of himself that he reveals very often--we had been going over events for close to eight hours at that point and I guess it brought up a lot of emotions for him.

 M: So do you think that this is the definitive telling of the Sex Pistols tale?

 JT: Well, I think it actually focuses on the band as a voice in the mythologizing of the Pistols that's taken place since they broke up, which has always been the missing piece of the jigsaw puzzle. But I don't think you can ever have a definitive version of a phenomenon like the Sex Pistols--even with this film. I don't believe that The Filth and the Fury in any way replaces the Rock and Roll Swindle, or in any way negates the other intelligent things that have been said about them. But it adds an element to their story that I felt was important and never focused upon.

 You know, to me the Sex Pistols had nothing to do with Elvis or the Stones. They had much more to do with Richard the Third: the hunchback hanging off the microphone, glaring, leering, staring straight through everyone, grinning inanely, very Richard the Third. They were kind of Chaucerian, even--the whole idea of a group that makes this horrible noise and farts and throws up everywhere. They went far, far beyond rock 'n' roll. :

 

The Filth and the Fury opens Friday June 9 at Ex-Centris