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Julien Temple
Temple at a film festival in Mexico in March 2010
Born	(1953-11-26) 26 November 1953 (age 58) London
Occupation	Director

Julien Temple, Baron Temple (born 26 November 1953 in London) is an English film, documentary and music video director. He began his career with short films featuring the Sex Pistols, and has continued with various off-beat projects, including The Great Rock And Roll Swindle, Absolute Beginners and a documentary film about Glastonbury.

Temple and Punk[link]

Temple was born into a communist family (his father Landon Temple ran Progressive Tours and was a Communist Party of Great Britain member).^[1] 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 he discovered the works of French anarchist director Jean Vigo when he was a student at Cambridge. 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, telling the story of the band from the viewpoint of their manager, Malcolm McLaren, as band members Johnny Rotten and Sid Vicious had left. The film told of the rise of the band as apparently 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 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 had not yet directed a major film.

In 1981 Julien Temple directed the documentary "The Comic Strip", containing the foundational members of punk, alternative actor/comedians of The Comic Strip - most famously a 22 year old Jennifer Saunders, Rik Mayall, Adrian Edmondson and Peter Richardson. Being from the original punk scene of 1976 and being close friends with The Sex Pistols, it seemed natural for him to direct a group of talented young actors from more or less, the same era he is best known for. The setting was in London's Soho in the Raymond Review Bar, later to be a key location for the film Sid and Nancy directed by British, punk director Alex Cox-who in the film paid a homage to Julien Temple in the scene where Sid Vicious sings his angst ridden take of "My Way" about 50 minutes into the film. It was an hour long documentary with fairly shocking material in it-giving it a R18 certificate due to its strong drug references, frequent violence, very strong language and a strong sexual nature-including Bestiality. Typical of The Comic Strip Presents alternative, dark and often obscure and surreal humour, this documentary is considered a true masterpiece into the insight of Soho's sordid scene of 1981. The Comic Strip was based around the seedy world of strip clubs and lap dancing bars, and hardcore pornography. The Comic Strip actually was formed alongside a sex club in Soho-quite a paradoxical choice in settings as The Comic Strip's aim was to demolish the comedy before them-Monty Python, Benny Hill and others. Julien temple creates a twisted tale of London- with horror, grotesques, surrealism and obviously humour and of course labelling it with his signature style.

Projects of the 1980s and 1990s[link]

In 1983 Temple directed a film for the BBC Arena series called It's All True, named after the 1942 unfinished Orson Welles film. Compered by Welles himself, the film comprised many short segments about the state of the video industry, both real and imagined, many featuring cameos by celebrities including Mel Brooks, Grace Jones,^[2] Ray Davies, and Koo Stark.^[3]

In 1986 he directed the film version of Colin MacInnes' book Absolute Beginners. One of the most expensive films in British history, the fate of the studios involved (as well as several careers) were dependant on the success of the film. The film was critically panned in the UK. A musical, rather than a straight adaptation of the book, led to it being attacked for a lack of narrative, as well as being called a series of badly linked music videos. The film, like much of his music video work, reflects his ongoing interest in deeply saturated color American musicals of the '40s and '50s.

The film was financially unsuccessful, partly responsible (along with The Mission and the ill fated Revolution, which cost substantially more money) in the Goldcrest company going bankrupt. Temple found himself being blamed personally for the failure but the film proved to have a small following (including Michael and Janet Jackson) in the United States. This led to Temple moving to the United States and being offered the film Earth Girls Are Easy as well as a series of music videos for such artists as Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Eric B & Rakim, Neil Young and Tom Petty.

Temple returned to the UK in the late 1990s continuing to make films as well as music videos. Vigo Passion for Life (1998) recounts the passionate relationship between French film maker Jean Vigo (1905–34) and his wife Lydou, who both suffered from Tuberculosis. The film was not well received. A reviewer in Sight & Sound commented that the film "although absolutely faithful to the facts, is absolutely dreadful".^[4] Films which followed included Pandæmonium (2001), a critically acclaimed film about the friendship between Romantic poets Samuel Taylor Coleridge and William Wordsworth, and The Filth and the Fury (2000), another documentary about The Sex Pistols. This time the film was made with the full cooperation of the surviving members of the band and told the story of the band from their viewpoint. This film also mixed newly shot footage and interviews as well as footage culled from The Great Rock and Roll Swindle, as well as previously unseen interviews. The film was a critical success and was seen as setting the record straight in regard to the history of The Sex Pistols.

Recent years[link]

By 2000 he had 3 children too. A daughter named Juno, and two sons named Leo and Felix. Juno born in 1989, Leo born in 1993 and Felix in 2000.

Since 2002 Temple has made a feature length documentary about the Glastonbury Festival. This involved him shooting footage at the festival from 2002 to 2005, as well as drawing on the vast amount of archive footage as well as footage sent in by fans of the festival. It was released in the UK in April 2006.

In 2003 he became the patron of The Engine Room, the Bridgwater based media centre run by Somerset Film.

In 2006 Temple made a film of the life of his great friend, Joe Strummer - The Future Is Unwritten. In November 2007, Temple filmed several of the Sex Pistols' comeback shows at the Brixton Academy in London. This was followed by several filming sessions with each member of the band as they re-visited their old London haunts. The footage was assembled into a new documentary film released on DVD in 2008 as The Sex Pistols: There'll Always Be An England, bringing Temple's association with the Sex Pistols up to date.

In June 2008, Temple filmed three concerts by Madness at the Hackney Empire. These concerts were previews of the band's forthcoming album, The Liberty Of Norton Folgate. A DVD release is awaited.^[5]

In 2009 Temple directed the third film in his punk trilogy - Oil City Confidential - celebrating the Canvey Island legends Dr. Feelgood and a hymn to the Motor City entitled Requiem For Detroit? (2010).

In 2010 Temple directed the biography Ray Davies:Imaginary Man. Previously he'd directed several Kinks videos. Also, he was referred to by name in The Kinks song "Too hot" from their Word of Mouth album: "Julien's on the street today/ Scouting out locations..."

Temple is currently filming a feature dramatisation of "Murder in Samarkand" by Craig Murray, starring Steve Coogan and Megan Fox.

Filmography[link]

• The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle (1979)
• UK Subs: Punk Can Take It (1979)
• Samson: Biceps Of Steel (1980)
• The Secret Policeman's Other Ball (1982)
• It's All True (1983)
• Absolute Beginners (1986)
• Running out of Luck (1987)
• Aria (segment Rigoletto) (1987)
• Earth Girls Are Easy (1988)
• Stones at the Max (1991)
• Bullet (1996)
• Vigo: A Passion for Life (1998)
• The Filth and the Fury (2000)
• Pandæmonium (2000)
• Glastonbury (2006)
• Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten (2007)
• The Sex Pistols: There'll Always Be An England (2008)
• The Eternity Man (2008)
• Oil City Confidential (2009)
• Requiem For Detroit (2009)
• Ray Davies - Imaginary Man (2010)
• Dave Davies - Kinkdom Come (2011)

Music videos[link]

• Whitney Houston - I'm Your Baby Tonight
• ABC - Poison Arrow
• Alan Jackson - Don't Rock the Jukebox
• Babyshambles - Love You But You're Green, The Blinding
• Billy Idol - Don't Need a Gun
• Billy Idol - Adam in Chains
• Blur - For Tomorrow
• Bryan Adams - (Everything I Do) I Do It For You
• Culture Club - Do You Really Want To Hurt Me
• David Bowie - Absolute Beginners, Blue Jean, Day-In Day-Out, Tin Machine (10 minute promo video shown in cinemas before the 1989 film Lenny Live and unleashed)
• Depeche Mode - See You, The Meaning of Love, Leave In Silence
• Dexys Midnight Runners - Come On Eileen
• Duran Duran - Come Undone, Too Much Information
• Enigma - "Return to Innocence", "Eyes of Truth", "Beyond The Invisible"
• Gary Numan - She's Got Claws
• Janet Jackson - When I Think of You, "Alright"
• Jean Michel Jarre - Magnetic Fields Part 2
• Judas Priest - Heading Out To The Highway, Don't Go, Living After Midnight, Breaking the Law, Hot Rockin', You've Got Another Thing Comin', Freewheel Burning
• Kenny Rogers - Planet Texas
• Maria McKee - I'm Gonna Soothe You
• Me Phi Me - Sad New Day, Black Sunshine, Pu Sho Hands 2Getha
• Neil Young - This Note's for You, Hey, Hey, Rockin' in the Free World, No More, Over and Over, Fuckin up, Harvest Moon,
• Paul McCartney - Beautiful Night
• Ray Davies - Postcard From London
• S Club 7 - Have You Ever, You
• Sade - Smooth Operator
• Scissor Sisters - Return to Oz
• Stray Cats - Rock This Town, Stray Cat Strut Elvis on Velvet
• Swing Out Sister - Forever Blue,
• The Beat - Save It for Later
• The Kinks - Come Dancing, Don't Forget To Dance, State of Confusion, Do it again
• The Rolling Stones - Undercover of the Night, She Was Hot , Too Much Blood, Highwire
• The Sex Pistols - God Save the Queen
• Tom Petty / Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Free Fallin', Yer So Bad, Learning To Fly, Into The Great Wide Open, King of the hill (Tom Petty & Roger McGuinn)
• TELEPHONE - Argent Trop Cher