More

"More", maybe, is mostly remembered for the excellent soundtrack composed by Pink Floyd -in 1969 they weren't superstars yet. Actually they made an album with the film music, no fan can miss it!

But this is also the first film of German-French director Barbet Schroeder: it's a cult movie. When it was released, censorship everywhere cut several scenes of sex and drugs. It is also one of the first films to treat explicitly the theme of drug slavery.

A German boy travels to Paris and meets an American girl: they fall in love. Together they search for sun and exoticism. But it's a too high price love: she initiates him into drugs.

In the Sixties anti-drug campaigns were not like today, there wasn't much information. On the contrary, in many milieus taking drugs was a sort of spiritual experience... So it's quite surprising to see a film of that period which describes a nightmarish heroin experience.

The film is simple, not vulgar at all and shot in a "cinema-verité" style. Actors Mimsy Farmer and Klaus Grünberg are very convincing. "More" is a document of the end of the Sixties -and a document of the end of the hippies illusions as well.

Has there ever been an Angel of Death like MIMSY FARMER in Barbet Schroeder's 1960s heroin opus? Sort of Jean Seberg with a hypodermic. Pink Floyd score. Despite some ultimately insignificant weaknesses, a classic, shamelessly ripped off by Erich Segal/Noel Black for their inept JENNIFER ON MY MIND (1971), although Tippy Walker, playing a similar character, is herself very junkie-appealing in the latter mess. MORE, though, is terrific, a great 60s drug movie and, simply, an important document of its time. Very much a cult film so join the cult.

No American movie then, as far as I can remember, charts the same territory. MIMSY's an astonishing archetype, elevating this into mythic realms. Not for the faint-hearted. Great sex scenes too.

Kind of a low-key "Days of wine and roses," this is hardly a standard 1960's drug film. Director Schroeder (whom one can deduce is represented by Charlie the good-natured street hustler) states initially it's about a friend who died of drug overdose, so we know it's going to be a story of psychic corruption rather than an exploration of the ideals of Timothy Leary. It might seem that Schroeder is really glamorizing drugs simply by example, as well as by showing the sex life of the characters, and by employing a real psychedelic band for the soundtrack. However, Schroeder doesn't show subjective scenes of drug use; the characters trip out in their own world, usually detached from another, and the audience watches like the only sober person at a frat party. Their sex life soon peters out as drugs take over their lives. Using Pink Floyd was probably to attract unwitting youth and drug-users to see (without being preached to) how drugs can kill.

What probably does seem 'standard 1960s' to viewers today is the flat, realistic style of the film which doesn't grab the viewer (unlike the more recent "Sid and Nancy" or "Trainspotting") but was typical of independent and European films of that time. However it's still watchable, and a must for early-Pink Floyd (or "The Pink Floyd", as they're billed in the credits) fans.

Like the movie Fahrenheit 451, a native German actor plays the male lead; the majority of dialogue, however, is in English. This means that some may find Klaus Grunberg's heavy accent just as hard to decipher as Oskar Werner's.

I find it amusing that some consider this film to be light and pleasant. To be sure, the scenery is beautiful and the lighting is airy and pleasant, but this serves to accentuate the film's message that underneath the attractive escape drugs provide, dangerous consequences occur for those who cannot use them in moderation.

However, this doesn't not mean by any means that More takes a anti-drug stance. Social and occasional use of marijuana and alcohol is condoned, whereas use of harder drugs like heroin and LSD are highly frowned upon by Schroeder, who also penned the script as well as directed.

Those who are hoping to locate a copy need to seek out independent video stores, garage sales, libraries, and/or internet auction (to name a few) because the movie has been out of print since 1994. It is not likely to be reissued for several years and assuming it is, it will probably only be available on DVD.

In the late 60's, after graduating in Mathematics, the German Stefan Brückner (Klaus Grünberg) hitchhikes from Lübeck to Paris to see the world without money. He befriends Charlie (Michel Chanderli) in an arcade and they go to a party. When Stefan meets gorgeous American Estelle Miller (Mimsy Farmer) in the party, Charlie advises him to stay away from her. However, the straight Stefan falls in love with Estelle and after breaking in a house with Charlie to rob, he follows her to Ibiza. Stefan seeks out the hotel of his fellow citizen Dr. Ernesto Wolf (Heinz Engelmann) where Estelle is lodged. He asks her to leave the place and stay with him in an isolated seaside house. Before leaving the hotel, Estelle steals some money and a pack from Wolf. Sooner Stefan learns that Estelle had stolen 200 doses of heroin and he decides to try one fix with her, in the beginning of his trip to hell.

"More" is a cult-movie from the late 60 that became famous due to the music score by Pink Floyd. The film is a sort of response to the counterculture of apology to the drugs of the 60's and 70's and is dated in the present days. My great interest to see "More" was the Pink Floyd soundtrack, and I found it s great film, developed in slow pace to a predictable climax in the very end. Mimsy Farmer is amazing in the role of a destructive woman with face of angel but of death. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "More"