Sympathy for the Devil (1968 film)
Sympathy for the Devil (titled One Plus One in its European release) was a 1968 film shot mostly in color by director Jean-Luc Godard.
First, Some Scenes in a Sound Studio
Out of the very first scenes in this movie come washed-out full-color shots of The Rolling Stones in a sound studio recording various parts to their song "Sympathy for the Devil." The sound studio is separated into cubicles with the erection of 4 foot partitions, but this doesn't stop the camera from panning around them, and approaching the different members of the band busily improvising different portions of their song.
Next, Some Outdoor Shots
Otherwise, interwoven or intercut through the movie are outdoor shots of Black Panthers mulling about in a junkyard littered with the rusting bodies of Chryslers and Oldsmobiles heaped upon each other. Intended to inspire no small amount of alarm in an expected white audience is a prolonged scene of Black Panthers withdrawing from the backs of their vans or station wagons captive white women wrapped in white sheets, apparently prisoners captured in the course of a race war. There are also scenes of Black Panthers tossing their rifles to each other, from man to man, as if in an assembly line, readying for an impending battle.
The rest of the film is riddled with political diatribe in the form of a voiceover about the need for revolution, Marxism, and other topics that Godard took a fancy to.
A Woman being interviewed
A peculiar scene involves a camera crew following a woman about in an outdoor wildlife setting. She's dressed in a flowing white gown, but no matter what she is asked, she always answers yes or no.
Then, Back in the Sound Studio
The Rolling Stones portions of the film are generally held of high regard, since "Sympathy for the Devil" is one of their classic songs. Different arrangements are seen, the dissolution of Stone Brian Jones is vividly portrayed, and the tragic chaos of 1968 is made clear when a line referring to the killing of (John F.) Kennedy is next heard changed to the plural after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in June.
Monotonous Ranting
The other parts of the film are usually considered to be Godard at his worst, full of tedious, comical, cartoonish philosophy and artless didacticism.
A Scene in a Bookstore
At least one quarter of the film is devoted to indoor shots of a bookstore that catered to the adult or intellectual crowd of the 1960s, purveying forms of literature as diverse as Doctor Strange and The Atom or The Flash comic books, Marxist pamphlets for propaganda, and various men's magazines famous for their scantily clad pinup centerfolds. As the camera pans the room, a man walks about reading aloud from a pamphlet.
To punctuate this bizarre combination of comic books, pinup magazines, and Marxist pamphlets, consumers casually enter the bookstore, approach a bookshelf, pick up a book or a magazine, purchase it, and then slap the faces of two hostages sitting patiently on the counter. It's unclear what, exactly, was being charged for the books or magazines, but toward the end of the scene, even a small child was admitted for the principal purpose of buying a pamphlet and discharging the duty of slapping the faces of the hostages. (Were the hostages played by members of The Rolling Stones?)
The Movie was Retitled
To increase the commercial value of the film, the U.S. release was re-titled after the Stones song and the end of the film's soundtrack was altered to include a full take of the song in its final form. This angered Godard and caused a dust-up between him and a producer.
During filming of The Rolling Stones' recording, a fire broke out in the sound studio. While footage of the studio on fire was not included on the film, it does exist and has been used in other films.
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