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Hard Rocker
Filmink spoke with the directors of Lemmy, a hilarious and revealing rock doc which delves into the world of Motorhead’s legendary frontman
When Wes Orshoski was a teenager, he tried to get an autograph from Ian ‘Lemmy' Kilmister, but the British rock legend ignored the young fan. Two decades later, Orshoski knows the Motorhead frontman well enough to call him ‘Lem'. Orshoski and co-director Greg Olliver spent three years getting inside Lemmy's world, and the result is one of the finest - and funniest - rock docs around.
For the directors, making Lemmy was a rock dream come true. But manifested dreams often come with a price tag. Was there a cost? "It was exhausting," replies Olliver. "It was not an easy film to get made on any level whatsoever. Money was hard to raise and it was never there when you needed it. And Lem's attitude - he was never in the right mood. Almost every day you'd wake up and think, ‘Shit, man, should I keep doing this?' Then ten minutes later, you're like, ‘I'm gonna keep going'."
The pair also admit to moments of tension between them. "A couple of times we got into really bad fights," laughs Olliver, "we're both stubborn idiots." "We'd build it up, then fight, and then love each other again," adds Orshoski.
Olliver and Orshoski are sitting in a room in Sydney's State Theatre. It's the day after Lemmy screened for the Sydney Film Festival at the Opera House, where they gave an entertaining Q&A session. Today, the filmmakers are pumped, talking a mile a minute. "I feel completely blessed to be sitting here in Australia speaking about this film, it's so surreal," says Orshoski, holding up two of the Opera House tickets for FILMINK to inspect. "Look dude! I took these freakin' tickets last night so I could frame them!"
Lemmy is a film that can be heartily recommended to all rock fans - and then some. Going beyond the Motorhead fan-base was "the goal", says Olliver. "We didn't want it to be just a Motorhead specialty item. We wanted everyone to go and see it. Not even just rock fans but people that are into interesting characters."
"We've had to fight the perception that this is a straight-to-DVD title," Orshoski explains, "that it's yet another Motorhead DVD."
The doco, which includes great live and studio footage, is anything but static as the filmmakers trail Lemmy as he prowls his adopted city of Los Angeles, and during his European road trip with Motorhead. It includes a series of talking rock heads - Alice Cooper, Henry Rollins, Peter Hook (Joy Division, New Order), Ozzy Osbourne, Dave Grohl (Foo Fighters, Nirvana), Mick Jones (The Clash) and Lars Ulrich (Metallica) to name but a handful.
The talking heads don't waste a word, and help paint a portrait of a most singular rock and roll warrior. They - and Lemmy - are often hilarious. Lemmy, the mutton-chopped man-in-black, now 64, is one of rock's great characters. While the average rock star lives in a mansion, Lemmy's slumming it in a smallish apartment stacked from floor to ceiling with music and war memorabilia. It's all rather eccentric and amusing, especially when Lemmy, who can well afford snazzier digs, raves about the bargain rent. There's a lot of laughter in the audience, but during one segment, an uncomfortable - almost nervous - silence...
"You're having so much fun with this guy and all of a sudden you see swastikas on the wall," says Olliver. "It's heavy. We can't promote it or defend it. He loves collecting stuff. It's hard to look at those shots and see anything but the swastikas but there's UK flags, Croatian stuff - he collects everything but does like the evil stuff because he says it looks better. It just looks tougher and meaner; I think that's why he got hooked on it."
"The iron cross has been used in rock and roll for years," adds Orshoski, "especially in heavy metal. It's a powerful symbol and Lemmy's always been attracted to power. If we're honest with ourselves, we were shocked the first time we saw this stuff. But it's not our job to judge, it's our job to show it to people. We ask him in the film, ‘People are gonna watch this and think you're a Nazi, what do you have to say about that?' And he's like, ‘It's ridiculous. I'm not a Nazi'. It's true, though."
Lemmy had been approached by a clutch of filmmakers before who wanted to document his life. His response was invariably no. But he liked these guys. He gave them access to all areas - but not total control. "He had final say on what went into the film and could cut stuff out if he wanted to, which was very stressful," laughs Olliver. "We were really nervous [showing Lemmy the finished product] because you can't predict him. He's very moody."
Yet Lemmy loved the film, taking exception only to the cutting of a sax solo in a song at the end. He "screamed" at the directors. The sax solo was pasted back in.
Orshoski get outs his mobile to reveal a secretly recorded video of Lemmy watching Lemmy for the first time. "He's laughing at himself," Orshoski observes. "He loves his own jokes."
Picture caption: Wes Orholski and Greg Olliver at the Lemmy Premiere at Sydney Film Festival 2010, courtesy of Image.Net. Taken by Charles Dennington