Absolute Beginners: Bowie, Kensit & Temple On The Colossal Cock-Up
It was heralded as the film to save the British film industry but instead it nearly sunk it. Here are the people who ballsed up Absolute Beginners.
Stephen Woolley (producer): There's no such thing as too much hype.
David Puttnam (British movie mogul): In 1985, Goldcrest embarked on the simultaneous production of three movies, Revolution, a historical epic starring Al Pacino budgeted at $15 million; Absolute Beginners, a modern musical budgeted at $8 million; and one of my own productions, The Mission, a period film starring Robert De Niro and Jeremy Irons, budgeted at $17 million. All three films were partly financed by international distributors. Goldcrest had been ready to shoulder a significant element of the risk. At these prices, the films would have to succeed in the US if they were to have any real chance of covering their costs.
Julien Temple (director): There's this tasteful Mafia who exist in Britain and who represent a middlebrow, 'Reader's Digest' form of entertainment which is never going to be hugely commercial. It may win Oscars but it will never by truly popular. Gandhi, The Killing Fields, Local Hero: all middlebrow crap pretending to be intelligent.
Stephen Woolley: Julien made promos for the likes of David Bowie, Jagger, Sade. He was given huge budgets by the record companies, maybe he was even encouraged to behave like a rock star.
Julien Temple: I felt when I started making movies that music was a way of making British movies work worldwide because it was that thing at that time that fascinated the rest of the world about England.
Stephen Woolley: The idea of making Absolute Beginners as a musical was what drew us to the project. Otherwise, we probably wouldn't have considered it. Screenwriter Dan McPherson brought me the book. It was a very hip book, like Kerouac. Not only is it enjoyable but it has a sting in its tail, the Notting Hill race riots. Colin McInnes was one of the first people to recognise racism in this country.
Julien Temple: After having several doors slammed in out faces on Wardour Street, it became clear we needed to make more investors aware of the saleability of the subject. So, we embarked on a press campaign for McInnes's novel and drew on everyone in the press to maximise the publicity. In a way, this was the beginning of out undoing. By needing to get this level of publicity to validate Absolute Beginners as a film, we created this monster that by the time we had finished was out of control.
Stephen Woolley: We rushed into production in July/August 1984. It's the only way if you want to get a film made: you have to start. If you don't start, nobody else will.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to As Luck Would Have It to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.