Tags archives: Malcolm McLaren
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6 years ago
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Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist, Lorna Tucker’s documentary on iconoclastic British designer Vivienne Westwood, has a trim runtime of 80 minutes. Maybe that’s why it feels like there’s a lot missing. How do you encompass the life and work of someone who 1) is half responsible for inventing British punk, 2) has evolved from an anti-establishment outsider into a revered fashion designer and beloved British subject, and 3) has had a fascinating personal life as well? This could have been a documentary series.
With the short shrift given various aspects of Westwood’s life and work, this nonlinear, nonchronological film yields more questions than answers. (Thank goodness for Wikipedia.) So it’s probably best to experience the interviews, archival photos, video clips and stock footage representing Westwood’s 77 years on earth as an impressionistic wash of information and fantastical visuals. In some ways, it’s a fitting framework for a wildly unconventional artist who has never done anything neatly or predictably.
The film begins with current-day Westwood looking overwhelmed as she asks crankily, “Do we have to cover every bit of it? So boring…” She's reassuringly punk from the get-go.
Tucker largely lets her subject narrate her own story, with input from husband, sons, employees and various others who have known her. We learn that she began making clothes at 11 or 12, around the same time that a painting of the crucifixion instilled the desire to save people and "preve[...]
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