Film Review: The Public Image Is Rotten (2017)

Director Tarrbert Fiiller’s documentary on Public Image Ltd. is downbeat, insightful and strangely touching, poking at the open wounds involved when working alongside the inimitable John Lydon.

With rare access to interviews with the imp himself, plus ex-band members like Keith Levene, Allan Dias and Martin Atkins, it’s more intimate and candid than your average, linear talking heads fare. It’s almost like a user’s manual of how to piss off the record industry, then each other, but there’s also quite a lot of affection from Lydon with regards to the highs and pitfalls of working with mates. As ever, he’s a charismatic, witty, often irritating interviewee.

Some stories here we know (the implosion of the Sex Pistols, Lydon and his childhood meningitis, battles with management, and general press rancour) but other tales are given more room: how John McGeoch alienated other musicians; Lydon loving becoming a surrogate dad, the origins of early material, including Atkins’ fondness for rhythms created from speed and a Mickey Mouse watch. Then there’s the notorious experimental Ritz show in America, where the band played behind a screen, and a less than impressed audience rioted.

As with the best PiL material, the whole film excels when spiky and difficult, and there’s some nice contributions from Flea, Don Letts and Thurston Moore. A shame Lydon became a bitter caricature of himself and went over to the MAGA side, to paraphrase ‘This Is Not A Love Song’.

Available to watch and stream online.