Interesting film from exploitation director Rotsler. Not as well known but (in my opinion) far superior to his film Mantis in Lace which was also released in 1968. This film is a hybrid documentary of the late 60s hippie culture in Haight-Ashbury and expressionist experimental film that tries to recreate the visuals of a drug trip.
The hippie documentary portion is very, very loose. We just get endless footage of hippies hanging out in S. F., sitting about naked smoking grass, making love, sleeping, eating, doing this, doing that. Meanwhile one person after another goes on about the "hippie lifestyle" in voice-over. Surprisingly, this proves quite interesting. I never got bored.
Then the movie goes into one of its drug trip sequences where we see girls, multiple girls, nude, dancing wildly to frenetic music at various speeds, images overlaid one another placed closer or further away from the viewer, while film, flashing and strobing lights, fireworks, images, and shapes are projected on the walls and on them.
We follow one girl who takes LSD then lays down naked on a couch. Her trip starts out fairly pleasant and fluid before edging into a fear state with candles and skulls floating toward her.
The whole thing is very much like an experimental film but it tends not to be boring. Anyway, I liked it.
The hippie documentary portion is very, very loose. We just get endless footage of hippies hanging out in S. F., sitting about naked smoking grass, making love, sleeping, eating, doing this, doing that. Meanwhile one person after another goes on about the "hippie lifestyle" in voice-over. Surprisingly, this proves quite interesting. I never got bored.
Then the movie goes into one of its drug trip sequences where we see girls, multiple girls, nude, dancing wildly to frenetic music at various speeds, images overlaid one another placed closer or further away from the viewer, while film, flashing and strobing lights, fireworks, images, and shapes are projected on the walls and on them.
We follow one girl who takes LSD then lays down naked on a couch. Her trip starts out fairly pleasant and fluid before edging into a fear state with candles and skulls floating toward her.
The whole thing is very much like an experimental film but it tends not to be boring. Anyway, I liked it.