Estelle, played by Mimsy Farmer, in the Movie, More (1969)
While on a recent trip to Ibiza, I got the opportunity to watch, Barbet Schroeder's, début Movie, More, which was the first feature length movie to be shot on the Island. It was famously accompanied, by a psychedelic, Pink Floyd Soundtrack, named, The Soundtrack From The Film More. Many of the scenes in the movie, which were shot in and around Ibiza town and Punta Galera, on the west coast, successfully captured Ibiza, at a much more innocent and free time. The first thing that hit me about the movie, (apart from the some dodgy acting) was the completely different landscape that prevailed in 1969. There was very little tourist population or hotels built and the area around Ibiza town, especially during the funeral scene, looked desolate and barren.
The film and its characters, reflect a snapshot of Island life at the time. A small, arty, community of writers, thinkers and people that did not fit into conventional squares, co habituating with the Hippies or "Peluts" as the locals referred to them, because of their hairy appearance. They were the Islands first tourists and the locals welcomed them with open arms, even extending them credit and a cheap lifestyle. A fellow Irishman, playwright Brendan Behan,(a notorious alcoholic) wrote a series of letters from his lodgings there. Sadly, like many films shot in Ibiza, the movie was about drugs, and a particularly nasty one, known at the time as "Horse" but in todays society, referred to as Heroin. The location of the death of Stefan, at the tunnel that leads up into Dalt Villa from La Marina, is said to be a pilgrimage site for addicts.
Its a strange movie to watch, but one would have to say, artistic in its concept and production. I viewed it from the comfort of my Moroccan themed room at the stylish, Cas Gasi. Hotel, as a DVD from their well stocked library. It brought home to me, how far Ibiza has come in a short space of time and how difficult it must have been to eke out an existence on the Island before tourism. A scene, where the Nazi German drug dealer, Dr Wolf, has the house of the young protagonists watched, depicts locals burning charcoal, one of the few exports along with salt, that the Island relied on for its meagre income. One thing that does impress about the movie, is its stunning shots and natural light its director captures around the Punta Galera and Ibiza Town areas. Its for these reasons, that I prefer to like the movie, which has now become a collectors item and quiet a successful production in its day. Below is the trailer for the film.
