This is the second of three features Clementi directed, and like the first is basically a diaristic collage a la Jonas Mekas. (I'd like to see the third, in which he at least toyed with an actual narrative.) There's a lot of material of interest here, though I'm not sure what if anything it all adds up to. But perhaps the most interesting thing about the movie is that its form and frequently psychedelic textures (superimposed images etc.) are more reflective of filmmaking trends a decade before. A little odd that he was sticking to that style in 1979, though it's still pleasing.
The variably manipulated footage deployed here includes glimpses of friends (including the occasional recognizable famous one like Nico or Viva), lots of nudity, frolics on the beach or in flower fields, many different types of excerpted performance (esp. dance), old movie clips, much nudity, some little staged wordless psychodramas, and what appears to be behind-the-scenes footage of movies he acted in, including some period pieces.
It's a lively editorial assemblage, and if you knew a lot about Clementi and his artistic/personal circle (I don't, particularly), you'd probably be able to identify a fair amount of autobiographical elements. (Although Clementi himself is not on camera very often.) It's a creative snapshot of privileged European counterculture in the 70s, with just enough people in punkish garb to remind you once in a while that it's not 1969. (I assume the footage here was shot over several years' course.) But it's hard to make a case that it's much more valuable than an audiovisual footnote to a interesting time and some interesting lives. Just about any movie is bound to be more meaningful to its makers than to the average viewer. But "New Old," though aesthetically engaging, really does not try to explain or communicate anything cogent to anyone beyond Pierre Clementi & his circle. It's a personal-scrapbook movie--mostly rewarding to those people who found their own pictures in it.
