In the mid-1970s, Marianne Joan Elliott-Said, alias Poly Styrene, became a star of the British punk scene by founding the group X-Ray Spex, of which she was the leader and singer. But stardom does not suit this artist suffering from bipolar disorder, who died at 53. This film looks back on his career as on his demons.
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From the outset, Celeste Bell, only daughter of Poly Styrene, admits that it took a few years to dive into the legacy left by her famous mother and to manage it. Because their relationship will have been anything but a long calm river, crossed by love, fear, neglect, anger, ruptures and reconciliation.
This documentary dedicated to her mother’s story is also, a little, a lot, Celeste’s own story. And it is not without reason that Mme Bell stages himself several times throughout the film. We even see her flipping through the book Dayglo – The Poly Styrene Story which she and Zoe Howe released in 2019 and which serves as the source material for the film.
This mise-en-abîme could have been very annoying. She is not. Because this documentary with sometimes thundering accents (we are in the punk era, after all!) stands out with a lightness, a softness, a soothing breeze that probably comes from what could be described as “quiet reconciliation”.
Celeste Bell does not hide her differences with her mother. But in essence, she puts her steps here, with affection and admiration, in those of Poly Styrene to tell us in a remarkable way the story of this authentic and original woman.
Born of a British mother and a Somali father, Poly had, from the start of her career, to defend issues associated with the color of her skin. It was the first of several personal battles for this woman having to answer insistent questions from the media about her colorful clothes or her dental braces.
With Celeste, the viewer visits Hastings, a town on the south coast of England where William the Conqueror landed in 1066 and where Poly Styrene discovered the Sex Pistols in 1976. From there we go to New York where the singer lived disillusionment, Hertfordshire where she lived in a Hare Krishna mansion and India where her daughter went to scatter her ashes.
If she is at the center of the story, the co-director gives voice to many people who knew her mother: her husband (Celeste’s father) Adrian, her sister Hazel, members of her management team, artists, including Lora Logic and Paul Dean of X-Ray Spex, and journalists such as Vivien Goldman. Actress Ruth Negga (loving, passing) provides the narration.
This documentary is not so much a film about the punk period as a work exploring the discreet but precious legacy left by one of its representatives. She might bear the name of a very common polymer and sing I Am a ClichePoly Styrene has left a signature to be discovered or rediscovered.
In VOD
DOCUMENTARY
Poly Styrene – I Am a Cliché
Paul Sng and Celeste Bell
With Celeste Bell, Adrian Bell, Hazel Emmons
1:36