The screenplay was written by Paul Gégauff and Barbet Schroeder with the original story by Schroeder.[5] It features a soundtrack written and performed by the English rock band Pink Floyd, released as an album the same year. Schroeder's inspiration for the film came from the counterculture tradition of the 1960s with themes of drugs, addiction, sexual freedom and the beauty of life often in New Wave films.[10][11] Production began in 1968 with a low budget, and the film was partially funded by Jet Films and executive produced by Les Films du Losange.[1]
Upon its release on 4 August 1969, More garnered mostly negative reviews from critics. It was selected to be screened in the Cannes Classics section of the 2015 Cannes Film Festival.[12]More was released on DVD on 5 April 2005 by Home Vision Entertainment.
Plot
In West Germany in the late 1960s, Stefan has finished his mathematics studies and decides to experience life. Hitch-hiking to Paris, he is befriended by a petty criminal called Charlie, who takes him to a party where he is fascinated by an American girl called Estelle. Though Charlie warns him that she is a drug user and dangerous, he goes to her hotel room, where she introduces him to marijuana and they make love.
She is leaving for Ibiza and invites Stefan to follow her there. When he arrives, he finds she is involved with a wealthy ex-Nazi called Wolf. Stefan persuades her to join him in an isolated villa and she secretly brings both money and a huge quantity of heroin she has stolen from Wolf. After an idyllic time swimming, sunbathing and making love, she is itching for the heroin and introduces him to it as well.
Soon the two are on a downward spiral of addiction. Wolf demands return of the rest of the heroin and money and, as payment for what they have used, Stefan has to work in his bar while Estelle has to share his bed. Charlie comes looking for Stefan and urges him to return to Paris. On the night he’s supposed to leave for Paris, Estelle reveals to Stefan that she’s been sleeping with Wolf the whole time. Stefan begs two packets of heroin from a dealer the following morning and overdoses as a suicide. He is buried in open country.
Most of the movie was shot on the island of Ibiza. The castle of Ibiza, which dominates the harbour and the town, is the scene for the final act. A tunnel near the castle was also used. In Paris, the movie was shot at Hotel La Louisiane[14] in real room 36.
His [Barbet Schroeder's] feeling about music for movies was, in those days, that he didn't want a soundtrack to go with the movie. All he wanted was, literally, if the radio was switched on in the car, for example, he wanted something to come out of the car. Or someone goes and switches the TV on, or whatever it is. He wanted the soundtrack to relate exactly to what was happening in the movie, rather than a film score backing the visuals.
The soundtrack to the film was composed and performed by English rock band Pink Floyd, and consists of instrumental compositions and more conventional songs, such as "The Nile Song", which (somewhat out of character for Pink Floyd) borders on Stooges-like heavy rock, and a ballad featuring bongos called "Cymbaline", written by Roger Waters and performed by David Gilmour.
Release
Censorship
The French film censorship board in 1969 insisted that some of the dialogue be censored around the 81-minute mark before the film could be released. In the film, as the couple mixes up a hallucinogenic concoction in the kitchen, the ingredients "benzedrine" and "banana peel" are deleted from the audio track. On the DVD the words have been re-added as subtitles.
Critical reception
Upon its release, More garnered mainly negative reviews from critics, and was controversially reviewed by audiences and scholars, who commented on the drug use and impacts.[citation needed] On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has 4 reviews, 3 are negative.[16] At AlloCiné, which assigns a weighted mean rating to reviews, the film has a score of 3.7 based on 37 critics.[citation needed]
With regard to the film's overall design, Roger Ebert stated, "More is a weird, freaky movie about two hedonistic kids who destroy themselves with drugs. More precisely, it's about a kinky American girl who destroys her German boyfriend and in the process destroys herself ... The message seems to be: Sure, speed kills, but what a way to go."[17]
Schroeder, Barbet (1969). Transcription of interview with Schroeder by Noel Simsolo. Image et Son, courtesy of Les Films du Losange and included on the BFI DVD.
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