Julien Temple - Temple and Punk

Temple and Punk

Temple was born into a communist family (his father Landon Temple ran Progressive Tours and was a Communist Party of Great Britain member). He is the brother of the last General Secretary of the CPGB, Nina Temple.

Temple was educated at St Marylebone Grammar School, from which he was expelled, William Ellis School and King's College, Cambridge. He grew up with little interest in film until, when a student at Cambridge, he discovered the works of French anarchist director Jean Vigo. This, along with his interest in the early punk scene in London in 1976, led to his friendship with The Sex Pistols, leading him to document many of their early gigs.

His first film was a short documentary called Sex Pistols Number 1, which set out to show the rise of the band from 1976–1977, in a series of short clips from television interviews and gigs.

This led to Temple making The Great Rock And Roll Swindle, another documentary. As band members Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious had left the band by this time, the story of the group is told from the viewpoint of their manager, Malcolm McLaren. The film tells of the rise of the band, apparently as manipulated by McLaren, and how he had shaped the band throughout their short career. Many of the 'facts' given by McLaren were disputed by John Lydon (who had dropped the Johnny Rotten name after leaving the band), who accused McLaren of using the film to attack him personally. This helped split opinion on the film as, although it was praised for attempting to capture some of the punk scene of the time, it was seen as too skewed towards McLaren's vision.

Controversy aside, Temple was praised for his mix of animated scenes, documentary footage, and specially shot footage which he used to tell McLaren's story. This helped launch Temple into a career making music videos, something for which he would be best known for much of his career. Temple's next theatrical release was the short film Jazzin' for Blue Jean featuring David Bowie which was released as a support feature to The Company of Wolves. By 1985 Temple was now well known for being a director of successful music videos by the Kinks, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie and other British artists, several of which were early, groundbreaking, videos for the new MTV channel, but he was yet to direct a major film.

In 1981 Julien Temple directed the documentary The Comic Strip, featuring the founding members of The Comic Strip, a punk, alternative, comedy ensemble: Jennifer Saunders, Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson and Peter Richardson. The setting was London's Soho in the Raymond Review Bar. Set in the seedy world of strip clubs, hardcore pornography and lap dancing bars, it was an hour-long documentary with drug references, frequent violence, strong language and sexual scenes, including bestiality. Temple created a twisted tale of London, with horror, grotesques, surrealism and humour.