MFAH Film Series – Julien Temple: Earth Girls are Easy

Groundbreaking British filmmaker Julien Temple visits the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston to present and discuss highlights from his remarkable filmography.

After directing pioneering music videos for the Sex Pistols in the late 1970s, Temple created iconic videos for David Bowie, Culture Club, Whitney Houston, Janet Jackson, the Kinks, Sade, and many others.

He has also directed music documentaries (from 1979’s The Great Rock ‘n’ Roll Swindle to the 2015 South by Southwest award winner The Ecstasy of Wilko Johnson) and feature films, including Absolute Beginners and Earth Girls Are Easy.

Complementing Temple’s visit is a selection of British punk-era collages by English artist Jamie Reid, on view outside Brown Auditorium Theater.

Thursday night’s schedule features the Sex Pistols with The Filth and the Fury plus a rare TV special, and Friday focuses on David Bowie with Absolute Beginners and a 20-minute version of the “Jazzin’ for Blue Jean” music video. The program concludes on Saturday with Earth Girls Are Easy.

Earth Girls are Easy

Directed by Julien Temple
1988
UK/USA
100 minutes

In this madcap comedy, Geena Davis plays Valerie, a manicurist at the Curl Up and Dye beauty salon in the California valley.

After learning that her fiancé is having an affair, Valerie asks her boss, Candy (Julie Brown), for some style advice. Soon a spaceship from the planet Jhazzalan crash-lands in Valerie’s swimming pool, and she befriends the ship’s inhabitants: three aliens (Jim Carrey, Jeff Goldblum, Damon Wayans) covered in fur.

After Valerie introduces her new friends to Candy, the aliens get a total makeover that turns them into attractive dates.

The cast also features Michael McKean and Charles Rocket.

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