Tim Pope

Tim Pope always wanted to make films and assures us at Johnnie Foreigner he came into this world with an 8mm camera in his hand.

He attended film studies at Ravensbourne College, Bromley, then got a job working the cameras at a company training politicians for TV appearances, which entailed him going to No. 10 Downing Street many times.

“Borrowing” this equipment, he began to film bands on stage, including The Psychedelic Furs and The Specials.

As the market for pop videos grew in the early eighties, he amongst others worked with Neil Young, David Bowie, Iggy Pop, Talk Talk, The Bangles, Queen, Paul McCartney, Siouxsie & the Banshees, Strawberry Switchblade, Hall & Oates, The Pretenders,  Tom Tom Club, Paul Weller, Amanda Palmer, Wham!, Terry Hall, Dave Stewart, Kim Wilde, Men Without Hats, The The, Soft Cell, Fatboy Slim, The Darkness, The Kaiser Chiefs, Tim Burgess, and most famously The Cure for whom alone he made 37 clips.
 

He worked in TV making documentaries like “The Groovy Fellers” with Jools Holland, live concert films like “The Cure in Orange” and David Bowie’s “50th Birthday Celebration at Madison Square,”, as well as short films like “Phone” (the performances in which compelled Martin Scorsese to write a complimentary letter to him!). In Hollywood, he directed “The Crow: City of Angels,” which went to the US No. 1 box-office slot, despite the infamous Weinstein brothers’ meddlesome intervention in the cutting room.

He made many commercials for brands like Kodak, Coca Cola, Agent Provocateur, Renault, the BBC, and Yves Saint Laurent used a teaser he made for his upcoming movie "The Beating of a Moth's Wing"  with actress Béatrice Dalle to announce their Winter '24 collection..

Tim’s recent work includes “Anniversary,” a film of The Cure’s spectacular 40-year career-spanning live performance at Hyde Park in 2018, which went worldwide on release to over 2, 500 cinemas – and similarly The The’s “Comeback Special” at The Royal Albert Hall released in autumn 2021 and going to the No 1 video chart spot.

In 2019, he directed a well-received documentary for ITV about the actress Sheridan Smith, called “Coming Home.”

Tim was in 2022 made patron of the BIMM film school in Berlin and has a scholarship in his name to award three years of free education to deserving students.

Current projects for 2024, apart from his movie, include a short film "Cockroach!", the publication of his memoir in the UK and US, videos for the band The The, and a cinema documentary in collaboration with The Cure's Robert Smith.