Punk in London

Earnest young German TV director: 'Why don't you want to appear in our movie?' Jean-Jacques Burnel: 'Because I'm not a prostitute'. Punk in London makes all the mistakes that visiting film crews with sociological briefs usually make, especially when they're headed by earnest young directors. It pretends that its superficial observations are in-depth analyses; it contents itself with interviewing peripheral figures because it can't get near the nazz. Büld doesn't help himself by worrying about the sound quality, and sometimes dubbing recorded versions of songs over images of the same song in performance, to absurd effect. No musical highlights, but a couple of the interviews are fun: one with the disarmingly honest roadie Rodent, the other with The Lurkers' bassist and his elderly parents, conducted in their home over a TV set relaying a disco track on Top of the Pops.