by Tremayne Miller for LifestyleMK
 |
| Courtesy of Studio Canal |
DIRECTED BY ALEX COX
SCREENPLAY BY ALEX COX and ABBE WOOL
STARRING
GARY OLDMAN, ANDREW
SCHOFIELD, CHLOE WEBB, DAVID HAYMAN
and featuring COURTNEY LOVE, IGGY POP and KATHY BURKE
SID & NANCY is ‘one of the defining films of the punk era..’
The Sex Pistols formed in London in 1975, and
although they only really lasted for two and a half years and produced four
singles, plus one studio album, Never
Mind the Bollocks, Here’s the Sex Pistols, they are deemed one of the most
influential acts in the history of popular music. A legendary gig they gave on
4th June, 1976 at the Manchester Lesser Free Trade Hall caused a
generation ‘to reject the established
principles of making popular music,’ at which point performances began to
mark the beginning of a seismic shift in youth culture.
STUDIOCANAL
marks the 30th Anniversary of Sid
and Nancy on their vintage classics label, with a new special-edition
DVD/Blu-ray release on 29th August.
Sid
Vicious
joined The Sex Pistols in 1977 as bass guitarist), embodying in
his performances and personal life a hardcore punk-personality, where the music
was taken to its ultimate extreme.
Alex
Cox
(Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas) In 1986, co-wrote and directed SID
& NANCY.
A
vivid portrayal of a mutually destructive relationship, sex and drug fuelled in
nature. There is a strong contrast between the noisy Punk scene, and the close,
yet extremely intense relationship of two undeniably lost souls trapped in a
set of circumstances they know not how to find themselves out of.
It was Gary
Oldman's performance in Sid and Nancy which paved the way to
Hollywood, with prominent United States film critic at the time Roger Ebert
writing: ".. like a few gifted actors, [Oldman] is able to re-invent himself for every role.” Why, even
band mate of Vicious, John Lydon despite his criticism of the film, described Oldman as a "bloody good actor.”
For the role Oldman lost a considerable
amount of weight, and ended up in hospital.
The Sex Pistols embark on a chaotic tour of the US, with Nancy in
tow. It is absolutely disastrous, and results in the band breaking up.
A pitiful Sid is left helplessly searching after the split
of the Sex Pistols.
Cox carefully depicts the miserable lives of Sid and Nancy
through extended scenes set in the Chelsea Hotel in New York, where we feel a
true sense of their immobile stupor, as well as their need for heroin and a
further hit of “rock celebrity.”
Roger Deakins’ cinematography helps bring the vibrant streets of London
and New York to life, showing that little has changed since the 1970s, even
1950s.
Vicious attempts a solo career, with Nancy acting
as his manager, but both at this point are dangerously addicted to heroin.
They
continue on this downward spiral until October 1978, when Nancy is found
stabbed at the Chelsea Hotel. Sid is arrested, accused of her murder but
fatally overdoses before the case goes to trial. Could it be that his lost soul
had to rejoin her’s?!
There is a cameo performance by Kathy Burke, who I have had the great honour of working with, and
quite unbelievably, Courtney Love, whose
own romance to the lead singer,
guitarist, and primary songwriter of the rock band Nirvana, Kurt Cobain was also highly publicized.
Cobain like Vicious struggled with heroin addiction, chronic health
problems, and depression. He also found it hard to cope with the level of fame his
successes had reached , which impacted on his personal life, and on April 8,
1994, he was found dead, in what has been officially ruled as ‘a self-inflicted
shotgun wound to the head.’
In 2009 film-maker, Alan G Parker released a documentary called
Who Killed Nancy?, which considers the couple’s dealer as the murderer, and
whilst that may be both films show punk to be a camouflage for ‘undiagnosed
dysfunction.’
John Peel confessed ‘that when he first saw someone with a safety
pin through his nose, it made him think of the young men doing National Service
with him 20 years earlier who had to be restrained from mutilating themselves.’
And Oldman’s Sid, fearful, screaming
in prison, made Peel’s memory filmicly true. The Sex Pistols’ “No Feelings again” is shown in the film to be the
group’s most memorably momentous track.
With
an original soundtrack which features punk and post-punk artists such as Joe
Strummer (The Clash), and The Pogues..
Special
Features on the DVD and Blu-ray Special Editions:
• New interview with
Cinematographer Roger Deakins
• New interview with
Director Alex Cox
• New interview with
Don Letts (Director, DJ and presenter of ‘Punk on Film’ at the BFI: Southbank)
• Trailer
A new special edition DVD/Blu-ray
available to buy from 29th
 |
| Tremayne Miller |
August 2016
Writer © Tremayne Miller
Tremayne writes for HeyuGuys.com and often joins the LifestyleMK team on Tuesdays 7pm
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