Film
Many punk-themed films have been made, and punk rock music videos and punk skate videos are common. Punk films often intercut stock footage with news clips and home videos of band concerts. Several famous groups have participated in movies, such as the Ramones in Rock 'n' Roll High School, the Sex Pistols in The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle, and Social Distortion in Another State of Mind. Some well-known punks have had biographical films made about them, such as Sid and Nancy, which tells the story of the Sex Pistols' bassist Sid Vicious (portrayed by Gary Oldman) and Nancy Spungen (portrayed by Chloe Webb).
Original footage of punk bands is also often used in music documentaries. The seminal punk documentary is The Filth and the Fury, detailing the rise of the Sex Pistols. In addition to the members of that band and its affiliates (Malcolm McLaren, Vivienne Westwood, Nancy Spungen, etc.) it also features archival footage of Billy Idol, Sting, Shane McGowan, and a young teenaged girl who would grow up to be Siouxsie Sioux, among others. One of the highlights of the movie is footage of the Sex Pistols playing "God Save the Queen" on a barge in the middle of the Thames during the Silver Jubilee of Elizabeth II, and their subsequent arrest.
Penelope Spheeris' first installment of the three-part documentary "The Decline of Western Civilization" (1981) details extensive footage of the early Los Angeles punk scene through interviews and early concert footage from Alice Bag Band, Black Flag, Circle Jerks, Germs, Fear, and Catholic Discipline, among others. In addition to performance footage, the film features interviews from musicians such as the Germs frontman Darby Crash, who committed suicide shortly before the debut of the film. Crash is also featured on the cover of the film, a scene taken from their performance which was later recreated for the Rodger Grossman's Germs biopic What We Do Is Secret. The third installment of "The Decline of Western Civilization III" explores the gutter punk lifestyle in the 1990s.
The self-produced documentary If It Ain't Cheap, It Ain't Punk explores the contemporary DIY punk rock movement through footage from the 2006 Plan-It-X Fest put on by Plan-It-X Records in Bloomington, Indiana. It features interviews and performances from bands such as label-founder and staunch DIY musician Chris Clavin, Ghost Mice, This Bike Is A Pipe Bomb, Latterman, Defiance, Ohio and Japanther, among others. The film explores the DIY community in the 21st century and its impact on the genre's past and present.
The No Wave Cinema and Remodernist film movements owe much to punk aesthetics. Derek Jarman and Don Letts are notable punk filmmakers. Many other films are associated with punk, such as 24 Hour Party People, which presents the evolution of punk rock into New Wave and Madchester, and Threat, which focuses on militant Straight edge punks in the New York hardcore scene.
Read more about this topic: Punk Subculture
Famous quotes containing the word film:
“Film as dream, film as music. No art passes our conscience in the way film does, and goes directly to our feelings, deep down into the dark rooms of our souls.”
—Ingmar Bergman (b. 1918)
“Is America a land of God where saints abide for ever? Where golden fields spread fair and broad, where flows the crystal river? Certainly not flush with saints, and a good thing, too, for the saints sent buzzing into man’s ken now are but poor- mouthed ecclesiastical film stars and cliché-shouting publicity agents.
Their little knowledge bringing them nearer to their ignorance,
Ignorance bringing them nearer to death,
But nearness to death no nearer to God.”
—Sean O’Casey (1884–1964)
“Film is more than the twentieth-century art. It’s another part of the twentieth-century mind. It’s the world seen from inside. We’ve come to a certain point in the history of film. If a thing can be filmed, the film is implied in the thing itself. This is where we are. The twentieth century is on film.... You have to ask yourself if there’s anything about us more important than the fact that we’re constantly on film, constantly watching ourselves.”
—Don Delillo (b. 1926)