Sympathy For The Devil/One Plus One
Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 10:22 am
by lukpac
I picked up the ABKCO DVD of this the other day. Not having seen it before, I wasn't sure what to expect. The studio sessions are great, albeit filmed slightly strangely, but the other "story" is just, well, strange. It's too bad the studio sessions (all of them) aren't available on their own. The transfer does look pretty nice...
Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 10:39 am
by Ess Ay Cee Dee
That film is a really interesting period piece. I'm a huge fan of Jean-Luc Godard, but IMO it's one of his weakest films. The two "story lines" don't mesh very well and it does get pretty boring. If you want to see a great Godard film, Weekend is the one to get (though I don't think it's available on DVD yet). His most accessible film is probably Breathless.
It would have been cool if ABKCO had used seamless branching technology to create an alternate cut of the film that is just the Stones footage. This is a film that's never really pleased Stones fans or Godard fans.
Does the DVD actually have the full-length One Plus One version? The version entitled Sympathy for the Devil was re-edited by New Line--I think they cut a good 10-15 minutes out of it.
Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2004 10:10 pm
by lukpac
http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0063665/alternateversions
Jean-Luc Godard's original director's cut (titled "One Plus One") runs approximately 110 minutes and consists largely of additional footage of the black power militants. The film's producers were dissatisfied with this cut and deleted 11 minutes, changed the title to "Sympathy for the Devil" to underscore the Stones connection, and added the final version of the title song to the film's soundtrack, over a freeze-frame of the last shot. These changes were all made without Godard's knowledge; when he finally saw them at the film's London Film Festival premiere, he allgedly went berserk and physically attacked one of the producers.
The DVD says it clocks in at 101.