![]() Painful memories that throw into relief the notions of human loneliness, togetherness and solitude. In a particularly moving part of the film, Wilko recounts the death from cancer, ten years earlier, of his childhood sweetheart and wife of 40 years, Irene. I can't help thinking that Wilko is an old soul - what else would draw a young man from a working-class home in Canvey Island to make it through to university to study ancient Icelandic? It is clear to me at least that this extremely well-read man has a passion for times past that suggests some kind of a spiritual, metaphysical, supernatural connection with History, across History. It is clear that he is an intelligent and mindful human being, observant, sensitive to the Universe (literally - he is an amateur astronomer), There is no sadness, no self-pity Wilko radiates a sense of a man who has lived a life that fulfilled his human potential. This sharpens his senses, his experience of the here and now he begins to notice the everyday, the commonplace, and find beauty in it. Being an atheist, he dismisses hope in any conscious life after bodily death. Faced with the prospect of death, Wilko Johnson resigns himself to eternal oblivion. The resulting film is a work of wonder, of joy, of profound philosophical importance. On hearing of Wilko's diagnosis and imminent demise, Temple set out to document the final months of the guitarist's life. Temple's directorial debut was the Sex Pistols' The Great Rock'n'Roll Swindle (1980) in 2009 he directed a documentary about Dr Feelgood, Oil City Confidential*. The result is director Julien Temple's The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson (2015). ![]() He decides to forego treatment and face his last months in the presence of a film camera. ![]() ![]() In January 2014, 66-year-old Wilko Johnson, former guitarist with legendary pub-rock band Dr Feelgood, is told by a doctor that he has pancreatic cancer and 10 months to live. ![]()
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