"TONITE LET'S ALL MAKE LOVE IN LONDON"


Year: 1967
Running time: 57 min.
Language: English wih japanese subtitles
Director: Peter Whitehead

Synopsis: Shot in the mid-sixties, 'Tonite Let's All Make Love In London' is a 1967documentary that captures the various themes personalities and music of an emerging psychedelic counter-cultural London. Featuring the sounds of early Pink Floyd The Animals and the Rolling Stones the film is interlaced with interviews with such sixties icons as Julie Christie David Hockney Mick Jagger and Andrew Loog Oldham as well as archive footage of the 1965 Albert Hall poetry reading (which Peter Whitehead released as the short documentary Wholly Communion posted elsewhere on my channel) and the 1967 gig and happening called The 14 Hour Technicolour Dream (held at Alexandra Palace as a fundraiser for the underground paper International Times which featured a number of bands and artists with a legendary performance from an early Pink Floyd released as the short documentary Pink Floyd London 66/67).

These two events are considered the ground zero of sixties UK psychedelic counter-culture and Peter Whitehead captured both events on film. The documentary also features cameo appearances from John Lennon and Yoko Ono (before they met) and incongruously Lee Marvin. Of course some of the scenes seem terribly dated (such as the interview with a swinging London dollybird which in these days of hyper-sexuality and slut walks seems almost quaint) and yet it reminds us of a time when thinking was not considered suspect and pop stars and film stars had more to say than simply "buy me".

There are so many classic moments in this film but my favourite moment has to be a young Vanessa Redgrave, dressed in rather fetching Cuban revolutionary chic at a political rally in the Albert Hall and haltingly singing the most famous Cuban song of them all 'Guantanamera'; the word poignant is made for these rare occasions when something entirely of the moment and yet simultaneously timeless is captured on film (to see her ingratiatingly bowing to British Royalty at a 2008 awards ceremony makes me wonder if I am missing something crucial).


No hay comentarios:

Publicar un comentario