More (1969) User Reviews

Beautiful sights and sounds

[gcleary · 7/10 · 18 February 2003]

Like most people, I was interested in "More" solely because of the Pink Floyd soundtrack, which has turned out to be the only Pink Floyd album that I still listen to after all these years. It was quite a surprise to run across the film in a local video store, in a digitally remastered version. It was an even bigger surprise to find that it is a pretty good movie.

Visually it is quite beautiful, especially when the two main characters are cavorting on the rocks on the Spanish island of Ibiza. And the use of the soundtrack music, which as far as I can tell is exclusively by Pink Floyd, is excellent. It was a joy to watch the film with my copy of the album alongside me, mentally ticking off each track as it was used in the film. Dave Gilmour's brief "A Spanish Piece" was the only one I didn't hear, and several tracks are used quite prominently, especially "Cymbaline," "Main Theme," and "Quicksilver." That latter track is tedious on the soundtrack album but works very well during the title sequence of the film, resurfacing at least once later on. Maybe now I can appreciate it on the album, now that I have some visuals to accompany it in my mind.

The plot of "More" is a little hard to take at times, especially in the early going, when the film appears to be merely a vehicle to demonstrate the hipness of those involved in making it. But eventually the film proves that it has much more than that to offer, as the plot becomes more focused. Why does Stefan take heroin? Why does ANYBODY take heroin, fully knowing the possible consequences? The film does not attempt to answer that question directly, but Stefan's heroin use seems a logical extension of his single-minded pursuit of pure pleasure.

I strongly recommend this film to any Pink Floyd fan who has an appreciation of the vastly underrated "More" soundtrack. I also recommend it to anyone who has an interest in sixties counterculture and how it was portrayed in the media. I have no idea how realistic this movie is, since I am too young to have experienced the sixties firsthand, but it does seem to capture the spirit of the times in a way that no other movie does.

Flawed, but very memorable

[youllneverbe · 7/10 · 17 February 2009]

17/02/09 "More" (1969) Dir: Barbet Schroeder

For a film that most viewers have agreed is pretty average, I'm impressed by quite how many differing interpretations have been offered of it. I've only scoured the web quite briefly and I've already been informed that "More" is: a 19th Century-style romance, an allusion to the story of Icarus, a plain film full of dull people, and of interest only to Pink Floyd completists. It's fair to say, then, that critical reception is mixed. I would argue that these wildly disparate readings of Barbet Schroeder's 1969 directorial debut are proof enough that "More" is anything but a pretty average film.

Neither is it a masterpiece, of course. I approached "More" as I did "Easy Rider" and Antonioni's "Blowup" - as a 'time-capsule' film, a snapshot of an era - despite the differences in pace, style and content between these movies. They all have similar flaws - either vague or downright unlikeable characters, acting that seems slightly adrift from reality, relaxed editing, and abrupt endings that have left viewers indignant. These movies never try to be persuasive or meet the audience half way - they are what they are, man. This in itself is not a problem as long as we are left with a souvenir of the experience. Thankfully, "More" offers several truly memorable images, sounds and suggestions to the viewer, and this is what saves it.

Stefan is a young man who arrives in Paris fresh from his studies in Germany. The first part of the film follows him as he falls in with a group of French hipsters, accompanies them to devastatingly cool and self-conscious parties and bars before meeting Estelle. The two characters become sexually and romantically involved and he promises to follow her to Ibiza, against the advice of his friend Charlie. This is where the Icarus thing comes into play - she is the Sun, he is pursuing her. You may now be able to guess how this all ends.

Ibiza is an idyll so far away from the bustling urgency of the over-populated Paris that the naive Stefan knows he must be on to a good thing. Estelle remains elusive and erratic, and the island has a less desirable underbelly. Up until now I had cared little for either of these characters and their unfocused pursuit of somewhere to be really free, but once the action is pared down to just these two the film becomes poignant quite suddenly. During just one single wistful exchange of dialogue in the remote villa they inhabit, the place where their volatile love crystallises, I went from watching with a fading optimism to being utterly enraptured. I can't think of many other films that have done this.

The relationship between Stefan and Estelle is real and human in that we can see it go from life-defining intimacy to disillusionment and cruel coldness. They take a lot of drugs and cavort naked on the terraces, the rocks and beaches. Their lives revolve around nothing but each other and the beautiful Mediterranean surroundings. For a while, their situation is the very essence of freedom, emotional openness and experience for its own sake. But Stefan is not in control, and this is the downfall of more than just his future on Ibiza.

Pink Floyd's score is a perfect fit for the exoticism, the intimacy, and the foreboding of "More". It is one of the most memorable inclusions, along with the mosquito netting around Estelle's bed, and their hallucinogenic exuberance around the windmill (which appears on the soundtrack album's front cover). A scene in which they take acid to escape from heroin withdrawal is illustrative of the fundamental flaws of the couple - they cannot 'land' without a crash. Maybe they've come too close to what they wanted.

Stefan never makes contact with any family or friends from before his arrival in Paris. We are left to presume they have no idea where he is. While other 1960s Counterculture movies dwell on debauchery, excess, the media and voyeurism, Schroeder has instead presented us with a story focused upon one man, who backs himself into a little corner somewhere in the world and quietly disappears.

on the failure of the hippies... featuring Pink Floyd!

[Quinoa1984 · 7/10 · 5 March 2009]

I would be interested to hear from the director, Barbet Schroeder, as to why he decided to make More his first film, and more specifically what his interest in hippies- or rather this form of the Euro-hippie paradise- and about their demise. The film is, at least, true enough to keep one interested, but in its own kind of truth it's strange, biased. It's a given heroin (aka, "Horse") is awful stuff, rotten, the conclusion for many a dumb-headed drug user that sees that as the be-all-end-all, because it basically is: after that everything else stops, that becomes the life, and it's either a continuous run for more of the same or death. More starts off as something concerning a romance between a New York girl and a German man, but it becomes something else, for better or worse (sometimes both in the same scene).

It's basically about two "young" people, Estelle and Stefan, who meet in a city where Stefan has come as a sort of wanderer away from his home country. She's wandering too, sort of, and is maybe too friendly with a big-time pusher named Wolf. They end up on a remote island somewhere nearby and, after a somewhat daring grab for some "horse" by Estelle, they also find a pad in the form of a seemingly remoter house along the seashore. Schroeder's comment on youth and sex and drugs isn't too simplistic, which makes the film actually lucid and intelligent so many years later. It's both direct and subtle, more about the characters and then about the fact that what he's depicting could in other hands just be a propagandistic hippie-exploitation picture. Perhaps most pleasantly, and this is just a guess, Schroeder uses as inspiration the sort of long sequence from Bergman's Summer with Monika: two kids in an inexorable connection, some good some definitely not so good, set against (too?) perfectly shot landscapes.

On the one hand, I should mention that there are problems, some big ones in fact. The performances aren't very convincing throughout; a few scenes strike some power or have the actors in a good connection with one another, but Klaus Grumberg overplays himself even if he is an ornery German by nature (in that case I would've preferred Klaus Kinski in the part to make it crazier but deep enough for the subject matter) as does Farmer to her own degree. And there's gaps of naiveté in the screenplay that keep it from being as deep as it really thinks it is. On the other hand, there are two big things going for it: Nestor Almendros, the great cinematographer (i.e. Days of Heaven) is DP and is a big boost for a first time director like Schroeder. Nearly every image is seen with an awesome purpose or artistry, be it a shot of the cliffs by the sea or sun or something as simple as the seemingly natural light of a room.

The other thing is Pink Floyd, probably the main reason I and many others have heard of the film in the first place (years before I knew really who Schroeder was I saw the "More" soundtrack whenever I looked up Pink Floyd albums). It's very good music throughout, occasionally the mind-blowing variety that gives them the reputation they deserve. Some of it, too, is a little tedious, even as it is a movie that concerns free love and lots of drugs and sometimes both at the same time. I wouldn't rank it anywhere near as high as a Meddle or Animals, certainly not Dark Side, but it too helps to elevate the subject matter another notch, particularly when one least expects it or in low tones or floating in and out of buildings as Stefan or other walks on the streets. It's almost better atmosphere than the movie itself deserves, but overall More is still worth watching as a period piece- dated, but potent, like a less ambitious but more substantial Zabriskie Point.

Days of dope and roses

[CatTales · 10 January 2003]

Kind of a low-key "Days of wine and roses," this is hardly a standard 1960's drug film. Director Schroeder (whom one can deduce is represented by Charlie the good-natured street hustler) states initially it's about a friend who died of drug overdose, so we know it's going to be a story of psychic corruption rather than an exploration of the ideals of Timothy Leary. It might seem that Schroeder is really glamorizing drugs simply by example, as well as by showing the sex life of the characters, and by employing a real psychedelic band for the soundtrack. However, Schroeder doesn't show subjective scenes of drug use; the characters trip out in their own world, usually detached from another, and the audience watches like the only sober person at a frat party. Their sex life soon peters out as drugs take over their lives. Using Pink Floyd was probably to attract unwitting youth and drug-users to see (without being preached to) how drugs can kill.

What probably does seem 'standard 1960s' to viewers today is the flat, realistic style of the film which doesn't grab the viewer (unlike the more recent "Sid and Nancy" or "Trainspotting") but was typical of independent and European films of that time. However it's still watchable, and a must for early-Pink Floyd (or "The Pink Floyd", as they're billed in the credits) fans.

A Trip to the Hell of Heroin

[claudio_carvalho · 7/10 · 8 March 2011]

In the late 60's, after graduating in Mathematics, the German Stefan Brückner (Klaus Grünberg) hitchhikes from Lübeck to Paris to see the world without money. He befriends Charlie (Michel Chanderli) in an arcade and they go to a party. When Stefan meets gorgeous American Estelle Miller (Mimsy Farmer) in the party, Charlie advises him to stay away from her. However, the straight Stefan falls in love with Estelle and after breaking in a house with Charlie to rob, he follows her to Ibiza. Stefan seeks out the hotel of his fellow citizen Dr. Ernesto Wolf (Heinz Engelmann) where Estelle is lodged. He asks her to leave the place and stay with him in an isolated seaside house. Before leaving the hotel, Estelle steals some money and a pack from Wolf. Sooner Stefan learns that Estelle had stolen 200 doses of heroin and he decides to try one fix with her, in the beginning of his trip to hell.

"More" is a cult-movie from the late 60 that became famous due to the music score by Pink Floyd. The film is a sort of response to the counterculture of apology to the drugs of the 60's and 70's and is dated in the present days. My great interest to see "More" was the Pink Floyd soundtrack, and I found it s great film, developed in slow pace to a predictable climax in the very end. Mimsy Farmer is amazing in the role of a destructive woman with face of angel but of death. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "More"

Long, long, long

[matlock-6 · 6/10 · 7 August 2001]

A film typical of the style of the late 1960's early 70's, however, this is somewhat better. The story centers around a young man who meets an attractive young woman (Farmer). The woman introduces him to the sordid world of heroin addiction (referred to by the old street name, "horse", in this film). As the movie progresses, the hero becomes more and more into the drug scene.

I will not expose the ending as it is a bit of a surprise, and quite well done, too.

Most notably about this film, the soundtrack was done by Pink Floyd, who released it as an album the same year the film was made. Because of this, the film is of importance to hardcore Pink Floyd fans.

Not a great film, but a good one anyway, and one that carries an important anti-hard-drugs message. As it is somewhat rare, purchase prices can be fairly high to ludicrous, so it is advised you rent it first (if you can find it. My local Blockbuster used to carry it at one time).

Oh Mimsy

[BandSAboutMovies · 6/10 · 2 March 2021]

Oh Mimsy Farmer. I have watched you by menaced by the camera of Lucio Fulci in The Black Cat and Ruggero Deodato in Body Count, saw you deal with supersonic air travel in The Concorde Affair, wowed by racecar drivers in Hot Rods to Hell and The Wild Racers, ride with bikers in Devil's Angels and get involved in giallo intrigue in Four Flies on Grey Velvet, The Perfume of the Lady in Black and Autopsy. So when some folks watch this and wonder, how could the hero have gotten into heroin because he was so in love with a girl, I just say, "Well, she was Mimsy Farmer. I've done much dumber things for much less breathtaking women."

That protagonist is Stefan (Klaus Grünberg, The Grand Duel), a German college student who is taking a break and hitchhiking to Paris, where he gambles, robs a bank and meets the free-spirited Estelle (Farmer), following her to Ibiza and down the path of drug addiction.

The villain who provides the heroin to Estelle isn't just any bad guy. He's a former Nazi named Dr. Ernesto Wolf. Stefan thinks that he's saved Estelle from him, but he's only doomed himself to addiction when he believes that by doing the same drugs as her, he can hold on to her love.

Honestly, I feel like I've lived enough of this movie, trying to save unsavable women when really I should have worked on myself. This is not an easy admission to make. It's none of their fault and all of mine, thinking that being a better person and making lives better really means love when all it means is misplaced devotion.

Roger Ebert had a great review of this movie, summed up best by this last line: "The message seems to be: Sure, speed kills, but what a way to go."

More was the debut feature of Barbet Schroeder, who would go on to make Single White Female and another film that somewhat romanticizes self-destruction, Barfly. Here's an interesting fact: those are all real drugs in the scenes showing Stefan and Estelle using marijuana, heroin and LSD.

This film also has a soundtrack by Pink Floyd, which was released as More and includes "The Nile Song," "Cirrus Minor" and "Cymbaline." The music only shows up in natural moments, overheard when cars have on their radios or when Estelle puts on a record. The band would work with Schroeder again - who is also the leader of France in Mars Attacks! - on his movie The Valley (Obscured by Clouds).

Summer of sex, love and heroin

[dierregi · 6/10 · 14 December 2014]

German youngster Stefan hitchhikes from cold and rainy Germany to Paris "looking for the sun". In Paris he gets acquainted with lowlife Charlie and mysterious Estelle. After a burglary with Charlie, Stefan follows Estelle to Ibiza where she is not exactly welcoming him. Estelle is busy with her friends, a proto-hip crowd of drug addicts, and with German doctor Wolf, her alleged lover and pusher.

At first against hard drugs, Stefan quickly turns into a major user himself. When Estelle steals some dope from Wolf, the couple goes hiding in the solitary luxury of a beautiful villa overlooking a desert coast where they spend a hot summer of sex and drugs, hiding from Wolf.

At the end of the summer, all Stefan has left is a major addiction to heroin and the need for a job. Who could be better to supply both but Wolf? When tragedy ensues, Estelle has already made a move out of Stefan's life.

The weakest part of the movie is the Stefan-Estelle relationship. Based on nothing more than lust, it seems hardly likely to inspire a tragic devotion. The movie does not work well either as a cautionary tale against drugs. It does not dwell on horrific details explored on later movies. In fact, it may even inspire a sort of nostalgia for a simpler past (minus the heroin) and lusty summers spent on desert islands. Nevertheless, the unadorned approach and documentary style work well for the minimalist tale.

My personal impression is that the bare settings were due to lack of funds. However, it should be noted that the soundtrack is signed Pink Floyd, albeit not yet a super-band (the main reason why the movie is still circulating) and Mimsy Farmer's wardrobe is quite nice and above the standard hippie clothes one would expect for her character.

Classic 60s Drug Tragedy, really one-of-a-kind, a small classic.

[faversham · 10/10 · 16 September 2001]

Has there ever been an Angel of Death like MIMSY FARMER in Barbet Schroeder's 1960s heroin opus? Sort of Jean Seberg with a hypodermic. Pink Floyd score. Despite some ultimately insignificant weaknesses, a classic, shamelessly ripped off by Erich Segal/Noel Black for their inept JENNIFER ON MY MIND (1971), although Tippy Walker, playing a similar character, is herself very junkie-appealing in the latter mess. MORE, though, is terrific, a great 60s drug movie and, simply, an important document of its time. Very much a cult film so join the cult.

No American movie then, as far as I can remember, charts the same territory. MIMSY's an astonishing archetype, elevating this into mythic realms. Not for the faint-hearted. Great sex scenes too.

For Pink Floyd Fans and Period Piece

[Bababooe · 7/10 · 29 August 2019]

I came to this film by way of the Pink Floyd album More. I've been a fan of this album for many years, much more than their latter stuff, especially the garbage put out without Roger Waters. It's not a perfect album but it has some great tunes. So, watching the movie I was completely biased to enjoy it. It's slow but entertaining. The acting is hit or miss. Not much of a story except a dude gets trapped in a toxic relationship and dies.

Great scenery and a period piece. There's a scene where the couple take acid to wean themselves off of heroin and the girl looks at the guy and calls him evil. Very well done.

This is not a perfect film. But I would rather watch this than the candy nonsense being pumped out of Hollywood. Here's looking at you Star Wars 7, Farce Awakens and any number of mindless action films. Copy/Paste writing, worst acting, cliché dialogue, CGI action crap, turning viewers into virtual zombies. Also a shout out to The Walking Soap Opera.

Like a dull headache.

[Quag7 · 3/10 · 16 April 2005]

OK. Well, I guess it was worth my time sitting through this *once* but I won't be watching it again. There are several things about this film that irritated me.

First, man...I really hated the characters. I had the same problem with Sid and Nancy. I have a hard time rationalizing spending a fair chunk of time following characters who I really don't care about, and can't relate to. It's not that the actors or the writing were technically bad; it was that the characters were written in such a way that I just had contempt for them, and as the movie went on, I almost wanted to see the sky fall on them. And this leads me to the second problem, and a question which I think is at the heart of this movie: Was the intent to simply document this generation and these types of bohemians who were (I guess) wandering around Europe in the 60s? Was the intent to criticize and lambaste them? Or was this film some kind of a warning? My final assessment of the film (that is to say, in determining if there was anything salvageable here at all) hinges on this question.

Regardless, these characters are really unlikeable, and as a consequence, it's hard to really give a crap about the plot or what happens to them. If this was some sort of statement on this generation, then the film becomes a little more tolerable. It is clear that Schroeder is not some kind of geriatric establishment square, so the way he proceeds here carries more weight than, say, the countless stupid AIP films set in or concerning the 60s counterculture.

At bare minimum, this film has two things going for it - first, the soundtrack (obviously). I like how Cymbaline is used here and others have mentioned it too, as it takes the forefront in the movie. I am guessing that if you are a Pink Floyd fan and want to see it for that reason, nothing you read here is likely to stop you from watching it anyway (it wouldn't stop me either). The curiosity of hearing Pink Floyd in a movie may be enough to just barely get you through this.

Secondly, there is some nice scenery. Ibiza looks like a nice place to visit. Maybe I'm just sick of looking at Los Angeles, New York, and Chicago in films, but European films which take the time to actually show us Europe (the beautiful or the ugly - mostly beautiful here) are always welcome.

But I really see no particular genius here. No revolutionary camera work, not even a moral, tone, message, sensibility, or plot that has anything new to say. Perhaps what was revolutionary about this was merely that it came from a guy like Schroeder - a film critical of a mindset that at least in part made his movies marketable. To that extent it is an honest film; there's no glorification of the abject excesses of the 60s here, which is perhaps something you might expect. In fact, the portrayal of the characters in this film closely mirrors the (somewhat distorted, in my opinion) modern cultural memory of that generation.

Oh yeah, bunch of (yawn) nudity and sex here; nothing new if you watch these kinds of movies from this time period. I guess it was considered novel or provocative or something at the time. I don't find it offensive or titillating (I doubt you will either); rather it just extends the running time of an already tedious film. In its own way, this particular use of sexuality in movies of the time (especially European ones) has become a bit of a cliché. But I guess in hindsight you can't blame them; they were just in that decade able to "get away with it" and I suppose (I'm guessing here) the very presence of this kind of graphic sexuality was a political or social statement in and of itself (That being that sexuality was a part of life that this generation wasn't going to be all weird about like their parents were).

Should you watch it? If you're a Pink Floyd fan, sure...I guess it's worth a watch. In any case, The Valley is a better film. I went into this movie expecting largely what I got. If you don't normally watch these kinds of arty, avant garde films and don't know what to expect, this is bound to be annoying as hell. This is a normal, healthy reaction :)

If you're not a Pink Floyd fan, I'm not sure why you'd spend your time here. I noticed one fellow who left a comment did enjoy this movie quite a lot, so maybe I'm just missing something. I don't need guys running in slow motion from fireballs, special effects, explosions, or anything like that to enjoy a movie. But I do need some kind of handle - I need to find something to like about a movie, and generally I need to sympathize with some aspect of the characters' plight (barring that some novel film-making will work; camera-work and so forth). Here, there's just nothing to hold on to except for Pink Floyd's magnificence. Which is *just enough* to make this tolerable. At bare minimum, if you're a Pink Floyd fan to begin with, you'll like the bit with Cymbaline, I promise.

A cult of love, sex and drugs

[michelerealini · 8/10 · 26 September 2005]

"More", maybe, is mostly remembered for the excellent soundtrack composed by Pink Floyd -in 1969 they weren't superstars yet. Actually they made an album with the film music, no fan can miss it!

But this is also the first film of German-French director Barbet Schroeder: it's a cult movie. When it was released, censorship everywhere cut several scenes of sex and drugs. It is also one of the first films to treat explicitly the theme of drug slavery.

A German boy travels to Paris and meets an American girl: they fall in love. Together they search for sun and exoticism. But it's a too high price love: she initiates him into drugs.

In the Sixties anti-drug campaigns were not like today, there wasn't much information. On the contrary, in many milieus taking drugs was a sort of spiritual experience... So it's quite surprising to see a film of that period which describes a nightmarish heroin experience.

The film is simple, not vulgar at all and shot in a "cinema-verité" style. Actors Mimsy Farmer and Klaus Grünberg are very convincing. "More" is a document of the end of the Sixties -and a document of the end of the hippies illusions as well.

memorable for me

[hannaunderwood · 6/10 · 15 April 2021]

It's been a while since i've seen this movie, i've only seen it once but i do think about it often. While watching, i was expecting a lot of trippy scenes with campy effects and everything so i was surprised (disappointed at the time) that it was kind of just, quiet. I stuck it out and watched the whole movie of course and afterwards i didn't think much of it except **spoiler*** i thought the end was really really sad. But yeah later on, maybe weeks, or months, i kept thinking about it, it was raw and real. I mean i'd watch it again after enough time goes by for me to forget about it maybe ? But i would say it's probably one of those movies you only have to see one time if you do watch it.

Rather boring

[Tyrone_Slothrop · 5/10 · 14 February 2006]

What you see is the story of a demise. While this may have been interesting at the time when this movie was made, today it is somewhat dull to watch a young, clueless German guy go to Paris, then Ibiza with an ex-junkie girl who first turns him on to marijuana, then to horse (heroin). In between, they also try out LSD. The music by Pink Floyd is psychedelic, however, the drug experiences of the two protagonists are never visualized for the viewer, so you couldn't really speak of a psychedelic movie here. Also, there is no real plot, as the couple gets more and more irritable due to their drug consumption. For people who are not familiar with drug culture, it may be interesting to watch the authentic and detailed depiction of how various drugs are consumed. Also, there are some very beautiful shots of Ibiza.

Of Beauty, Sex and Drugs... More

[Nick Hodges · 15 October 2000]

'More' is a film legendary amongst Floyd collectors, and is well worth the time spent searching, since it features some of the bands' most spontaneous and eclectic work.

I was lucky enough to find some evidently battered and old publicity postcards for the film at a local art centre. The copy on the card makes for good reading if you enjoy the film, or are interested in it's history: _____________________________________________________________

"of beauty, sex and drugs: more"

"'More' probably contains more footage of naked bodies than any other film that has made it past Plymouth Rock. It's strong stuff. A powerful movie about drugs. Mimsy Farmer as Estelle, is one of the real baddies of all time, a totally amoral person who shoots heroin (even under her tongue!), cavorts in the nude, lies, steals, makes love to girls, and destroys every man who falls in love with her." - The Sunday New York Times.

"'More' is tough, candid stuff, clearly among the good ones." - National Observer.

"A very beautiful, very romantic movie." - The New York Times.

The card features a wonderful black and white picture of Estelle and Stefan in characteristically joyous mood celebrating their (perhaps new-found and ill-fated) freedom, and classifies the film as "'X' Persons Under 17 Not Admitted".

Interestingly the film saw general video release in France with a '12' certificate.

My copy, available via amazon.com, and released by Janus Films and Home Vision Cinema, does not state a certificate, though the drug use would probably warrant an '18' certificate if release were attempted in the UK.

Circa 2000, the film is broadcast on monthly rotation by Film Four, a UK subscription film channel.

Sixties Vibe

[kerrydragon · 7/10 · 18 April 2019]

The first half is a bore,then it becomes very interesting when Estelle and Stefan get together in Ibiza.The movie then has a sort of Emmanuelle feel of sensuality,free love,dropping out and getting high.I was eighteen when this came out and alot of it rang a bell.From the Clothing,Drug Use with vintage syringes,and just celebrating your youth and beauty.Loved Mimsy's hair and the exotic accents and locales.

drug culture psycho drama

[benzobrill · 10/10 · 26 August 2006]

A German freshman, Stefan hitch hikes to Paris during summer break were he falls for a mysterious young woman he meets in the Paris freak scene. He then follows her in the famous isle of Ibiza, the hippie joint were meets Wolf, a man who throws Hitler-Jugend knives, owns bars and hotels and keeps Estelle under his thumb with dope. The couple tries to escape Wolf, Stefan gets hooked with dope and jealousy for Estelle, who's groovy and a free spirit. Great photography and music, plot is quite usual for the period but it's not an exploitation kind of movie, cold and dramatic. The moral is quite strong (he was looking for the sun...) but I would not say it's a film against drugs even it puts enphasy on drug use.

art-house drug film

[SnoopyStyle · 5/10 · 3 October 2017]

German student Stefan Brückner hitchhikes across Europe looking for adventure after finish studying math. He meets Estelle Miller at a party in Paris. Despite warning from a friend, he follows her to Ibiza. As she falls further into heroin, she introduces him to the needle.

This is a rather slow and straight forward drug movie. My major problem is the lackluster couple. Other than getting naked and being beautiful, Estelle is not more than a bohemian druggie. Stefan starts off as a stiff. Despite the hippie changeover, his character is never far from being stiff. There are darker portrayals of drug use around. Director Barbet Schroeder has some mainstream success later on as well. This one is an art-house film with some interesting bites.

Hypodermic in lieu of apple

[manuel-pestalozzi · 10/10 · 30 July 2008]

I have become a big fan of the work of Barbet Schroeder, so maybe I am already a little biased by now, but I think this movie is great, although there may be a few lengths. It is a romantic unromantic view of the Great Liberation in the later sixties, stylistically amazingly polished (great set design!) and in my opinion still very watchable.

Basically this is an ironic re-telling of the story of Adam and Eve who are driven from paradise after having tasted the „forbidden fruit" which has turned from an apple into a hypodermic filled with heroine. The woman seduces a man into using it thus accelerating his doom. I say accelerating as the guy seems to be doomed and bound for an intensive life and an early grave right from the great title sequence onwards. There is no place for any hope.

Although the story is rather sad, I was captured by the beauty both of the beautiful location Ibiza and Mimsy Farmer. I found her character was at once shallow, enigmatic, endearing, annoying, interesting and boring. Somehow she represents what men see in women in a basic, unoffensive way. Architecture and built artifacts in general are put to very good use – which seems to be a Schroeder trademark of sorts.

There is even some humor, mainly delivered by Stefan, the German main character and his accent. His main nemesis is not a snake but an older German of dubious reputation – and provider of the heroine - called Wolf. Although it is a German name and Stefan is German, he pronounces it verrry English and in fits of jealousy spits the name out at his girlfriend in regular intervals – becoming a boy who cries ... At times Stefan has to work in order to earn a „cellery". At one time the guy goes snorkeling and afterward awkwardly clambers up a rock with his rubber flippers – never has male frontal nudity been funnier in movie history.

Don't let the Pink Floyd soundtrack convince you to watch this movie.

[Flwyd · 5/10 · 22 April 2000]

Sure, the soundtrack is by Pink Floyd. But it's hardly there. Obviously, a soundtrack shouldn't detract from the film, and Floyd does a very good job of that. But watching this movie to hear Floyd is like watching a Hitchcock film for his cameo. You'd do better to download mp3s of Floyd's live performances of the songs.

Even though indecency is the name of the game for the movie's two hours, it's a decent movie.

A Happy Hippie Heaven? I think not

[thekillerawoke · 14 January 2000]

Like the movie Fahrenheit 451, a native German actor plays the male lead; the majority of dialogue, however, is in English. This means that some may find Klaus Grunberg's heavy accent just as hard to decipher as Oskar Werner's.

I find it amusing that some consider this film to be light and pleasant. To be sure, the scenery is beautiful and the lighting is airy and pleasant, but this serves to accentuate the film's message that underneath the attractive escape drugs provide, dangerous consequences occur for those who cannot use them in moderation.

However, this doesn't not mean by any means that More takes a anti-drug stance. Social and occasional use of marijuana and alcohol is condoned, whereas use of harder drugs like heroin and LSD are highly frowned upon by Schroeder, who also penned the script as well as directed.

Those who are hoping to locate a copy need to seek out independent video stores, garage sales, libraries, and/or internet auction (to name a few) because the movie has been out of print since 1994. It is not likely to be reissued for several years and assuming it is, it will probably only be available on DVD.

Not Your Grandma's Typical '60's Drug Flick

[Nabob13 · 9/10 · 17 January 2012]

I purchased this film somewhere around 6-8 years ago from Movies Unlimited, basing said purchase on The Pink Floyd soundtrack (which, as a teen, I saw in the local Record Bar, w/o any idea about the film) and Mimsy Farmer's role in it. I never watched it ...but then Friday night, Jan.13th,2012,my wife and I watched it. And I thought Mimsy's roles in "Road to Salina" or "Four Flies on Grey Velvet" were wild! If "Midnight Cowboy" won the Best Picture Oscar that year, "More" should've won the Best Foreign Film, hands down!!

Early Pink Floyd songs ("relics") include "Cymbaline", "The Nile Song", "Quicksilver", and "Cirrus Minor", very indicative of The Graduate's Journey to Tarturus. Ibiza locations, as well as Paris' Latin Quarter locales, invoke a false exoticism few drug-related films of the era(even "Easy Rider")can boast.

I recommend this film to '60's collectors as well as to drug-councelling services. It's certainly not typical or cliché'-ridden as "The Trip" or "Psych-Out", and not moralistic as "Days of Wine nd Roses" or "Go Ask Alice". Really blew my mind.

"When the Music's Over, Turn Off the Set, Turn Off the Set"

[Saturday8pm · 2/10 · 1 October 2002]

Great music, but ain't these people PATHETIC?!? A true period piece of The Trippy Sixties, and it left me depressed. The director paints the wrong side of the jetset life and it stings as a hornets nest. If the culture of the time led people to do these things, it appears to me that it was all a journey of no discovery, only despair. I tried, really tried, to like this film, but these people aren't anywhere on my page. Yes, it would be nice to see the world, go away for awhile, but I always plan to come BACK. Drugs aren't the cause of these characters' downfalls, it's their lousy attitudes – these guys passionately drink their cup of poison. They cheapen their lives, and in the end, cheapen the journey that is life. Has romance ever been so dark?

Cheers: Interesting scenery. Wonderful soundtrack by Pink Floyd.

Caveats: Dated. Drugs. Depressing. Thoroughly unlikable characters; they aren't flower children.

Only for the curious, since most packages swoon The Pink Floyd connection. ( Rare Floyd tracks many will have never heard before, as FM ain't what it was. )

Rating: Two Stars.

Where is pleasure without tragedy?

[poemnpoetry · 9/10 · 21 October 2017]

"In the midnight hour, she cried, 'more, more, more'", or, if you will, "You're more than life to me, more than eternity, and the more I know of you, all the more I love you." And it just make me remember a day before today, a day when you were young.

More is a fantastic example of counterculture of the 1960s.

Them BEATniks Is Taking Over Everywhere!

[rmax304823 · 5/10 · 29 September 2017]

I didn't find it as terrible as some people. It's really a chronicle of the times (1967). Klaus Grünberg is an innocent young German lad who meets the American girl Mimsy Farmer at a party in Paris. The chief reason they're there is so that Grünberg's good friend, Michel Chanderli, can sneak into the bedroom where all the coats have been flung and go through the pockets looking for money. That's how poor the two of them are.

But, having met Farmer, Grünberg is struck with her and pursues her to the paradisiacal island of Ibiza, where he finds her somehow mixed up with a vaguely genial Landsmann named Wolf. The sun is blazing, the buildings are white, the scenery magnificent, and the descent into the maelstrom begins. First she introduces him to "pot." He kind of likes it. Grünberg and Farmer sneak away from the town and from Wolf, and relocate to a mountaintop retreat where she reluctantly involves him in "horse" -- that is heroin -- showing him how to cook it and how to hold the tie with his teeth. She doesn't tempt him and in fact tries to discourage his use but before you know it they're both addicted and have stolen from Wolf and begged on the streets for more.

Winter descends, the weather turns cold and bleak, the tourists depart and take their gaiety with them. We last see Farmer squirming around on the floor and screaming for a fix, and Grünberg OD's in a dark hallway and his body is sniffed out by a dog.

It's a sad tale, rather like "The Panic in Needle Park", in which a user sadly watches his amour become hooked, except that in this case the addiction is unintended by both parties. You really DO get addicted too, because of something called the opponent process theory. Your body has a number of built-in receptors for naturally produced "happy" substances. If you begin using opiates, what happens is that your body adjusts to the new inputs, and develops still more "happy" receptors, so you need more heroin just to remain normal, never mind high.

I didn't find either of the principles unlikable, but rather tragic because of their flaws. Grünberg isn't receptive to good advice, either from his friend Chanderli or from Farmer. He turns possessive because of his love for Farmer and slaps her around. She, in turn, loves him but she disappears mysteriously from time to time and seems to have nothing constructive in mind for the future. Both may be bad, in their own ways, but neither is evil. At the same time, there's barely any plot. I have no idea what the writers had in mind besides the exploitation of a prominent culture movement of the period.

It's a thought-provoking movie too. The thought it provokes is, "They're living in this whitewashed Taj Mahal overlooking the Mediterranean and neither has a job worth mentioning. So where the hell is the money coming from?" That's the thought it provokes. I'd love to know the answer because Ibiza looks pretty tempting, regardless of the season.