Photo by Kristen Addix
“Art is dead, do not consume its corpse” – Anarchy
Hotel Shangrila owner and art patron Tamie Adaya hosted the LA premiere for the documentary “ANARCHY” as a part of BritWeek. The documentary focuses on Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, two infamous personalities involved in shaping the UK punk scene.
Director Phil Strongman started the film like a episode of Mystery and Scandal, a “who dun it.” Showing Malcolm first as a child, meeting Vivian, the sex shoppe and finally The Pistols. They made old Malckie a hero.
Malcolm was at an art college for 7 years without ever earning a degree. His discovery of the sex shop on Kings Road before it was The Sex Shop is an amazing story wherein Malcolm is standing outside in the suit he made for himself. A bloke named Nick walks up to him, gives Malcolm the keys to the shop, and tells to watch the shop for him. He insists Malcolm should not sell anything inside. Nick never returns.
The movie goes through the years with Adam Ant, Bow Wow Wow (Malcolm’s pedophilic projects — Annabelle was only 14– he was hoping to get arrested) and onto his cultural music, where he made himself the star.
No one said a word about Malcolm’s son, Joe, who’s about to destroy five million dollars’ worth of historical punk memorabilia as a protest against the Mayor of London for embracing punk rock as an English Institution. Joe hasn’t exactly carried on the family legacy of punk and the destruction of established order. After all, Malcolm and Vivienne’s son Joe owns Agent Provocateur, one of the most popular lingerie shops in the world. His brother Ken is in the film, looking like a hippie as if time went backwards for him. Hard to believe these are Vivienne and Malcolm’s off spring.
Vivienne has moved on to being a dame for the Royal Monarchy, and Malcolm did not leave anything to his sons. He left it all to his mistress.
After the screening there was a talk where they emboldened Malcolm as a saint. We’re not buying that. There are interviews of Malcolm in the film, and you never know whether he’s acting or not. He was a colorful and charming character, which we feel that the filmmaker definitely captured. A saint he was not.
