The Filth and the Fury (in the presence of Julien Temple)

Julien Temple: The Filth and the Fury (GB 2000). Les Sex Pistols.

ISO-BRITANNIA / UNITED KINGDOM, 2000

OHJAUS/DIRECTOR: JULIEN TEMPLE 

KÄSIKIRJOITUS/SCREENPLAY: Julien Temple • KUVAUS/CINEMATOGRAPHY: Julien Temple • LEIKKAUS/EDITING: Nivien Howie • ÄÄNI/SOUND: Paul Davies • MUSIIKKI/MUSIC: Sex Pistols • NÄYTTELIJÄT/CAST: Paul Cook, Steve Jones, John Lydon, Glen Matlock, Sid Vicious, Malcolm McLaren • TUOTANTO/ PRODUCTION: FilmFour, Jersey Shore, Nitrate Film, Panacea Entertainment, The Sex Pistols Residuals • TUOTTAJAT/PRODUCERS: Anita Camarata, Amanda Temple • ESITYSKOPIO/PRINT SOURCE: Julien Temple • ESITYSFORMAATTI/FORMAT: DCP • KIELI/LANGUAGE: englanti/English • TEKSTITYS/SUBTITLES: ei tekstitystä / no subtitles • KESTO/DURATION: 108 min

Sodankylän Elokuvajuhlat / The Midnight Sun Film Festival (MSFF) 2025

Viewed at Punainen Teltta / The Red Tent, 11 June 2025

Lauri Timonen (MSFF 2025): "Uuden vuosituhannen avaava räyhäkäs rockumentti jatkaa siitä, mihin varhaisempi Sex Pistols -mockumentti The Great Rock ’n’ Roll Swindle (1980) jäi, mutta perspektiivi vaihtuu, ja tällä kertaa äänessä ovat bändin henkiin jääneet jäsenet. Punkin kantaryhmä ehti olla kasassa vain kaksi ja puoli vuotta. Lontoon Shepherd’s Bushin vaatimattomista oloista alkanut matka päättyi tuhnuiselle Yhdysvaltain-kiertueelle San Franciscon Winterland Ballroomiin. Räkimisen, oksentelun, runnovien kitaroiden ja paskaisten kalsareiden merkitsemä nousu ja uho eskaloituivat täystuhoon."

"Vanhoillisen brittiyhteiskunnan tohveleille kussut finninaamainen niittiryhmä räimi tiensä kapinan ytimeen ja haastoi antaumuksella patriarkaatin pönöttävää perinnettä. Sen vertauskuvalliseksi edustajaksi Temple kohottaa Laurence Olivierin Rikhard III -tulkinnan (1955), joka aksentoi tarinaa monin klipein. Musta komedia vääntyy kuitenkin synkäksi tragediaksi, ja bändin basisti – katatonisen heroiinipöllyinen, säälittävän sumea ja lähes soittotaidoton ”nuorisoidoli” – hakaristipaidassaan puolikoomassa huojuva Sid Vicious kulkee kohti kaaosta ja kuolemaa. Varjoihin vajonneeksi katuvaksi hahmoksi rajatun Johnny Rottenin kyyneleet ovat aitoja, kun hän muistelee mennyttä: ”Kykenin peittoamaan Englannin, mutten onnistunut pelastamaan yhtä onnetonta narkkaria…”" (LT)

"The new millennium begins with this rowdy rockumentary, taking over from where the earlier Sex Pistols mockumentary The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle (1980) left off, this time shifting the perspective to the surviving band members. The founding punk ensemble managed to stay together for a mere two and a half years. Their journey began from the meager circumstances of Shepherd’s Bush of London and culminated in a messy US tour at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco. The belligerent rise to fame marked by loogie-hocking, puking, mangled guitars, and shit-streaked underpants escalated into total destruction. The zit-faced and studded group that pissed on the slippers of conservative British society managed to lash their way through to the center of rebellion while challenging the pompous tradition of patriarchy with devotion. Clips of Laurence  Olivier’s Richard III accent the film, presenting his portrayal as a symbolic precursor."

"But the dark comedy takes a tragic turn when it comes to the band’s bass player – a catatonic heroin junkie and an almost completely musically talentless ”youth icon”. Pathetically hazy in his swastika shirt and halfway into a drug-induced coma, Sid Vicious staggers toward chaos and death. Sunken into the shadows, a regretful Johnny Rotten sheds real tears as he looks back on the past: ”I could take on England, but I couldn’t take on one heroin addict.”" (LT)

AA: I have always loved Julien Temple's The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle but only now I see The Filth and the Fury, its "countermovie", the story of The Sex Pistols, where the first film was the story of Malcolm McLaren. Both films are masterpieces, among the best ever films about (popular) music.

The fire, the rage, the thunder, the energy was stupendous in the 18-month rise-and-fall story of The Sex Pistols. Their extraordinary music has not dated. It is a blast, a thunderstom, a volcanic event, its impact undiminished.

Julien Temple was caught in the tide of The Sex Pistols and made his music videos and feature films with complete abandon like a sixth member of the band. The union of sound and vision is seamless.

Last year was the centenary of surrealism. André Breton officially ended the French surrealist movement in 1968. At the time it was observed that provocation and subversion had become impossible. Everything was sucked in the "repressive tolerant" commercial mass culture. Luis Buñuel found a producer in Serge Silberman and starting with Belle de Jour turned his surrealism into mainstream art cinema.

Punk in 1977 was a startling eruption of true provocation and subversion like the original dada and surrealism. Even punk was tamed into the commercial mainstream, but The Sex Pistols experience still serves a reminder of real thunder.