¤ London – The Modern Babylon
Directed by Julien Temple | UK 2012 | Colour, black and white | 128min | 
British director Julien Temple (Absolute Beginners, The Great Rock and Roll Swindle) has released a new documentary called London – The Modern Babylon, exploring the history of his hometown from the birth of cinema until today.
Temple has made a collage, mixing film archive material and popular music with the voices of Londoners past and present, from musicians, writers and artists, to political radicals and ordinary people, to create a picture of the capital’s changing face.
Reaching back to London at the start of the 20th century, the story unfolds through film archive and the voices of Londoners past and present, powered by the popular music across the century. It ends as London’s preparing to host the 2012 Olympics.
♦ London – The Modern Babylon by Julien Temple ↓ (trailer)
Michael Gambon – narrator: «The walk at the other end from Cannon Street to my office is neither too long nor too short – a healthy little perambulation along streets crowded with fellow commuters all proceeding to their places of work on the same orderly schedule as myself […] Their lives, like my own, are regulated nicely by the minute hand of an accurate watch, and very often our paths cross at the same times and places on the street each day.»
♦ Julien Temple interviewed following a screening of London: The Modern Babylon, a voyage to the multicultural heart of his hometown ↓
¤ The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle
A 1980 mockumentary film directed by Julien Temple and produced by Don Boyd and Jeremy Thomas about the British punk rock band Sex Pistols.
¤ Plot
Guitarist Steve Jones plays a detective who – through a series of set piece acts – uncovers the truth about the band. Drummer Paul Cook and bass guitarist Sid Vicious play smaller roles, and the band’s manager, Malcolm McLaren, is featured as «The Embezzler», the man who manipulates the Sex Pistols. Fugitive train robber Ronnie Biggs, performer Edward Tudor-Pole and actress Irene Handl also make appearances.
The movie tells a stylised fictional account of the formation, rise and subsequent breakup of the band, from the point of view of their then-manager Malcolm McLaren. In the film, McLaren claims to create the Sex Pistols and manipulate them to the top of the music business, using them as puppets to both further his own agenda (in his own words – «chaos»), and to claim the financial rewards from the various record labels the band were signed to during their brief history – EMI, A&M, Virgin, and Warner Bros. Records. [Wikipedia]
¤ ABSOLUTE BEGINNERS
Julian Temple‘s musical adaptation of Colin MacInnes‘ novel about life in late 1950s London.
19 year-old photographer Colin (Eddie O’Connell) is hopelessly in love with model Crepe Suzette (Patsy Kensit), but her relationships are strictly connected with her progress in the fashion world. So Colin gets involved with a pop promoter and tries to crack the big time, while, racial tension is brewing in Colin’s Notting Hill housing estate…
•→ David Bowie ⇓
I’ve nothing much to offer
There’s nothing much to take
I’m an absolute beginner
And I’m absolutely sane
As long as we’re together
The rest can go to hell
I absolutely love you
But we’re absolute beginners
With eyes completely open
But nervous all the same
If our love song
Could fly over mountains
Could laugh at the ocean
Just like the films
There’s no reason
To feel all the hard times
To lay down the hard lines
It’s absolutely true
Nothing much could happen
Nothing we can’t shake
Oh we’re absolute beginners
With nothing much at stake
As long as you’re still smiling
There’s nothing more I need
I absolutely love you
But we’re absolute beginners
But if my love is your love
We’re certain to succeed
If our love song
Could fly over mountains
Sail over heartaches
Just like the films
There’s no reason
To feel all the hard times
To lay down the hard lines
It’s absolutely true
÷ ÷ ÷ ÷
¤ John Schlesinger’s ⇓ «Terminus» [1961]
John Schlesinger‘s outstanding «fly on the wall» film about a day in the life of Waterloo Station. It was nominated for a BAFTA Film Award for Best Documentary. As well as being a masterpiece of film it has a magnificent soundtrack composed by Ron Grainer (who later composed the Doctor Who theme).
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