At a time when cultural interest in celebrity culture is at its zenith, Jean “Johnny” Pigozzi is kicking it old school. Dubbed the “king of the selfie,” the French businessman, art collector, philanthropist, and photographer is the fascinating subject of the latest film from Julien Temple, I Am Curious, Johnny, now streaming on HBO Max.
In this compelling documentary, Temple, whose prolific body of work began in 1980 with The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle. He also directed Absolute Beginners, Earth Girls Are Easy, The Filth and the Fury, and Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten. He then established himself as an early pioneer of music videos, directing artists like The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, The Kinks, Neil Young, Tom Petty, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, Blur, and more.
In Pigozzi, the heir to the Simca fortune, Temple could not have selected a more captivating dude to profile. In I Am Curious, Johnny, Pigozzi’s flamboyant lifestyle is told with flair in several segments where he interviews himself. Temple also enhances his legend via interviews with a cadre of his famous friends, including Mick Jagger, Michael Douglas, Martha Stewart, Diane von Furstenberg, Christian Louboutin, Charles Saatchi, The Edge, and a slew of others.
In the film, viewers learn about Pigazzi’s robust life. Raised by an indifferent father and a caring mother, he began to take photographs at the age of seven. It also discloses how, following the death of his dad, he was suddenly filthy rich at a very young age.
The movie delves into this and how it affected his adolescence before moving on to his years at Harvard and young adult life as a man on the make. Free of financial burden, Pigozzi pursued all of his passions: food, art, film, and celebrity.
Never holding back, Pigozzi recounts how he used his status as a business mogul to meet famous people. Finding himself next to fame, he began to take his picture with anyone who was anyone. Now fully vetted in the inner circles of the famous, Johnny put his camera to good use by capturing vibrant images of celebrities at play.
Temple’s inventive storytelling brings this collector of ideas, pictures, distractions, curios, anecdotes, and people to life vividly and honestly. The epitome of ‘70s excess, Pigozzi spent the decade spending his Simca fortune, taking pictures, and partying in Hollywood and Studio 54. Along the way, he captured the people and places he encountered.
In the documentary, he discusses how he became a photographer, how he approached his subjects, and how many of those whose images he snapped ended up being his friends. His love for art also shines through, especially his passion for collecting African art.
One of the best aspects of the film is hearing Pigozzi discuss his fame in his own words. Playing the role of a fanboy and a recorder of history, his work captures moments often missed by the paparazzi or other photographers. He knows everybody who’s ever been anybody over the last sixty years, and he’s got the selfies to prove it.
During a recent Zoom call from his home in Somerset, Temple talked to The Big Takeover about his new film, his passion for music, and hanging out with the king of the selfies.
How did the film come about?
JULIEN TEMPLE: It happened through a mutual friend of ours, Jeremy Thomas. He is an English producer with whom I’ve been involved most of my life, including The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle. He was one of the producers on that movie and is friends with Johnny, as am He asked me whether I’d, you know, be interested in doing something like this. It was different enough from what I usually do that I was intrigued. That’s how it kind of kicked off, really.
How long did it take to make the film?
JULIEN TEMPLE: We started in 2023 and finished in 2024, so it took between nine months to a year to complete. It’s always these kinds of things for me. The editing process is where you tell the story and play around. You also want to make connections. Sometimes they take a while to emerge.”
You first met Johnny at one of his fêtes. What was that like?
JULIEN TEMPLE I didn’t know him well before. He was famously throwing parties around his pool at the Cannes Film Festival in the 80s. If you happened to be around there was a likelihood you’d be invited to these events with all the current movie stars of the day and so on.
Was Pigozzi as intriguing to you as previous subjects of your films, like The Sex Pistols Shane MacGowan, or Joe Strummer?
JULIEN TEMPLE: He’s the thing that drives the movie. He’s incredibly fascinating as a cultural figure, but he’s also an incredible character study just because of his childhood. The stuff he’s gone through gives an interesting duality to play with. I was interested in a guy who said he would never go to a shrink, and then this film is really a self-therapy session with himself talking to himself.
Were you interested in capturing the air of celebrity surrounding him, especially since he rose from a rough childhood to become famous?
JULIEN TEMPLE: It was interesting to see him coming to terms with the damage that his father did to him, which he doesn’t really acknowledge in his real life. Clearly, however wealthy you are, you’re still wrestling with the same kind of human problems that most of us are. I find that interesting about the film.
Pigozzi doesn’t initially seem like a focus for a Julien Temple film. But his lifestyle, attitude, and appreciation of music align with your rich palette of cinematic work:
JULIEN TEMPLE: The music films I’ve done have been about the passion I’ve had for the music I’ve lived through, whether it’s The Stones or The Kinks or The Sex Pistols or The Clash. These were people making music that had something to say to me. I like making films through music. I’m not interested in close-ups of how people play the guitar or how they record an album. That is all classic album, documentary nonsense.
Can you elaborate on the use of music in your work?
JULIEN TEMPLE: I am interested in how the music affected the people at the time, why they liked it, and why the people who made it made it. Also, where the music came from, what it tells you about the time, and about the emotions of the people who made it and listened to it. You know, the music is obviously wonderful, but there’s something about it that is human. I’m interested in everyone, really. They don’t have to be musicians. Having said that, you know, Johnny listens to a lot of music, and he’s connected to music in certain ways.
Music is an essential part of your filmmaking process, isn’t it?
JULIEN TEMPLE: It plays quite an important part in terms of historical markers and where you are in understanding the time in his life, and so on, which is also the time of my life. In some ways, these films are all slightly autobiographical because I’m younger than the Stones, but I am Johnny’s age. So the music that I use connects things to me in some ways, and gives me energy in terms of cutting and getting a feel for the film.
Johnny Pigozzi is an interesting choice for one of your films. Did you enjoy doing something different?
JULIEN TEMPLE: It’s great to do something different. I’ve never spent two weeks in some pleasure dome in the jungle in Panama, having a James Bond villain type existence. Things like that happen once in your life.
Switching gears, can you talk about your experiences with David Bowie?
JULIEN TEMPLE: It’s a long time ago now, but I have very vivid memories of just how exciting it was to collaborate with him. He was very collaborative. You know, it was different working with the Stones who would just say, go away and write something and we’ll tell you whether we like it or not. But David was very entwined in the process. He was wonderfully responsive to ideas, but he also wanted to be involved in sparking ideas off whoever he was working with in a really great way.”
It sounds like things went well
JULIEN TEMPLE: Yes. He’d be talking about trying to fix a pop-up toaster that had gone wrong in his flat. Really boring stuff. I was like, “David, you know, I think you could buy another one, you know what I mean? So, there was the boy next door side of him who was actually quite weirdly boring, and there was this incredible energy that transformed that quite boring guy into something spectacular.”
*With I Am Curious, Johnny out in the world, what are you working on in the future?*
JULIEN TEMPLE: I’m working on an immersive project next. I think there are ways of taking this immersive performance thing in a way from the kind of cheese factor of the Van Gogh exhibition, the one where you zoom into paintings of stars at night, and you know, horrible, cheesy exploitation of a deranged artist. I’m trying to mix it more with a gig, so it’s half movie, half gig. I’m also trying to create a time travel trip back to the beginning of punk in London for next year, riding on the back of the Sex Pistols’ music and the 50th anniversary of punk.
