London: The Modern Babylon [HD]

A Stylish Evocation Of History, Change, And Music: A Glorious Love Letter To London
Julien Temple's "London: The Modern Babylon" is not a documentary feature in the traditional sense. Instead, it is a kaleidoscopic montage of images and music that showcase the evolution of a great city. Exhaustive and exhausting, this is a visceral experience that really captures a mood and serves as a rousing and fitting tribute. Temple, a music video auteur as well as a filmmaker, has produced some pretty stellar music oriented documentaries (The Filth and the Fury and Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten leap to mind). It certainly seems to be where his heart lay, although the intriguing (if ultimately flawed) musical "Absolute Beginners" always rates a look in my book. He maintains a real passion for his subjects and he obviously respects and honors his hometown of London! Stylistically, this unique picture is really just a love letter. But it is a glorious one!

The Clash's "London Calling" sets this time traveling odyssey off perfectly as we begin with...

A Century of London as compiled by Sex Pistols director with killer soundtrack
I had no idea what to expect when I put this DVD into my player - the packaging doesn't tell you much. All I knew was it was a two-hour "documentary" produced, written and directed by Julian Temple - best known for working on video projects with David Bowie and the Sex Pistols - produced by the BBC and the British Film Institute. But as I watched the TV screen for those two hours I was fascinated by what I saw and heard. In advance of the excitement of the London Olympics, Temple delved deep into the film archives of the BFI and selected footage going back to 1900 and meshed it with some more modern images to tell the story of how London evolved over 113 years from a fully British city to a melding of cultures, with Jews, Asians and Indians arriving by the scores. He shows that this immigration influx had it's issues but eventually the city became truly "international" in nature. It seemed at every decade had its riots and these are shown too. There is no narrator, but none is...



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