The Committee (1968)

Starring: Paul Jones_Tom Kempinski and

Robert Lloyd,

The Committee (1968)
Starring: Paul Jones
with: Tom Kempinski and Robert Lloyd,
and: Pauline Munroe and Jimmy Gardner

Directed by: Peter Sykes

Produced and Written by: Max Steuer

Featured Interlude: The Crazy World of Arthur Brown

Musical Score composed and performed by: Pink Floyd

Director of Photography:Ian Wilson

Interview by Oscar winning director Jon Blair with

Max Steuer and Peter Sykes ---- This controversial document

of Britain in the 60s is a filmed record of an talented group

of improvisatory performers. It's a razor sharp satire on everything from draft evasion and black militancy to middle-class pot-heads and blind-dating. Starring Paul Jones of Manfred Mann fame, The Committee uses a surreal murder to explore the tension and conflict between bureaucracy on one side, and individual freedom on the other. The film offers all the spontaneity and electricity of the live performance in the creative talents of The Committee, including a musical performance by The Crazy World of Arthur Brown. Furthermore, it features a spooky incidental sound-track music (never issued on record) by the just-post Syd Barrett Pink Floyd!

A little-known curio of the 1960s, this surreal art-house fare stars

Manfred Mann's Paul Jones as a wayward drifter,

and features a sound track by Pink Floyd that has been much-coveted

throughout the years, while remaining virtually unavailable.

The unnamed central character (Jones) is hitchhiking to an unknown

destination when he decides, without motivation,

to cut off his driver's head.

He sews it back on and he and the driver part ways,

with no immediate repercussions until Jones is summoned before a mysterious Committee, who will decide the nature of his punishment. A meditation on the conflict between bureaucratic control and individual expression, the film

also boasts legendary '60s figure Arthur Brown's performance

of his hit song "Fire."

After producing this highly-articulate, black-and-white fable that encapsulated many of the concerns of the era, director Max Steuer went on to become a Reader Emeritus at the London School of Economics, while his controversial work faded into relative obscurity until its much-later commercial release.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062820/

PART 2 for bes0