Julien Temple

While attending the National Film School in London, British film director Julien Temple became fascinated with the emerging punk culture, particularly the notorious Sex Pistols, and made a sensational feature debut with "The Great Rock 'n' Roll Swindle" (1979), a gripping, anarchic account of that quintessential punk rock band. Variety (March 3, 1980) called "Swindle" the "Citizen Kane" of rock 'n' roll movies and gushed that it "represents the most imaginative use of a rock group since The Beatles debuted in "A Hard Day's Night." Following its success, Temple became established as one of the pioneers of music videos, directing such diverse talents as the Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Neil Young and Janet Jackson, as well as helming feature-length projects like the concert-comedy fest "The Secret Policeman's Other Ball" (1981) and "Running Out of Luck" (1985), essentially a long-playing vidclip of Mick Jagger's first solo album, "She's the Boss." He also directed the original period musical "Absolute Beginners" (1986), set in 1958 London and featuring the likes of Bowie, Patsy Kensit and Sade, not to mention the "Rigoletto" segment of "Aria" (1987). Temple helmed the infectiously daffy "Earth Girls Are Easy" (1989), a musical comedy about aliens landing in the San Fernando Valley and getting their introduction to Southern California from a ditsy manicurist (Geena Davis). The pic also starred Jeff Goldblum and Jim Carrey and featured flamboyant art direction reminiscent of "Little Shop of Horrors" (1986) and the movies of John Waters.