Popdown - lost 1967 film with Andy
Posted: 31 Jan 2012 15:24I saw on this website a discussion of the movie "Popdown" which has Andy's psychedelic band Dantalion's Chariot.
http://io9.com/5877874/lost-films
Here is what the webpage says about the film:
[quote]Popdown (1967)
A pair of extra-terrestrials played by Zoot Money (Sagittarius) and Jane Bates (Aries), come to Earth to investigate its pop culture, but find themselves obsessed with garage rock instead. Featuring music and appearances from freakbeat bands and Nuggets contributors Dantalion's Chariot (which included Andy Summers, future guitarist for The Police), The Brian Auger Trinity, Blossom Toes and The Idle Race, as well as Brenton Wood, Luiz Bonfa and the entire 1967-68 roster of Giorgio Gomelsky's Marmalade Records, this otherwise silent and largely improvised musical, self-financed by director Fred Marshall, was described by the Monthly Film Bulletin as a "fragmentary and undisciplined pop-culture collage, intermittently lively but consistently over-indulgent" upon its eventual release in 1970 – coincidentally, the year it was set in.
Though intended to be a lighthearted look at swinging London through the eyes of alien visitors, the film itself became an object of obsession for freakbeat enthusiast Peter Prentice, who had taken in a rare arthouse screening as late as 1984. He told Wiped News, "How could a film I saw as late as 1984 have been allowed to go missing? I had always assumed it was safely tucked up with the BFI or some such venerable cinematic organisation. Shows how naive I was!" After an exhaustive search, Prentice was eventually able to locate five-hundred feet of Popdown footage in Hong Kong, but unfortunately, the print had shrunk, and is in dire need of expensive restoration before it can be screened. His search continues. [/quote]
Sounds like a lot of fun.
Here is another link about the search for the lost film:
http://wipednews.com/features/popdown-p ... lost-film/
http://io9.com/5877874/lost-films
Here is what the webpage says about the film:
[quote]Popdown (1967)
A pair of extra-terrestrials played by Zoot Money (Sagittarius) and Jane Bates (Aries), come to Earth to investigate its pop culture, but find themselves obsessed with garage rock instead. Featuring music and appearances from freakbeat bands and Nuggets contributors Dantalion's Chariot (which included Andy Summers, future guitarist for The Police), The Brian Auger Trinity, Blossom Toes and The Idle Race, as well as Brenton Wood, Luiz Bonfa and the entire 1967-68 roster of Giorgio Gomelsky's Marmalade Records, this otherwise silent and largely improvised musical, self-financed by director Fred Marshall, was described by the Monthly Film Bulletin as a "fragmentary and undisciplined pop-culture collage, intermittently lively but consistently over-indulgent" upon its eventual release in 1970 – coincidentally, the year it was set in.
Though intended to be a lighthearted look at swinging London through the eyes of alien visitors, the film itself became an object of obsession for freakbeat enthusiast Peter Prentice, who had taken in a rare arthouse screening as late as 1984. He told Wiped News, "How could a film I saw as late as 1984 have been allowed to go missing? I had always assumed it was safely tucked up with the BFI or some such venerable cinematic organisation. Shows how naive I was!" After an exhaustive search, Prentice was eventually able to locate five-hundred feet of Popdown footage in Hong Kong, but unfortunately, the print had shrunk, and is in dire need of expensive restoration before it can be screened. His search continues. [/quote]
Sounds like a lot of fun.
Here is another link about the search for the lost film:
http://wipednews.com/features/popdown-p ... lost-film/
