Amon Düül II: Phallus Dei (W. Germany, 1969) 28 min color DIR-SCR-EDITOR: Rüdiger Nüchtern. PROD: Clemens Münster. DOP: Rüdiger Nüchtern, Matthias Weiss, Wim Wenders. CAST: Amon Düül II (Chris Karrer, Peter Leopold, Falk Rogner, John Weinzeri. (Repertroire Records)
I love German space, ambient (whatever) music, which is often labelled under the rather offensive term, “Krautrock”, so this 30-minute DVD release was a definite “must-see” for me. Historically, this performance piece is important for being a filmed record of Amon Düül II, in this case playing from their album “Phallus Dei”. Cinematically however, this film couldn’t be less inspired. The music is documented essentially from one camera angle, as you see three or four group members cramped together while those huge psychedelic blobs waver in the background. And in order to break this single shot up, there are occasional travelogue shots of the countryside at dusk (?!?) Their sound at this point in their career could be described as somewhere between Velvet Underground, It’s a Beautiful Day, and “Saucerful of Secrets”-era Pink Floyd. The music is exciting enough, but the film simply does not do it any cinematic justice. Interesting trivia note: Wim Wenders was one of the cinematographers!
Originally published in Vol. #1, Issue #16.
Greg Woods
Greg Woods has been a film enthusiast since his teens, and began his writing "career" at the same time- prolific in capsule reviews of everything he had watched, first on index cards, then those hardcover dollar store black journals, then an old Mac IIsi. He founded The Eclectic Screening Room in 2001, as a portal to share his film love with the world, and find some like-minded enthusiasts along the way. In addition to having worked in the film industry for over two decades, he has been a co-programmer of films at Trash Palace, and a programmer/co-founder of the Toronto Film Noir Syndicate. He has also written for Broken Pencil, CU-Confidential, Micro-Film, and is currently working on his first novel. His secret desire is for someone to interview him for a podcast or a DVD extra.