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Julien Temple
Temple at a film festival in Mexico in March 2010
Born	(1952-11-26) 26 November 1952 (age 60) London
Occupation	Director

Julien 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 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.

Projects of the 1980s and 1990s [edit]

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,^[1] Ray Davies, and Koo Stark.^[2]

In 1987 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 dependent on the success of the film. The film was critically panned in the UK. As it was a musical, rather than a straight adaptation of the book, it was attacked for a lack of narrative; it was also called 'a series of badly-linked music videos'. The film, like much of his music video work, reflects his ongoing interest in American musicals of the '40s and '50s, with their deeply saturated color. The film was financially unsuccessful and was 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 in the United States (Michael and Janet Jackson were fans). This led to Temple moving to the United States, where he was offered the film Earth Girls Are Easy,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, where he continued to make films and 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".^[3] 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.

2000s [edit]

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Between 2002 to 2005 Temple completed a feature-length documentary about the Glastonbury Festival. This involved him shooting footage at the festival as well as drawing on the vast amount of archival 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 good 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.^[4]

In 2009 Temple directed the third film in his punk trilogy, Oil City Confidential, which celebrated 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 filming a feature dramatisation of Murder in Samarkand by Craig Murray, starring Steve Coogan and Megan Fox.^{[citation needed]}

Personal life [edit]

Temple has a daughter named Juno, born in 1989.

Filmography [edit]

• 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)
• Mantrap (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)
• London: The Modern Babylon (2012)

Music videos [edit]

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• 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 - shot as a 20 minute short film titled Jazzin' for 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", "F*!#in' 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",
• Téléphone - "Argent Trop Cher"
• 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)
• Whitney Houston - "I'm Your Baby Tonight"

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• Julien Temple at the Internet Movie Database
• Screenonline biography