Joe Strummer - The Future Is Unwritten

Colour, 35 mm
United Kingdom, 2006, 120 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

It would be difficult to find someone more qualified to make a film portrait of frontman of the legendary band The Clash, Joe Strummer, than his friend of many years, filmmaker and creator of successful films on the Sex Pistols, Julien Temple. The rhythm of his documentary, taking us through Strummer’s life and career, slots in nicely with the direct and uncompromising music of the celebrated British band. Opting for a style resembling clip-editing, he revives the exceptional atmosphere of the dawn of the punk movement, the age of squatting, turbulent demonstrations in the streets of London and, above all, the band’s wild concerts, whose fans still include the likes of Martin Scorsese, Jim Jarmusch, Bono, Johnny Depp and Steve Buscemi. All of them, together with Strummer’s fellow band-members and friends, remember the enormous charisma of a man whose music and attitudes influenced a whole generation. Along with unique concert footage and interviews with Strummer during the course of his career, the film is interlaced with playful comic-book animation and rare archive material.

About the director

Julien Temple (b. 1953, London) studied architecture and history at King’s College, Cambridge, and then attended the National Film School in London. He debuted as a director in 1979 with the film The Great Rock’n’Roll Swindle and, from then on, specialised in music films and documentaries. He also created a series of films for pop singers such as Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson and the Rolling Stones, among others. His successful documentary about the legendary punk band The Sex Pistols: The Filth and the Fury was screened in Karlovy Vary’s Horizons section in 2001.