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FILM FEATURES PAGE 2. In Seach of the Promised Land By David King
There are a number of similarities between La Vallee and More, Barbet Schroeder's previous film. Apart from the obvious fact that Pink Floyd provides the soundtrack to both films, they also share the same cinematographer and scriptwriter. (Schroeder clearly likes working with the same people: he re-used the talents of Bulle Ogier in his next film, the well-received MaÓtresse.) The two films belong to genres that are, however, poles apart. More is a fairly conventionally-plotted drama almost in the Hollywood style, whereas La Vallee is a European art film, where the usual concerns with character, realism, and story-line are largely subordinated to exploration of philosophical idea. In this regard, La Vallee resembles The Committee rather than More. Yet like More, La Vallee polarizes critics. Sight and Sound magazine, for example, dismisses it with the words "journey to the centre of a cliche", whereas Steven Scheuer, in Movies on TV, calls it "an intelligent film, with incidental sensual pleasures". Variety also likes the film, saying that the "excellent pulsating musical score by Pink Floyd [is a] help". In my opinion, Variety and Scheuer are right. If anything, I think Schroeder's use of Pink Floyd's music is even more intelligent that it is in More. Background It goes without saying that Schroeder was pleased with Pink Floyd's soundtrack to More; otherwise he would never have commissioned another score from the band. As is well known, the music was recorded at the Chateau d'Herouville, near Paris. The group was able to spend more time on the soundtrack than they were on the soundtrack to More; again, however, the soundtrack album was recorded after--and in places is different from--the music that is heard in the film. In an interview, Rick Wright expresses a liking for the Obscured by Clouds music (he prefers it to the More soundtrack); Nick Mason, likewise, implies that he is reluctant to attribute the (commercial) failure of La Vallee--for it was a failure--to the quality of the music. Perhaps Schroeder was encouraged by the success of More in France as compared with the rest of the world, for most of the film's dialogue is in French. The Story and Music of La Vallee The opening scenes of the film are very striking: we see mountains, and valleys and gullies partly blanketed by cloud. A still from this sequence forms the basis for the cover of the Obscured by Clouds album. Of course, the opening music is "Obscured by Clouds" itself; and the addition of wind-sounds creates a surprisingly eerie effect. One very obvious question is: why did Schroeder choose very technological, electronic music to accompany a film about primitive New Guinea? The answer to this question is really the theme of the film, and can be summarized as the belief that there can be no return to "innocence"; wherever people go they take their technology, society and culture with them, even when they try to lose themselves in the wild. Thus Pink Floyd's music is a perfect technological reminder of this idea. In a technique commonly used nowadays to blur the distinction between film and reality, Schroeder extends the credits of the film into the narrative itself. Thus, alternating with the credits we hear, in French, the following voice-over: In the heart of New Guinea, one of the world's largest islands, the Australians discovered these mountains in 1954. No roads lead to them; they are inaccessible. We are above unexplored regions. They are not on the map, or more precisely they are, shown only as white spots. It is the unknown. My expectation was that when "Obscured by Clouds" finished, we would see through the cloud cover and hear "When You're In". Surprisingly, "When You're In" does not appear in the film, although I should point out that my copy of the film is ten minutes shorter than the length specified at the beginning of this article. Instead of a break in the cloud-cover, what we see is Bulle Ogier's character, Viviane, looking at native artifacts in a New Guinea shop. (The Australian actor who plays the part of the shopkeeper is the worst part of the film; his acting is terrible.) We discover that she is particularly interested in feathers. Shortly, some hippies enter. They intend to sell merchandise to the shop in order to finance their forthcoming 'expedition' (to, we later learn, an uncharted valley said to be a 'paradise'). One of the hippies, the Englishman Olivier, offers to show Viviane some feathers. In the process, a native dagger is knocked on to his foot, injuring him. Viviane urges him to see a doctor, and, blaming herself for his accident, accompanies him to the local hospital. During the car journey, she tells him about herself: she is the wife of a French consul in Melbourne, she hates socializing, etc. The next scene is at the hippies' camp. Situated by the sea, it is nestled among palm trees. Viviane is about to leave, but Olivier reminds her of the feathers. "Burning Bridges" plays as the pair enters the camp, and the ingenuousness of the lyrics and simplicity of the music reflect well the (apparent) ingenuousness and simplicity of the hippies' lifestyle. The version of the song is the same as the one on the soundtrack album. The music continues as Olivier shows Viviane the feathers, which, he tells her, come from the almost-extinct 'Lesser Bird of Paradise' (note the paradise motif). Viviane asks him to get some feathers for her on their next expedition, but Olivier points out that hunting of the birds is illegal. He also won't sell his feathers to her. He does, however, invite her to dinner. During the meal, Olivier's friend Gaetan, the group leader, shows her a map. On it is the valley, marked simply 'obscured by cloud'. He tells her that the valley has been discovered several times, but that no one has ever returned from it. She asks him why; and he replies simply, "Because it's paradise." "The Gold it's in the..." plays as Viviane asks, coquettishly, to see the feathers "one last time." Olivier responds to her coquetry, and soon they are making love, with "Wot's... Uh the Deal" in the background. Both songs are the same as on the soundtrack album; and again the comparative simplicity of the music is in keeping with the simplicity of the events depicted. Remarkably, though, we are merely twenty minutes into the film and we are already almost halfway through the album! (Unlike the pieces in More, those in La Vallee are mostly in the same order as in the film.) The next scene shows Viviane back at her hotel, talking on the phone with her husband. She tells him of the feathers, and she says she thinks she knows how to get some. The action then returns to the hippies' camp. Viviane greets Olivier, telling him that the weather was cloudy that morning "like the end of the world." Olivier passionately embraces her. Viviane responds enthusiastically, but then raises the issue of feathers again, asking whether they might not be obtainable from missionaries. Gaetan remarks at this point that not only are Viviane's interests at odds with their own, but also they don't know when they'll be back. He suggests that Viviane go with them, catching a plane back from the mission at Watik. The thought of two weeks in a jeep does not daunt Viviane, and neither do the hippies' free-love sleeping arrangements. Consequently, we next see Viviane in the jeep with the hippies, driving along a rough road. "Childhood's End" plays as the jeep drives along, Olivier's arm around Viviane. The music continues when the jeep stops: Viviane wishes to relieve herself, but is afraid of snakes in the bush. (The slightly anxious mood of the song prepares us for the reference to snakes.) As might be expected in any film about paradise, the snake image is later to return. The journey soon resumes, and before long a group of natives materializes. Olivier tells Viviane that they are on their way to a festival. A rather hammy native is asked about feathers; he replies that at the festival there will certainly be opportunities for obtaining them. At the festival many natives are dancing about and chanting; and all are wearing the Bird of Paradise feathers. Viviane is soon beneath the posts of a house, bargaining for some. An irate official appears, however, and quickly removes her from this activity. Before long she is back with Olivier once more. The next main scene is at the mission. In the background there are the sounds of natives singing the familiar spiritual "Kum Ba Yah;" imperceptibly this becomes the chanting heard on the record at the end of "Absolutely Curtains". A missionary is asked about feathers, but he says he hasn't seen any for a month. He also says that there will be no plane available for fifteen days. He suggests that Viviane go on to the last mission, where there is a plane. Viviane is worried about the delay, but reluctantly decides she has no option. Just as she is about to leave, the missionary remembers a native magician on a nearby mountain who gives feathers to people he likes; he recommends Viviane pay him a visit. Not surprisingly, the next scene is of Viviane and the magician. A brief, ethereal snatch of "Mudmen", played on the celesta, is heard. The magician has a kind of hypnotic effect on Viviane; for in a kind of dream-sequence we see her being menaced by three natives wearing mud head-coverings. (Clearly Pink Floyd wrote "Mudmen" for this sequence; equally clearly Schroeder decided that, apart from the snatch already mentioned, the sequence would be better unscored.) The sequence has the appearance of a ritual, and when it is over, the magician smiles, handing Viviane some feathers. Back at the camp Olivier tells Viviane that the natives are 'preparing' for the full moon. The hippies are sitting about in a very Conrad-ish forest; they are also drinking a tribal beverage, nicknamed 'the liquor of Dionysus'. Olivier is worried about Viviane's reaction to this beverage, and he warns her about it; but Viviane defies him and drinks more. The potion has a hallucinogenic effect on her: she wanders about in the forest, caressing a large tree, talking to it, and eventually nestling among its roots. "I am in the nest of the Bird of Paradise," she whispers, implying that she herself is the Bird of Paradise (a symbolically incomplete one, as she lacks feathers). The music accompanying this part of the film is an instrumental not on the soundtrack album. Dominated by the strumming of a guitar, with bongos and a flute-like instrument in the background, it at first resembles "Childhood's End", but then takes on a pulsating, appropriately hypnotic quality reminiscent of "Rain in the Country", the Zabriskie Point outtake. Having finished with the tree, Viviane caresses a mimosa, watching its leaves curl, and then picks up a snake, which she wraps around herself. At first, she is happy with such reptilian adornment, but at the approach of Olivier, who quietly tells her not to move (clearly the snake is venomous), she flings it away in horror. The journey resumes, and then we are shown the hippies stopping near an airstrip. The jeep needs repairs, and Viviane takes the opportunity to decorate it with a painting of a dragon. Gaetan comments on the painting: he says that in the West, the dragon--or snake--is an image of evil, whereas where they are it represents the life force. He then changes tack, obliquely trying to persuade Viviane to continue on with them. At first we think he is unsuccessful, for a tiny plane lands and she gets on board; but then it returns and she gets out. Perhaps feeling a little guilty at having influenced Viviane, Gaetan points out to her at their next port of call (a kind of trading post--they are inquiring about horses for the steep terrain ahead) that she still has time to change her mind. He also stresses that, officially, they are not allowed to go any farther. But Viviane is resolute, and the next scene is of Gaetan and her collecting tropical fruit together. Back at the jeep, Viviane looks around for Olivier. She soon finds him: he is making love to Monique. Viviane is wildly jealous; she rubs her painting from the jeep, commenting that the image is meaningless, and then she sets off into the forest alone. Soon, she sits down, deep in thought. Monique comes up to her, and starts to explain about open love: she says that love is like the ocean, and that any one person is like a little bottle, half-filled with water, floating on the ocean. She stresses that the thing to do is break open the bottle: then there will be no more solitude. Viviane is visibly moved by this, for when Monique says that she also loves her, they start to embrace. A rifle shot interrupts them. They start up, and see on the ground a dead Bird of Paradise. As two Australians approach, Viviane picks up the bird; she refuses to hand it over, even when the men threaten to shoot her. Indeed, the women chase the men away. This, however, turns out to be a mistake; for when Olivier and Viviane call in at a farm where they were told they could get horses, who should they see but the two Australians! Of course, the Australians gleefully refuse to sell any horses to them. Resigned, the hippies drive on. "Free Four" is playing in the background. The verse we hear first is the one beginning "You shuffle in the gloom of the sickroom". The lyrics of this verse are the same as on the soundtrack album, but the next verse is different. Some of the words are, unfortunately, obscured (not by clouds, but by dialogue), but it is easy to pick out the following phrases: "Dead man"; "Things are hard to grow; and I can tell you 'cause I know"; and "It's better not to make it. . .". The song is an appropriate one for this scene; for the disparity between the song's cheerful tune and pessimistic lyrics reflects well the outwardly optimistic but inwardly gloomy state of the hippies. Viviane blames herself for the complication with the horses; she says that she has ruined the expedition. She suggests that they return to the Australians, and try again to get some horses. Olivier is impressed when, at the farm, she hands over all her money for this purpose. ("Free Four" has resumed in the background.) This time, the hippies are successful. They cover the jeep with branches, and then set off in the direction of the Valley. Viviane has a question for Gaetan: how will they be able to communicate with the mountain tribesmen? The answer, he implies, is sign language; and before long there are plenty of opportunities for sign language, for in the next main scene the party is greeted by many natives. The latter are preparing for a major celebration, and Viviane soon pitches in to help, breaking some twigs for a fire. The next scenes of the film are taken up with the natives' preparations for the celebration. We see natives summoning various tribes from the hills and mountains; we also see them decorating themselves with paint and feathers. Gaetan allows some natives to decorate him; and he is almost unrecognizable when they have finished. (Viviane and Olivier remain unadorned.) Shortly after this there is a particularly unpleasant scene of pigs being slaughtered; they are repeatedly clubbed on the head with a lump of wood. Then a native spokesman announces (subtitles enable us to understand what he is saying) that everyone will shortly be eating pig meat to 'honor their ancestors'. He goes on to say that for the first time whites will be participating in the ceremony. After he has finished speaking, a native woman announces, as if in some bizarre nod to feminism, that she salutes the white women who have come to be with them. Then everyone sits around and eats roast pig. The philosophical core of the film follows. Olivier is sitting by himself; and Viviane, surprised, goes up to him. She makes comments to the effect that their rapport with the natives is wonderful; and she can't believe it when she learns that Olivier doesn't share her enthusiasm. To her observation "We've found truth", he retorts "It's just the opposite". He explains that the natives live by strict rules, whereas they (the hippies) are trying to break all rules. Further, he points out that people can't forget their past or undo their conditioning, and that once innocence is lost, it can never be found again. His most pertinent observation is framed in the symbolic language of the film: "Paradise has many exits, but no entrance. There's no way back from knowledge. When you fall from grace, that's it." (This provides the key for interpreting the film's ambiguous ending: we are not actually told what happens to the hippies on reaching the Valley, but the implication is that they find no joy there.) Olivier's final remark - that to find paradise again they perhaps should do the opposite of what they've done - prompts Viviane to get up and leave. It is my guess that "Stay" was written to accompany this part of the film, for the song, obviously, is concerned with ending relationships. Also, "Free Four" was the last Pink Floyd piece heard in the film, and "Stay" follows that on the album. The song does not appear in my version of the film; so either the commonly available version has "Stay" edited out or Schroeder decided not to use the piece at all. Having become disillusioned with Olivier, Viviane goes after Gaetan. She finds him standing naked by a river. He takes her into the forest, where there is a tree with almost prison-like aerial roots. He has been drawing the juice of this tree, and he and Viviane drink some. Then they make love. The expedition resumes. At one point the hippies realize they've made a wrong turn, but by now they are fairly close to the Valley. They set up camp, and in the morning Gaetan tells Viviane to release the horses. The terrain separating the group from the Valley is apparently unsuitable for horses, but Olivier nevertheless appears displeased that Gaetan and Viviane have 'burned their bridges' in this way. Despite the warnings of some natives, the party starts to enter the high country. "Absolutely Curtains" starts to play as they approach their mist-enshrouded destination, and the piece builds tension extremely well. (We hear almost four minutes of it.) I would go so far as to say that, with regard to the matching of Pink Floyd music with scene, this is unsurpassed. (I suppose I should point out my bias: "Absolutely Curtains" has long been my favorite piece on Obscured by Clouds!) Not only is the music excellently tension-building, but also--as mentioned before--the electronic instruments remind us of Olivier's philosophy: that even when we try to return to the wild we take our (technological) culture with us. The piece is not the same as the one on the soundtrack album, however: it is longer, and it does not end with natives chanting; we hear, rather, a reprise of "Obscured by Clouds". The final image is of the Valley itself: Viviane, with the sun behind her, says "The Valley!", and we see a rather undistinguished-looking valley. As "Obscured by Clouds" begins to play, the following words from T.S. Eliot's Four Quartets appear on the screen: We
shall not cease from exploration Eliot's words clearly inspired Schroeder, for they capture the essence of the film: the end is the beginning. Consequently, it is appropriate that the Pink Floyd track that opened the film--"Obscured by Clouds"--should be the one to close it. David King is an expert on Floyd films, and a special contributor to Spare Bricks. Portions of this article may be reproduced, provided that David King and Spare Bricks are properly credited. A moving picture of crumbling land By David King
If The Committee is the least known film with which Pink Floyd is associated, Zabriskie Point is without doubt the best known. Director Michelangelo Antonioni's is of the most prominent 'art' directors in the business. The film followed Blow-Up, and like this film (and many of Antonioni's films) Zabriskie Point is much concerned with illusion and its effects on our lives. Unlike Blow-Up, however, Zabriskie Point was not a critical or commercial success. Critics complained of its 'wooden' acting, and of inconsistencies in its storyline ("a rambled, jumbled and mumbled mess" is how the Time Out Film Guide describes it). Of course, it could be argued that once a film reaches a certain degree of artiness any criticism of it can be easily deflected. It can, for example, be argued that wooden acting and inconsistencies in storyline are all part of Antonioni's concern with exploring the superficiality and paradoxicality of our lives. Indeed, David Thomson, in Movies of the Sixties, says "a time will come when Zabriskie Point... will be reclaimed from indifference". Whatever one thinks of Zabriskie Point, however, there is no doubt that its concerns are squarely aligned with those of Pink Floyd, for what band is more concerned with alienation and illusion? (I often feel that Blow-Up cries out for a soundtrack by Pink Floyd.) In this article we will look at Zabriskie Point in some detail, paying attention not only to the three tracks by Pink Floyd that actually appear in the film, but also to the well-known material that was left out--not only the four tracks recently released on the expanded soundtrack album ("Country Song," "Unknown Song," "Love Scene Version 4," and "Love Scene Version 6") but also to the tracks that have appeared on bootlegs ("Oenone," "Fingal's Cave," "Rain in the Country," and "The Violence Sequence," also known as "The Violent Sequence"). Background The story behind Antonioni's dissatisfaction with some of Pink Floyd's soundtrack contributions is well-known, but worth repeating. According to Nicholas Schaffner's Floyd bio Saucerful of Secrets: The Pink Floyd Odyssey, Antonioni "had first encountered the Floyd back at the Roundhouse IT launch", and hearing "Careful with that Axe, Eugene", asked the band to come to Rome to work on music for his next film. This Pink Floyd did, staying almost a month in the city. Miles, in Pink Floyd: A Visual Documentary, quotes Roger Waters as believing the whole soundtrack could have been composed in five days. Apparently, however, the distractions provided by opportunities for wining and dining were too great for the soundtrack to be completed in this time span. Moreover, Antonioni's dissatisfaction with some of the music was such that many pieces had to be changed again and again. In the end, Antonioni rejected much of what the Floyd had written as being "too strong" or "too sad". The Story and Music of Zabriskie Point Like The Committee, the story of Zabriskie Point is very simple. The following synopsis from the Time Out Film Guide is brief but accurate:
The scene with the students lasts about eight minutes. Towards the end of it, we are introduced to the central character, Mark, who (prophetically) tells the students "I'm willing to die too--but not of boredom", before he walks out of their discussion. The next scene introduces us to the female lead, Daria, who is trying to retrieve a book she inadvertently left in her high-security workplace. The action then shifts back to Mark, who is now driving along a road dominated by billboards and advertising. This scene is accompanied by an electronic piece by Music Electronic Viva. It is not on the soundtrack album, and is no doubt the piece that led to the erroneous claim, made in a recent book on Pink Floyd, that the film contains four tracks by Pink Floyd. The next main scene is at a police station: Mark stops by to inquire after a student friend who has been arrested, and is promptly seized himself. Inexplicably, however, he is soon shown to be free again and, in fact, buying guns with another student. This is followed by a 'commercial' for the Sunnydunes Land Development Company - the company in which the Rod Taylor character (Daria's boss) is a big wheel. We are shown puppet figures watering plants in a desert wasteland, whilst being told in typical advertising style that in the desert there is "plenty of space". Soon we are shown Daria herself making her way into the desert. She is reading a map and listening to her car radio; the track playing is a rather vacuous pop song by the Kaleidoscope called "Brother Mary". Listening to this track, it becomes clear why Antonioni decided to replace some of the pieces by Pink Floyd with those of other artists: for some scenes he simply wanted 'empty' music: music as vacuous as jingles, as bland as television commercials. "Brother Mary" certainly satisfies those criteria. In fact, given that emptiness and blandness were so often clearly Antonioni's requirements in Zabriskie Point, Pink Floyd should have been flattered, not offended, that some of their compositions were rejected. (This is not to say that I think Antonioni's choice of music was always right; in fact the opposite is often the case.) After a startlingly surreal scene with the Rod Taylor character, in which he looks as though he is sitting at a desk actually in the desert, the action returns to the students and their imminent confrontation with the police. This scene is the one for which "The Violence Sequence" was written. Certainly the scene provides plenty of images suggestive of the results of violence: bloodied faces, bandages, etc. But until the police shoot a student who, they think, is armed, we don't actually see any violence. Nevertheless, it is easy to imagine "The Violence Sequence" accompanying this part of the film. That said, it is probably wise to be clear about what we understand "The Violence Sequence" to be. The popular conception is that it is just the piano solo from "Us and Them". But the piano music on "The Violence Sequence" as it appears on the bootleg Total Eclipse is significantly different in places from the "Us and Them" piano music. Granted, the piece on Total Eclipse is a live recording and would therefore be expected to be different (indeed, it contains instruments other than the piano); but by the same token Pink Floyd seldom let several years pass without significantly changing a given piece. "A Saucerful of Secrets" and "On the Run" are obvious examples. Mark is secretly watching the confrontation between the police and the students, and he quickly decides to make himself scarce. A phone call to a friend informs him that he is on the news and is suspected of killing a policeman (earlier, Mark is actually shown pointing his gun at the policeman); so he steals a nearby airplane to go for a 'joy-ride'. As the plane takes off we hear an excerpt from the Grateful Dead's "Dark Star". The action now switches back to Daria, who, accompanied by the Floyd's "Crumbling Land"--one of only two (known) actual songs the band wrote for Zabriskie Point--is shown driving through a vast and impressively white desert. The version of "Crumbling Land" is different from the one appearing on the soundtrack album. The lyrics are the same (although we hear it only up to the phrase "...gliding by"), but the vocal delivery is much more sinuous and ethereal. No doubt Antonioni wanted the shifting quality of the vocals to match the shifting quality of the desert. David Gilmour, incidentally, has referred to "Crumbling Land" as a country-and-western song. One mystery is why the song segues into the sounds of a busy street and the music of a jazz band playing "When the Saints Come Marching in" (this is more apparent in the longer version of the song, included on bootlegs such as Omayyad); for in the film, the scene following the "Crumbling Land" footage shows Rod Taylor, on the phone to Daria. Perhaps "Crumbling Land" was originally written for a different part of the film. Alternatively, Antonioni may have cut a street scene from Zabriskie Point. The next main scene with Daria shows her in a bar, asking the barman if he knows the location of a town she thinks is called Glenville. The barman asks her if she "has come to see James Paterson". She does not deny this, although a few minutes previously she had told her boss that she is in the town simply because it is a "fantastic place for meditation". This inconsistency gives the film a dream-like (or, given that it is set in the desert, mirage-like) quality. A shattered window attracts her attention and the barman's; she goes outside to see a group of "disturbed children from Los Angeles" throwing stones to the strains of Patti Page's "Tennessee Waltz". Soon after, Daria leaves in her car. Next, in some of the most impressive footage of the film, we see Mark's plane play a kind of cat-and-mouse game with Daria's car. When this ends, Daria drives on (accompanied by the sounds of another vacuous pop song, "Sugar Babe", by the Youngbloods), only to find that the plane has landed. Mark asks her for a lift so that he can buy more fuel for the plane. Daria, who is aware that he has stolen the plane, nevertheless agrees. Shortly, however, they stop once more: at Zabriskie Point itself. A sign provides the following information about Zabriskie Point:
It is easy to appreciate the symbolic significance of Zabriskie Point: just as the formation is shaped by ancient forces, so are the lives of the main characters. (Mark, in his plane, is even 'pushed upward'!) It is also ironic that the characters find their brief moment of happiness in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. Mark and Daria spend some time exploring and playing in the desert near Zabriskie Point, taking time out only to discuss philosophical issues and to make love. The latter scene is another very impressive one. Surreally, shots of Mark and Daria rolling about in the desert are interspersed with shots of couples who resemble them, until finally the camera zooms out to reveal a desert peppered with love-making couples. This has the effect of universalizing Mark and Daria's situation. The scene is accompanied by 5 and a half minutes of Jerry Garcia's appropriately-titled "Love Scene". This music is quite effective, but I cannot help feeling not only that the Pink Floyd outtake known as "Rain in the Country", which is of comparable length, was written for this scene, but also that this track would have been a better choice than the Garcia one. The latter is too meandering, inappropriate for a scene 'pulsating' with images of love-making couples. "Rain in the Country" (a highly inappropriate title created by some bootlegger, if my above guess is right!), on the other hand, captures perfectly this 'pulsation'. It is a hypnotically melodious guitar-dominated piece, continually departing from and returning to its haunting main theme. I have often felt "Rain in the Country" to be one of Pink Floyd's most enjoyable compositions, and it is a great pity that it is not officially available. The track called "Unknown Song" released on the expanded soundtrack album is, in fact, a version of this piece, but the general view is that it is not as good as the version known "Rain in the Country". It often seems weighed-down, for example, by the dominant drumming. Of course, the titles of the pieces "Love Scene Version 4" and "Love Scene Version 6" may be considered to cast doubt on my conjecture that "Rain in the Country" (or "Unknown Song") was written for the love scene. It certainly is different in feel from the two "Love Scene" pieces. Version 6 is a piece of guitar-based blues, while Version 4 is a long and jazzy piano piece. On the other hand, I can think of no other scene in the film that would suit this music, so I am sticking with my conjecture! Having finished making love, Mark and Daria are surprised by the arrival of a police car. Mark hides behind a men's toilet, gun at the ready. The policeman, however, after a few vague questions to Daria, drives off. Mark and Daria then paint the plane with various psychedelic motifs, assisted by an old man who may or may not be imaginary. Mark, despite Daria's urging, decides to return the plane; and the next few scenes comprise alternate shots of the plane in flight and Daria driving off across the desert. The songs playing on her radio are by the Rolling Stones (their "You Got the Silver", credited at the beginning of the film, does not appear on the soundtrack album) and Roscoe Holcomb ("I Wish I were a Single Girl Again"). Both are fairly superficial, 'empty' pieces, despite the enthusiastic notes on the album about the film's musicians. It is my guess, incidentally, that the recently-released "Country Song" was intended to be another song Daria hears on the radio. Like "Crumbling Land", it has a country-ish feel. It's actually a very pleasant piece, and reminds me of half a dozen other Pink Floyd songs-- "Green is the Colour," "Ibiza Bar," and "Fat Old Sun" to name a few--as well as, for some reason, The Grateful Dead's "Sugar Magnolia". Mark's plane lands, and police are waiting for him. They soon follow him on to the runway, where they shoot at him. When the plane stops, one of the policemen looks inside and calls for an ambulance; but in the next scene, which shows Daria standing among some giant cacti (they resemble vast monuments), we hear a radio broadcast to the effect that he has been killed. John Fahey's "Dance of Death" accompanies this scene. In shock, Daria nevertheless drives on; and we soon see her arriving at her boss's desert mansion. This is an extremely impressive piece of architecture, poised on and seemingly a part of a great granite bluff, among the crevices of which water courses. Daria pauses here to cry, then numbly joins the other business people. Her boss welcomes her but, overcome with emotion, she returns to her car and drives on. Soon, however, she stops once more to look at the mansion. The camera then shows us various images, including one of a smouldering cigarette near a flapping magazine, which, in turn, is near some unspecified piece of electronic equipment. The purpose of this image is no doubt to provide die-hard realists with an explanation for the subsequent scene of the mansion exploding. But the explosion of the mansion is clearly meant to be symbolic: we see Daria stare at it with hate (it is obviously meant to represent 'the system'), and it promptly explodes. The explosion is repeated again and again, from different angles; then the camera focuses on individual pieces of rising debris. Shortly afterwards, Pink Floyd's "Come in Number 51, Your Time is Up" begins. As is well known, this is a version of "Careful with that Axe, Eugene". The climax, however, is harsher, with the electric guitars more strident. (Background vocals also duplicate those heard in "Heart Beat, Pig Meat".) Strangely, this climax doesn't correspond to any visual climax: all we see is a continuation of the debris rising. This tends to diminish the effect of the piece somewhat, especially when compared to the Pompeii film, in which the climax of "Eugene" coincides beautifully with the erupting of the volcanoes. The film ends with Daria smiling, and the landscape becoming red--just as it was at the beginning. A song called "Zabriskie Point" is playing in the background. This song, which bemoans the state of young love, is not on the soundtrack album, and the artists responsible for it are not credited, although apparently it is sung by Roy Orbison. Zabriskie Point is a film worth seeing--even if only for the opportunity of hearing music by Pink Floyd in a cinematic context. In this regard, it may be wondered what part of the film the two bootlegged outtakes pieces not yet discussed--"Oenone" and "Fingal's Cave"--were written for. One point that needs to be made is that the titles of the two pieces are almost certainly the creation of a bootlegger; for while there is a cave of sorts in the film--a prospector's tunnel that Mark and Daria discover while exploring the desert--there is certainly no allusion to Oenone, a character from Greek mythology. "Oenone" may have been written to accompany one of the many long, panoramic shots of the desert. The music, like the desert, is 'static': it is a gentle, almost motionless wash of synthesizer sound. If so, it is a great pity that the piece was left out of the film, for in such a context the music would be very effective. Interested readers who possess a tape of the film and a copy of Omayyad or Total Eclipse may wish to put this claim to the test. Placing "Fingal's Cave" is more difficult. It is a violent, guitar-dominated composition similar to Jefferson Starship's "I Want to See Another World" (or, rather, I should say that "I Want to See Another World" sounds like "Fingal's Cave"). It bears no resemblance, of course, to Mendelssohn's piece of the same name. My guess is that it was meant to accompany the scene of Mark's being shot, although if this is so the music's brutality exceeds that of what we see. Perhaps one day Pink Floyd will release a comprehensive record of their original Zabriskie Point music, and then we will know. David King is an expert on Floyd films, and a special contributor to Spare Bricks. Portions of this article may be reproduced, provided that David King and Spare Bricks are properly credited. The island in the sun A look at the music of More By David King
Critics tend to be unsure of whether More is a good or a bad film. Most agree that its photography is exquisite; but there is no consensus as to whether there are problems with other aspects of the film. Vincent Canby, writing in The New York Times, complains that the film is "arbitrarily structured", but that the acting is "fine"; Jan Dawson perceives the film to be a tragedy but then objects that Stefan is not a tragic figure; and Stephen Scheuer, in an early version of Movies on TV, gives the film two stars but in a later version gives it four. Fortunately, for Pink Floyd fans the important question is: how well does the music fit in with the film? Background Details concerning the events leading to Pink Floyd's involvement in More are not easy to find. I actually phoned Barbet Schroeder's agent a number of times, but it became apparent that the director did not wish to answer the questions about the film. Nevertheless, it is well known that in early 1969 the band was "invited" to compose a full-length musical soundtrack to a film. Roger Waters himself provides more information: "We did the More soundtrack as a sort of personal favor for Barbet. He showed us the movie--which he'd already completed and edited--and explained what he wanted, and we just went into the studio and did it." The words "personal favor" clearly point to some kind of social bond between Schroeder and Pink Floyd. It is not clear, however, whether there was any subsequent dialogue between the director and the band (as there was to be in the case of Zabriskie Point). It is not clear whether Schroeder always adhered to Pink Floyd's choice of what music should accompany what scene. For reasons explained in detail later, I think in fact he sometimes departed from Pink Floyd's intentions. If this is so, one startling possibility is that Pink Floyd may be unaware of such departures. Rick Wright, for one, admits in an interview never to have seen the finished More.
In any case, the score was completed in eight days, and each member of the band was paid £600 for doing it. Schaffner quotes Waters as saying of the film-music composition process: "It's not the same process as making your own music for yourself: much more hurried, and less care tends to be taken". It should not be concluded from this that Pink Floyd's soundtrack music is slap dash; rather, the presence of visual images supplies constraints that would normally be provided by the band themselves, allowing them to work more quickly. The Story and Music of More The beginning of More is extremely striking, and comprises shots directed straight at the sun. As the credits appear, the camera moves in on the sun, which in turn develops haloes, disappears into clouds before emerging again, and so on. The sun is the dominant symbol of the film: it is that which simultaneously gives life and destroys. As might be expected, the music accompanying these first images is the "Main Theme" of More; and the hesitant organ and ominous gong effects reflect well two of the important later moods of the film. The next scene provides a strong contrast: we see not sun, but rain; and Stefan, the hero, is trying to hitch a ride to Paris. In desperation, he holds a message up to the passing vehicles. At this point, the following notice (from the director) appears as a caption on the screen:
At this point an English truckdriver stops and gives Stefan a lift. We hear his voice-over: "I finished my studies in May. I wanted to live. I wanted to burn all the bridges, all the formulas. And if I got burned, that was OK too. I wanted to be warm. I wanted the sun, and I went after it." After the truckdriver drops Stefan off, we see him in a bar, betting money in a card game against a character later revealed to be Charlie. Immediately, however, there is a puzzle, for the music playing in the background is "Ibiza Bar"--and, of course, Stefan is not yet in Ibiza. It is discrepancies such as this that suggest that Schroeder gave himself a free hand to match Pink Floyd's music with different scenes. In any case, the lyrics in this version of "Ibiza Bar" are clearer than those on the soundtrack album version. Stefan loses a considerable amount of money to Charlie, but the latter is easy-going and in fact soon befriends Stefan. It transpires that Charlie, too, has money worries; and before long they are planning to rob a house together. The next scene, though, is not of the robbery, but of a party at which is present not only Charlie but also the woman who is to represent Stefan's personal sun: Estelle. ('Estelle', of course, means 'star'.) The music playing in the background is "The Nile Song", the lyrics of which virtually tell the story of More (although the reference to the Nile is purely whimsical, and is probably there simply because the word 'Nile' rhymes easily with others in the song). As soon as Stefan catches sight of Estelle, we hear a voice-over from him: "I fell in love at first sight". Then the music changes to "Seabirds", a song left off the soundtrack album, a shame since it is certainly one of Pink Floyd's 'catchiest' tracks. (It reminds me of a cross between Cream's "Tales of Brave Ulysses" and Tommy James and the Shondelles' "Crimson and Clover".) The lyrics, as published in The Pink Floyd Song Book are as follows:
Admittedly, describing the sea as "emerald green" is a cliche, but it is hardly a bad enough one to justify the song's exclusion from the album. Each verse of the song is accompanied by a barrage of guitar and drums, which not only captures well the "crashing down" of the "mighty waves" but also makes an effective contrast with Roger Waters' hushed vocals in the chorus. Apparently, the only known cover-version of the song, by Langford and Kerr, does not preserve this instrumental quality. Incidentally, the fact that later in the film the camera spends some time on a flock of seabirds again seems to support the notion that Schroeder altered Pink Floyd's original matching of music with scene. In any case, the first verse heard is number three; then, after the chorus, we hear what is presumably a reprise of number two. Despite the fact that Charlie warns Stefan about Estelle, we soon see Stefan chatting with her in the kitchen; she offers to make him a margarita. Meanwhile, Charlie is stealing money from her purse, which she has left among the partying guests. Soon afterwards, Charlie presses Stefan to leave with him, waiting until they are far from the party before telling him that he has just robbed Estelle. Stefan immediately wants to return the money--200 francs--to her, but Charlie manages to convince him that he can do that later. The music accompanying Charlie and Stefan's departure is also absent from the soundtrack album, and is a kind of variation or improvisation on a passage of the "Main Theme," dominated by organ and bass guitar. After the robbery scene--Stefan and Charlie use a glass-cutter to open a window of a richly-furnished house--the action shifts to Estelle's apartment. Stefan says he has come to return the stolen 200 Francs, but then admits that he really just wanted to see her again. Estelle is not wholly unflattered by Stefan's attentions. While they talk, she idly turns on her cassette player, and we hear "Cymbaline". The version of the song is again different from the one on the soundtrack album. For a start, the vocals are by Roger Waters rather than David Gilmour (spelled "Gilmore", incidentally, in the credits), and the instrumental coda is much longer. The main difference, though, is that instead of the words "Will the tightrope reach the end? Will the final couplet rhyme?" we hear the lyrically weaker "Standing by with a book in his hand/It's an easy word to rhyme". While Estelle changes, Stefan distractedly explores her apartment. He soon uncovers a stash of marijuana, and naively asks Estelle what it is. Estelle promptly rolls a joint, which she shares with Stefan. She is amused when his first inhalation produces nothing but coughing. She shows him the proper way to inhale; and, cleverly, the rhythm of her inhalation matches the shimmering pulses of sound towards the end of "Cymbaline". There is clearly no doubt, then, that Pink Floyd intended "Cymbaline" to accompany this scene. Stefan observes that the marijuana is having no effect on him, that he doesn't feel anything at all; lying beside him on the bed, Estelle closes his eyes--a symbolic act, if ever there was one--and says "You will". Shortly afterwards, Stefan finds on Estelle's arm a strange mark. She explains that she used to take heroin, and that the mark is the result of an infection caused by a dirty needle. Stefan is shocked by this, but the conversation soon turns to Ibiza, where Estelle intends to spend the summer. She invites him to come with her. He agrees, but only after he has completed his 'deal'. The next scene is of Stefan on the ferry to Ibiza. Arriving, he goes into a bar to buy a cup of coffee, and to ask for the address of 'Wolf', with whom Estelle said she would be staying. The music accompanying this scene is another (brief) instrumental not on the soundtrack album: dominated by 'jangly' guitar sound, its melody is not unlike the coda of "Cymbaline". It also features an unusual kind of 'wah-wah' guitar effect that is present also on "Seabirds" but is not, so far as I know, used by Pink Floyd anywhere else. Arriving at Estelle's hotel, Stefan is curtly informed by an attendant that Estelle is not expecting him, and that she has not been there for two days. Playing in the background is a version of "A Spanish Piece": it is different from the one on the album, not only in that it lacks David Gilmour's words, but also in that it features at the end a mandolin (again, the only occasion, so far as I know, that Pink Floyd have used one). It turns out that the hotel is merely owned by Wolf; so after extracting Wolf's address from the attendant, Stefan makes his way there. He finds Wolf playing a knife-throwing game with some friends. Stefan has a drink with Wolf, and asks him (in German) about Estelle. On his way back to Estelle's, Stefan stops at a street cafe, where a man--'Henry'--gives him a Purple Heart, and warns him about Wolf, who, we later learn, is the island's main heroin distributor. Arriving at the hotel, Stefan finds her already there. She greets him coolly, but gradually thaws, caressing his hand. At this point, Wolf drops in for a few moments; Stefan reacts jealously. He asks Estelle whether he may stay with her; after a few feeble excuses, she bluntly tells him that he gets on her nerves. Her mood soon changes again, however; she apologizes to Stefan, and invited him to lie on the bed next to her. She says: "Do whatever you like. I warn you. I won't move. I won't even think about it." The next scene is of a post-coital Estelle and Stefan. Here I am going to be wildly speculative and suggest that originally there was a scene of anal intercourse here, but that the decision was made to edit it out. (It is a fact that the original version of the film was four minutes longer than the one on general release.) My reason for saying this is not only that the scene has a very 'edited' feel but also that Estelle's words seem designed to warn the viewer that something unconventional is going to happen. Most importantly, though, the existence of "Up the Khyber" points overwhelmingly in the direction I am suggesting. For a start, 'Khyber Pass' is Cockney rhyming-slang for 'arse'. Then there are the piece's thrusting piano-stabs, its heartbeat-like drumming (and its post-coital collapse of sound at the end!). 'Khyber' certainly doesn't refer, as a recent book on Pink Floyd claims, to "the hippies' associations with the Khyber Pass, which links Pakistan with Afghanistan", for they have no such associations. "Up the Khyber" still appears in the film, but later, and in a version significantly different from the one that is familiar (and that may have been edited out). Stefan again asks Estelle about Wolf; she evades the question by inviting him to a party that night. At the party, she welcomes Stefan warmly. The music in the background is "The Party Sequence", but it is a much more impressive and developed piece than it is on the soundtrack album. For a start, it is much longer; also it features vigorous and melodious guitar-strumming (thus explaining David Gilmour's credit as one of its writers). The pace of the track varies depending on the action taking place. It stops altogether when an opium-pipe is passed around; however, it soon restarts. A girl called Cathy--whom Estelle introduces as her girlfriend (which she turns out literally to be)--warns Stefan against drinking alcohol after taking opium, but he ignores this advice, and soon becomes aggressive with Estelle, slapping her on the face. Despite his taunting her about her relationship with Wolf, they are soon in a room by themselves. In the morning, however, Estelle is gone. Stefan, finding a note on his pillow, goes outside. All that remains of "The Party Sequence" is a solitary slow bongo. The next scene is of Stefan and Estelle walking along the shore. He is trying to persuade her to move with him into a house, on the other side of the island, that he has been lent. Estelle is worried about Wolf's reaction to such a plan; nevertheless, she agrees to let Stefan pick her up at 3 in the morning. We soon see her hastily packing, and concealing in her underwear a packet of what later turns out to be Wolf's heroin. As they drive off they see Wolf in the street, and he reacts angrily. The next few scenes are of Stefan and Estelle's life on the other side of the island: we see them swimming, sunbathing, smoking joints. Stefan also tells Estelle about the members of a Calcutta cult who worship the sun, staring at it until they go blind. Shortly after this the music is "Green is the Color", and it ends, significantly, with the line "Sunlight on her eyes. . .". While it is playing, Stefan is sitting on a rock, and Estelle is dancing in a white dress (as the words to the song would suggest). The version of the song seems to be the same as that on the album, and its wistfulness fits well with the action, for there is the feeling that there is disaster waiting just around the corner. After this, a voice-over tells us that Estelle is too nervous to leave their house. Returning from the market, Stefan hears talking inside the house. He pauses to listen. Inside, Estelle and Cathy are making love and talking about heroin, which Cathy refers to as 'horse'. When Estelle comes out, Stefan asks her a few veiled questions. Estelle changes the subject by saying that she's worried about Cathy, and that Stefan ought to make love to her. This he does, and before long Estelle joins in as well. The next scene is of Stefan returning to the house. He is looking for Estelle, and soon sees her against some rocks by the sea. She is unresponsive: he doesn't know that she's just taken a shot of heroin. After carrying her back to the house, however, he soon learns what she's done, and is furious. Estelle swears that she won't take heroin again. Shortly afterwards they are smoking a water-pipe together, discussing the lifestyle of hippies as compared with heroin users. "Quicksilver" accompanies this scene, and its tranquility is well suited to the scene's calm atmosphere. The music ends with a shot of Estelle turning off her cassette player: what appears to be merely mood-creating background music is thus revealed to be something that Stefan and Estelle are actually listening to, giving the film a 'becoming-real' quality. Estelle soon tries to talk Stefan into taking some heroin. At first he declines angrily, but when she asks him whether he's afraid, he allows her to prepare some for him. His first hit he describes as "fantastic", and despite Estelle's warnings, he has another. This time, he is sick; so, determined not to 'end on a bad note', so to speak, he has a third fix. Shortly afterwards we see him and Estelle studying mercury sloshing around in a dish. The music, again, is "Quicksilver", and given that 'quicksilver' is the old name for mercury, there is little doubt that Pink Floyd intended "Quicksilver" to accompany these images. At this stage - no doubt to mirror what is happening to Stefan - the film becomes slightly fragmentary. Stefan and Estelle are shown eating; then Stefan is shown smoking a joint. A snippet of "Cirrus Minor" forms the accompaniment to the latter. The music begins with the words "Waving to the river daughters", and when the vocals develop their impressively distant sound (on the words "On a trip to Cirrus Minor/Saw a crater in the sun"), the camera slowly zooms out in effective synchronization. Note, incidentally, the symbolic importance of the words 'crater in the sun': Roger Waters can be seen to be alluding to the darkness at the heart of every 'light' experience. Following in the fragmentary vein of this part of the film, Stefan and Estelle are then depicted preparing a kind of drug cocktail, containing, among other things, hash, nutmeg, banana peel, and Benzedrine. This sends them wild: they rush outside and dance about, and then Stefan--like Don Quixote--attacks the windmill shown on the cover of the album, declaring it to be the enemy. (It is probably no coincidence that Estelle's surname is 'Miller'.) Stefan injures his foot in his escapade with the windmill, so it is Estelle who has to do the shopping at the market. She is soon apprehended by some of Wolf's men. Wolf bluntly delivers an ultimatum: either they pay for the heroin she has stolen--his suggestion is that Stefan work in his bar--or he will arrange for the authorities to have them sent to prison for a few years. Estelle gets back in the evening, and Stefan is desperate for a fix. After Estelle gives it to him, she explains the situation, and Stefan reluctantly agrees to do what Wolf wants. Shortly afterwards, we see him working at the bar, pouring orange juice and handing out discreetly packaged doses of heroin. "More Blues" is playing in the background, and although, given Stefan's dejection, this is appropriate, I am sure that Pink Floyd's intention was for "Ibiza Bar" to accompany this scene. Apart from the fact that the piece does not accompany any of the Ibiza bar scenes, Roger Waters' lyrics--particularly "I'm so afraid of mistakes that I have made"--point very obviously to Stefan's situation. "Crying Song" forms the backdrop to Stefan's return home, and we hear it almost in its entirety. I'm not wholly convinced, however, that it fits the scene. To be sure, Stefan does "climb and climb", but it's stairs he climbs, not the pine-studded slope hinted at in the song. On the other hand, the piece's slow tempo is suggestive of end-of-the-working-day tiredness. The song continues as he changes clothes. Estelle is sitting, painting a picture; like Stefan, she is in a bad mood. When she leaves the room, Stefan presses some buttons on her cassette player, and the version of "Up the Khyber" mentioned previously plays instead. In this version, the organ predominates, and piano sound is wholly absent. If my earlier conjecture about "Up the Khyber" is correct, Schroeder may be using this reprise of the instrumental to contrast Stefan and Estelle's situation now with what it was then. Unbeknownst to Stefan, Estelle is giving herself a shot of heroin--under the tongue. Stefan comes in, and is furious that she's been taking the drug on her own and behind his back. Before long, they are shown attempting to cure themselves of their heroin-dependence, using LSD (which in the early sixties was used to treat alcoholism). After they take their trips, they catch a taxi to the sea, where they sit on a cliff and chant. It is this scene that provides the picture for the rear of the More album sleeve. To suggest the hallucinatory state, Schroeder again uses the shimmering "Quicksilver", matching it this time with stills of such things as magnified leaves and butterfly wings. For Stefan, the trip is very positive, but for Estelle it quickly becomes the opposite: she sees Stefan as the devil. Nevertheless, after the effects subside they tell themselves that they are free of heroin. Back at the bar, we again hear the variation on the "Main Theme"; there is the feeling that the main melody of the "Main Theme" is just about to start. Thanks to the LSD, Stefan experiences a new sense of kinship with the people around him--even people like Wolf. It is perhaps for this reason that Stefan is not disturbed at the idea of leaving Estelle talking with Wolf. Once he returns to their room, however, he wonders how he could have been so stupid. The "Dramatic Theme" plays as he paces about. Assuming that Pink Floyd did intend "Dramatic Theme" to accompany this scene, the 'drama' is no doubt that which is going on in Stefan's head, for he soon takes out some heroin again. Next, there is a voice-over: we learn that it is winter, and that both Stefan and Estelle are hooked once more. There is a reprise of the "Main Theme" as the voice-over emphasizes that, as heroin users, they are outcasts of their own micro-society. Soon, however, Charlie arrives; and as he repeats his warning to Stefan about Estelle, there is another reprise: this time of "Green is the Colour", which, in its way, is Estelle's signature-tune. But where is Estelle? Stefan searches for her back at their lodgings, and even asks passers-by of her whereabouts, but she doesn't return until late at night, when she is desperate for a fix. Stefan, however, won't let her have any until she tells him the truth about her relationship with Wolf. It turns out that she has regularly been sleeping with Wolf, even though she doesn't like him. The film is now nearly over. Charlie enters, and asks what all the racket was about. Stefan simply replies that Estelle is gone. Puzzled by Stefan's dejection, Charlie asks him whether that wasn't what he wanted. Stefan replies: no, it was what you wanted; and he immediately goes out to look for Estelle. He goes to Wolf's place, but Estelle fails to emerge. Running into Henry, he asks him for some heroin, explaining that he has got rid of all his heroin-related apparatus. Henry gives him two packets, warning him to go easy and not to take both at once, but Stefan immediately prepares the heroin. The last we see of him is when he reels on to the street, dead. A voice-over accompanies the funeral procession (Charlie and Henry are present): we learn that because the islanders thought he'd committed suicide, they wouldn't give him a religious funeral. We are also informed that even though it is winter, the sun is shining; and the last shot is of the sun. More is an excellent film, but even if it does nothing else, it proves that the Floyds are lying when they claim that there is virtually nothing in the Pink Floyd archives that the record-buying public hasn't heard. Apart from "Seabirds" and the instrumentals that don't appear on the soundtrack album, there are the alternative versions of "Cymbaline", "The Party Sequence" and "Up the Khyber". As I've said before, I think film provides a discipline that brings out the best in Pink Floyd; and More is a remarkable example of just how effective their film music can be. David King is an expert on Floyd films, and a special contributor to Spare Bricks. This article is reprinted from Brain Damage Magazine with the permission of the author. Portions of this article may be reproduced, provided that David King, Brain Damage, and Spare Bricks are properly credited. |
The
film opens with images of students talking revolution. At first everything
is seen through a red--an obviously-Marxist reference--filter; as the
credits progress, however, this gradually fades, so that by the time
the audience is ready to hear the students' grievances (whether whites
have any role to play in a black revolution, the question of what makes
a revolutionary, etc.) the lighting is normal. Throughout, however,
music by Pink Floyd is in the background: the track is "Heart Beat,
Pig Meat", featuring a heart-beat rhythm (an idea already explored
in The Committee soundtrack, and soon to reappear, of course,
on The Dark Side of the Moon) against which are superimposed
fragments of orchestral music, dialogue, and other sound effects. The
phrase "pig meat" clearly refers to the students themselves:
that is, they are meat for the 'pigs' (police). The track is effective
because it captures one of the themes of the film: the pulsing of life
that is a unifying force behind all the world's fragmentation.
Even
though the director of More, Barbet Schroeder, has recently attained
considerable critical and commercial success with his films Single
White Female and Kiss of Death, his earlier films still languish
in considerable obscurity. In fact, it is probably fair to say that
only Pink Floyd fans are really interested in More and La
Vallee--and such fans have done little to dispel the obscurity surrounding
these films. As an example, there are two well-respected books on Pink
Floyd that claim More to be a French-language film, when, in
fact, the film's main language is English (although there are sequences
not only in French but also in German and Spanish).