The Valley (Obscured by Clouds) (1972)
(La vallée)
Country: FR
Technical: Eastmancolor/2.35:1 106m
Director: Barbet Schroeder
Cast: Bulle Ogier, Michael Gothard, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Valérie Lagrange
Synopsis:
When the wife of a French cultural attaché is drawn to New Guinea by her commercial interest in ethnic artefacts, she meets an English explorer who refuses to part with his bird of paradise feathers, but who offers to show her how she might acquire some. After some hesitation, she finds herself embarked on an expedition to reach a mythical paradisal valley from which she might never wish to return.
Review:
Classic hippie/anthropological mumbo-jumbo, a subgenre that began life as a response to the need to abandon conventional mores (capitalism, monogamy) in order to arrive at oneness with Nature, but in effect meant mind-altering substances, free love and eco-tourism, an irony pointed up by Michael Gothard's character in the one lucid passage of dialogue the film has. (In the end the setting was co-opted by makers of cheapjack schlock such as Cannibal Holocaust.) Schroeder's contribution amounts to probably the best of its kind, with the exception of the slightly differently motivated, but contemporaneous, Aguirre Wrath of God. The cinematography by Almendros is fine, Ogier looks radiantly gorgeous, and the tone never dips to the level of exploitation, despite a startling scene of bare-backed grinding from Ogier and Gothard, but remains refreshingly objective and non-judgemental.
(La vallée)
Country: FR
Technical: Eastmancolor/2.35:1 106m
Director: Barbet Schroeder
Cast: Bulle Ogier, Michael Gothard, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Valérie Lagrange
Synopsis:
When the wife of a French cultural attaché is drawn to New Guinea by her commercial interest in ethnic artefacts, she meets an English explorer who refuses to part with his bird of paradise feathers, but who offers to show her how she might acquire some. After some hesitation, she finds herself embarked on an expedition to reach a mythical paradisal valley from which she might never wish to return.
Review:
Classic hippie/anthropological mumbo-jumbo, a subgenre that began life as a response to the need to abandon conventional mores (capitalism, monogamy) in order to arrive at oneness with Nature, but in effect meant mind-altering substances, free love and eco-tourism, an irony pointed up by Michael Gothard's character in the one lucid passage of dialogue the film has. (In the end the setting was co-opted by makers of cheapjack schlock such as Cannibal Holocaust.) Schroeder's contribution amounts to probably the best of its kind, with the exception of the slightly differently motivated, but contemporaneous, Aguirre Wrath of God. The cinematography by Almendros is fine, Ogier looks radiantly gorgeous, and the tone never dips to the level of exploitation, despite a startling scene of bare-backed grinding from Ogier and Gothard, but remains refreshingly objective and non-judgemental.
(La vallée)
Country: FR
Technical: Eastmancolor/2.35:1 106m
Director: Barbet Schroeder
Cast: Bulle Ogier, Michael Gothard, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Valérie Lagrange
Synopsis:
When the wife of a French cultural attaché is drawn to New Guinea by her commercial interest in ethnic artefacts, she meets an English explorer who refuses to part with his bird of paradise feathers, but who offers to show her how she might acquire some. After some hesitation, she finds herself embarked on an expedition to reach a mythical paradisal valley from which she might never wish to return.
Review:
Classic hippie/anthropological mumbo-jumbo, a subgenre that began life as a response to the need to abandon conventional mores (capitalism, monogamy) in order to arrive at oneness with Nature, but in effect meant mind-altering substances, free love and eco-tourism, an irony pointed up by Michael Gothard's character in the one lucid passage of dialogue the film has. (In the end the setting was co-opted by makers of cheapjack schlock such as Cannibal Holocaust.) Schroeder's contribution amounts to probably the best of its kind, with the exception of the slightly differently motivated, but contemporaneous, Aguirre Wrath of God. The cinematography by Almendros is fine, Ogier looks radiantly gorgeous, and the tone never dips to the level of exploitation, despite a startling scene of bare-backed grinding from Ogier and Gothard, but remains refreshingly objective and non-judgemental.