(United Kingdom 1968)
a.k.a. Wonderwall The Movie
Review By-Kit Gavin Directed by Joe Massot Starring Jack MacGowran, Jane Birkin, Irene Handl and Iain Quarrier Source: Odyssey Video / Prism Leisure DVD [United Kingdom 2005] PAL Region 2 Runtime: 88 min 09 sec
WONDERWALL is the simple story of a slightly eccentric middle aged professor, Oscar Collins [MacGowran], and his voyeuristic, platonic relationship with his beautiful hippy neighbor, a model called Penny Lane [Birkin], whom he never speaks to throughout the entire feature. One day, after another tedious day in his laboratory studying insects and butterflies, a beam of light casts the lithe silhouette on the wall in the Professors apartment of the girl living next door. Understandably curious, the lonely professor looks for the hole casting the beam of light and sees the girl next door, posing for a photo shoot arranged by her photographer boyfriend [Quarrier]. After seeing the girl, the lonely professor’s life is changed for ever. He gradually bcomes more and infatuated with the girl and her wild liberated party life style, and starts drilling more holes in his wall so as to watch her. He starts to dream and fantasize about being with her. One day, the Professor plucks up the courage to sneak into her apartment. Whilst hiding in a cupboard, he sees Penny and her boyfriend fight and split up, leaving Penny in tears. Unable to cope, she takes an overdose of pills, and her unbeknownst admirer saves her life.
The film is a showpiece, without a shadow of a doubt, to the gorgeous lithe nymhette, Jane Birkin. Birkin had appeared in a small but important role in the previous year’s arthouse sensation BLOW-UP opposite David Hemmings as one of the pretty young girls with whom he engages in a wild threesome. Indeed both Birkin and co-star Gillian Hills engaged in a few seconds each of full frontal nudity, which was still controversial in 1966 when the film was made. Shortly after WONDERWALL completed and scheduled for release, Birkin went to France for a screen test for a film called SLOGAN where she met singer Serge Gainsbourg, which lead to their recording of the (in)famous hit single Je t’aime… moi non plus, and would lead to a continued singing (and acting) career, solo, with Gainsbourg, and recently with other artists such as Alain Souchon, Bryan Ferry, Etienne Daho, and Mickey 3D which continues to this day. Birkin continues to maintain a fanbase (myself included) both inside and (to a lesser extent) outside of France. WONDERWALL doesn’t call for any real acting on the part of Birkin, indeed she has no real dialog throughout the entire film other than a few mumbled lines of nonsense on the phone. Yet it is her engaging presence rather than her performance in the film that is important to the viewer.
Opposite waiflike Birkin is the more mature 50 year old Jack MacGowran as the eccentric lovable Professor Collins. MacGowran will doubtless be familiar to readers of Cinema Nocturna for his appearances in Roman Polanski’s THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS (which also starred Iain Quarrier) and for his last appearance in the classic film THE EXORCIST, where MacGowran played the foul mouthed English director, Burke Dennings. Indeed it was owing to his casting as a similarly somewhat quirky professor in THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS that MacGowran was cast in WONDERWALL, as he was recommended by both director Roman Polanski, and Gerard Brach (who wrote both this and Polanski’s film) to director Massot for the role. MacGowran seems to be genuinely having a good time in his somewhat madcap, tinged with a certain amount of tragedy, role here. Indeed MacGowran is very amusing and expressive, be it in his magician’s cape, or in his dreams of dueling for Penny’s hand [in his striped pajama trousers!], or as the staid professor in his lab conducting experiments. Despite the professor’s continued peeping at his neighbor, the character is portrayed as naVve, innocent and endearing, even though he even watches Penny and her boyfriend making love at one point, the moment is captured as being naughty, teasing, not at all as seamy or perverse.
Supporting players are by and large incidental to the plotline. It is fun to see, for example two fine British character actors in small roles, such as Irene Handl as the professors cleaning lady, who distacts the professors fantasies of watching Penny by vacuuming too loud (leading to a brief amusing scene which is subtitled) and by interfering in his affairs, and Richard Wattis. There is a brief appearance by Anita Pallenberg who would appear in the disturbing PERFORMANCE by Nicholas Roeg and in Roger Vadim’s BARBARELLA as the Black Queen, in a brief role as a party girl. Iain Quarrier plays Birkin’s love interest in the film and appears in some of the more bizarre acid tinged sequences / dreams that the professor has, including a bizarre moment with Quarrier dress as Superman with an enormous "S" emblazoned his chest. On either side of the "S" however are the letters "L" and "D" capturing, once again, the mood of the time perfectly. Also the setting of the film in London is highly relevant as the city had acquired it’s reputation as the hip-center of Europe, with San Francisco being the American counterpart.
It would be remiss not to mention one of the most striking features of WONDERWALL being that of the set design by the Dutch designers The Fool (who also appear in the party scene in a small cameo). The Fool were involved in a number of other projects in late 1960’s London that utilised their artistic talents, such as various album covers, the mural outside the Apple Studios and John Lennon’s yellow Rolls Royce. Indeed both the apartments of the Professor and Penny’s are quite dramatic showpieces of set design. The design of the "moral" on the wall which the Professor uses to "watch" his neighbor "in action" is taken from "The Passing of Authur" which has been colorised. Indeed the feeling is that of the 1920’s and 1930’s in the Professor’s large cluttered slightly scruffy apartment, a reflection of the mild mannered Professor’s personality. However, the first time he sees Penny, by chance, through the wall reflected as a silhouette, he knocks over a tray of butterflies. There is a psychedelic animation of the butterflies fluttering around his room, perhaps signifying the invasion of the psychedelic butter that is Penny Lane invading his private space, and ultimately his life and fantasies. The shattering of the glass representing the breaking of the glass cage the Professor has been "trapped" in. Indeed, later in the film, that very image is captured of the professor. And Penny’s apartment, equally large and spacious, is an exaggarated testament and tribute the late 1960’s with glorious vibrant psychedelic candy colors, bright, acid, wild and garish. A similar mood is captured in Lucio Fulci’s masterpiece giallo UNA LUCERTOLA CON LA PELLE DI DONNA in the contrast between the staid apartment of The Hammonds and the wild apartment of Julia Durer next door. Perhaps all European film makers believed that people really lived in such stark comparitive worlds in late 1960’s London? Countering the visual accomplishments in the film is the films rich and textured, yet simplistic score written by George Harrison, who was given complete artistic freedom for the project. Harrison had never written a film score before and despite his inexperience in the area manages to create, with great success, a soundtrack of sitars, occasionally isolated voices, and banjos, which is totally in keeping of the mood and events taking place on screen.
Upon it’s completion, WONDERWALL was given an extremely sparse release and has hardly been seen since 1968. It was presented at Cannes (where it won an award) and is truly a beautiful, bizarre time capsule to the late 1960’s. Certainly such a film could never be made again as both times and attitudes have radically changed. Despite being dated, in an odd way the film might be seen as being ahead of it’s time for it’s non linear storyline and approach to film making. The film was submitted for classification to the BBFC in April 1970 yet it seems to have received little cinematic distribution since it’s submission. By that time, the Beatles were splitting up, the "summer of love" had passed and attitudes were starting to change in terms of outlook, towards free love, drugs. WONDERWALL almost arrived on the scene a little too late to be appreciated hence, presumably, the distributors decided that it was already past its sell by date and decides against releasing it. Perhaps, the film has dated even moreso today, but the retro chic adds to the charm of the film. Indeed, WONDERWALL, were it better known, should count as one of the films that defines what made the late Sixties. It is valid a contribution to "Sixties culture" as The Beatles, and Flower Power.
This film was the first feature for director Joe Massot. Indeed Massot’s career has been hardly extensive with only a handful of credits to his name. Indeed it is only this, and his next feature for the acclaimed
Rock band Led Zeppelin with THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME which have been genuine and memorable milestones in the career of Massot. Indeed, THE SONG REMAINS THE SONG, is again an interesting feature, rather than just being a standard concert recording of a Led Zeppelin concert given at Madison Square Garden in the mid 1970’s, it has some visionary sequences on each of the band [and their manager] engaging in their own somewhat bizarre fantasies, in between the concert footage. WONDERWALL has sections shot in black in white, some in color, so with footage sped up, and with psychedelic slogans filling the screen from time to time to convey a simple yet not entirely logical message.
Picture quality is variable throughout the film. There are moments where the age of the film is apparent with tiny scratches and specks, here and there, which have damaged the print over the years, however none of this apparent nor jarring to the enjoyment of the film under review. Also the film was restored for it’s re-release, as apparantly the condition of the film stock had considerably deteriorated since it’s completion. There is also one particular moment where the picture quality is in considerably worse condition than the rest of the movie in this presentation on DVD. But again, this is not distracting and only lasts for less than a minute, at most. For the most part, the film retains it’s saturated, bright psychedelic glory, such as in the vibrant Technicolor dreamscape of the fashions and the amazing set design of the apartment where Penny lives, which captures the mood of the movie perfectly. The picture is presented in it’s original 1.85:1 aspect ratio in anamorphic widescreen. As for the audio quality, the film has been presented in it’s original monaural mix. It might have been fun to have a remix option presenting the film in stereo. This use of stereo would have captured and allowed the viewer to appreciate the wonderful use of the sitars in the George Harrison soundtrack {the presence of which is prominently featured on the gorgeous cover art for this release, as indeed it was in the original trailer.) None the less sound is clean clear and crisp if slightly unexceptional. Fortunately for fans of the track, the complete soundtrack is available on a separate CD, which includes all the atmospheric tracks found in the film (and one unreleased track which Harrison didn’t consider suitable for the end film). Ultimately the track was released as a single, some thirty plus years after the films completion, and also surfaces on the album.
Extras are sparse and very limited for the release. There are two mini-biographies for the two leads (MacGowran and Birkin) which although very brief, thankfully do not seem to have resorted to the IMDb to find their facts. There is also an interesting piece on the background to the film. The only other extras is the suitably bright colored and psychedelic 2 minute trailer (which topbills Birkin) from the films original release in 1968.
For years WONDERWALL has languished in obscurity as a mostly unseen film. Bizarre, given the casting of Sixties icon Birkin, and the musical legacy of ex-Beatle Harrison, mixed into a rich vibrant psychedelic. Equally head-trip and work of art. An involving, mind expanding capsule of the late 1960’s as much as a love song to the , leading many to mistakenly believe that the film the film was substandard and poor. Not true. charm and beauty of it’s female star. Thankfully the film has been restored and is now available on DVD. A film destined for cultdom, if it isn’t there are already. The extras for this Region 2 release, could have been expanded upon, but for this film to see light of day is cause for celebration indeed. The US release through Rhino apparantly contains deleted scenes and out takes, together with an early short by Massot. However at the time of reviewing the UK release, the US release remains unseen by this reviewer.
A brave bold experiment in film making and the feeling when viewing the film is similar to looking through a beautiful glossy book of photographs. The storyline minimal, yet a testament to style over substance, imagery and imagination over narrative. There are some intelligent ideas and concepts in the film which may be overlooked upon the first viewing of the film, that may or may not be making a statement. Mirror images of the professor and his butterfly collection, and of the professor and his obsession with Penny, who might be seen as a beautiful butterfly for the professor to watch. Fans of psychedelia, Jane Birkin, or the retro-atmosphere of late 1960’s should love and lap up the film. It is, in short, an artistic, accomplished masterpiece.
Story / Film: 3.5 / 5 BITCH SLAPS Picture: 3 / 5 BITCH SLAPS Audio: 3.5 / 5 BITCH SLAPS Extras: 2 / 5 BITCH SLAPS Overall DVD: 3 / 5 BITCH SLAPS
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© 2006 cinema-nocturna.com
