Its hard to fathom right now, but at the end of the 60s, the nature and future of narrative was in the hands of The Beatles.
They had consciously experimented with new forms based on underlying mechanics that today would be called "new age" and considered bogus. Their White Album was based on the kabbalistic structure of Alice in Wonderland, obfuscated by superficial stories and elaborated by hallucinogenic dynamics.
One of the "best friends" during this period (friends of John and Ringo) was Nilssen. Out of that relationship came this.
It preserves some of the mechanics: the relationship of small form song narrative to a larger assembly; the hallucinogenic imagery in word and film; the references to Pepperland and Alice, and even after a period of fighting for Ringo, he appears as the narrator. But as Harry was essentially a sweet drunk, it lacks the underlying ambition of The Beatles: to re- invent the common cosmology around less destructive geometry.
Taymor would mine this for her visual exploration of the Beatles.
And because Nilssen was a sex addict as well, much of the key imagery follows that, allowing for the transmission through the director/artist. (This whole thing was written during a series of sexually enhanced acid trips.) For instance, the first "pointless" thing with a point after the stoned guy is three dancing fecund redheads. Check out redheaded Marijke, the Beatles' Tarot reader of this period.
As with Beatles songs, this is appreciated for its small form sweetness, and the larger aspiration is ignored or discounted as naive.
Except for perhaps the inescapable notion of going to the forbidden, unknown and risky "forest" to discover self.
Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.
