(STYLING) ANOMA YA WHITTAKER; (CLOTHING) SUIT, TIE, AND SHOES: POLO RALPH LAUREN; SHIRT: PRADA; SOCKS: STACEY ADAMS. (PHOTOS) RICHARDS, OBAMA, DOWNEY: AP PHOTO; PECKINPAH: KOBAL

He bagged Madonna, but along the way Guy Ritchie nearly became a cinematic casualty. In 1999, the native Londoner blindsided the film industry with Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, a sensory overload of gangsters, stylized violence, and potty-mouthed English humor. He upped the ante in 2000 with the even-more-badass Snatch, but his career derailed in ’02 with the romantic comedy Swept Away (starring his wife) and couldn’t quite get back on track with 2005’s Revolver.

Now, though, the 39-year-old auteur is once again in his comfort zone, pistol-whipping skeptics with this month’s recklessly entertaining RocknRolla. Already at work on a Rolla sequel, and with the Robert Downey Jr.–starring Sherlock Holmes green-lighted for 2009, Ritchie sat with Complex to discuss his rise, fall, and rebirth.

Your background is as a music video and commercial director. What kind of influence did that have on your early style?

Guy Ritchie: On Lock, Stock we used a Photo-Sonics camera, the one where somebody is moving in real time but then all of a sudden it turns slow. It was used in music videos and then hammered in The Matrix; that series introduced it in a big commercial way. [But] Lock, Stock was the first time that camera was used in filmmaking. Ever.

So did you sense a class of imitators trying to copy your early flicks?

Guy Ritchie: There was after Lock, Stock in the U.K., and they weren’t very good. But I’m unaware of it since then. I do see things in certain movies that have been pinched from mine, but then, I’ve pinched things from other movies, too. It’s a form of flattery. I love seeing other people’s stuff and thinking, OK, I’m going to pinch that now, thank you so much! [Laughs.]

Where does your fascination with the criminal world come from?

Guy Ritchie: I like the honesty of its dishonesty, you know? The human condition is dishonest. Just because you’re in a job that’s legal doesn’t mean that you’re honest. I’d just rather polarize it, trying to blur the traditional sense of what we see as “good” and “bad.” I think the biggest villains I’ve been aware of are on the “right” side of the ball.

How does the world of RocknRolla differ from those of Lock, Stock and Snatch?

Guy Ritchie: It’s a contemporary reflection of the U.K. London has shifted from what was essentially an impractical city ten, fifteen years ago. We’ve had a boatload of Russian billionaires, and that changed the whole English culture. It’s just a different place, and I like it because it’s different, it’s moved. Home // CELEBRITIES // THE SHOTCALLER // Guy Ritchie