Pink Floyd box set

 

Cash? In 2034? I fear with great fear that the age of cash will be ended even before 2019 .

I'm glad to see both films included ("More" and "Obscured by Clouds"), and even happier that Barbet Schroeder allowed this to happen. The addition of the material from "Zabriskie Point", had been in a couple of bootlegs, but otherwise this is the first time we really get to hear the material that was supposed to be used, that both Antonioni and the American producers, rejected for the film, because it was too different, or weird. Antonioni had quotes given him by Roger as "too sad!" for a lot of the PF material for the film.

"More", I have reviewed and posted here a few times, but it one of those films that a lot of people do not like, because it does not follow the Hollywood tradition that the music must "augment" the moment, and not be a part of the moment for the actors/story, as much as it would be for your idea/fantasy of it all. Thus, the music is not on the "outside" of the film, and instead the girl carries along a cassette player and the music that is in it, is Pink Floyd, and that is what she is tripping to every single time she gets stoned, or the film enters into a stony trip. AS SUCH, it is a very stony experience, and very strong, since it is not a "fantasy" ... you are almost there, right next to her, also feeling it, instead of fantasizing it. This makes the film really good, and personal, and very warm. However, the critical destruction of this film, was almost single handedly done by people that were upset that PF was not used LOUD and CLEAR on the soundtrack, and not on the cassette recorder ... which in this case separates you from the experience altogether, and that is not what Barbet Schroeder wanted to do.

"Obscure by Clouds" is a very different film, and I think the music used was incidental, and is used "externally" and none of it is actually connected to the film or its story, except one piece, and it is minor, and over seeing a very long shot of clouds over a valley ... that is the extent of the use of the music, that makes sense in this film, and I have a feeling that it was too late to add anything different or to change the film. The film does feature two incredible film acting schools together with each other, and they were the French/Paris Grouping and the Royal Shakespeare Company, many of whose folks had just participated in a huge Ken Russell orgy or two. The mix of the two is interesting, and when later the folks in New Guinea are shown, it actually makes for a rather strange mix, but it is like you are just an outsider watching this ... there is a distance here, I always thought, and I'm not sure the film recovers from that.

I'm not sure I can afford this, or that I will buy it. But if the films get redone, and cleaned up and with added bits and pieces, they are both worth getting. "More" is very much an "experiment" that works for me, although I think that too many film viewers are too stuck on their film fantasies to appreciate a "real film about a real story" which is so close to us, as to make us afraid. This was something that Barbet Schroeder did in a lot of his films. We won't discuss one drunk or two later in his films!