Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii, The Director's Cut (DVD9)

This film is nothing short of "must see" documentary history. I'll never be able to fully express how moving it is to see the young men of Pink Floyd during uninhibited moments of creativity, eating and chatting together, rehearsing, having philosophical discussions about the fate of rock-n-roll music and the shaking off of their drug-oriented image, and even arguing now and then.

Beyond how intriguing the band and it's members are, the film itself is so well directed and beautifully shot. The sound is excellent. Incredibly artistic film montages add to, rather than detract from the music. I have never seen a better portrayal of live music. The sheer musicianship of these men is mind boggling. Each is highlighted at different points in the film and it is clear that they have immense skill and talent.

Pink Floyd was so ahead of its time and will never seem out of style. And this film, although shot in 1972, is as fresh as a daisy. There are some incomparable moments, making this truly the best rock documentary I have ever seen. David Gilmour looks very handsome, by the way, and will always be my favorite guitar god.

 
An ancient city nowadays wiped out: Pompei, a major British band from the seventies, Pink Floyd. Apparently, there's none link between the two quoted names. You can barely imagine, the "dark side of the moon"'s creator to give a concert in this magic and sole scenerie. However, this is what happened in october 1971 and the result is astonishing. There's no spectators but the music impresses, is at its full swing. Moreover, you are under the impression that the members of the band surpass themselves musically and they give the best they can. Adrian Maben succeeds skilfully the marriage between the sound and the picture and it creates an entrancing climate. I think about the static shots of different places in Pompei with "Echoes" (probable the best song Pink Floyd has ever written) in the background. However, his making appears to be paradoxical: it can be both creative and ingenious: Waters' scream in "careful with that axe Eugene is compared with a volcano erupting. On the other hand, it's a pity that he favours a bit too often slow travelings and the same precise shots of the band's members during their performance. It can give birth to weariness. Nevertheless, "Pink Floyd: live at Pompei" is also a well-regulated movie thanks to the sequences that take place in the Abbey Road Studios. You see interviews of the band and this one at work, recording their masterpiece "dark side of the moon", THE album that will reveal them to the general public and probably their last collective album before Roger Waters' seizure of power. If you wish to know how your favourite album was recorded, the movie will deliver it to you… The movie isn't without humor (Nick Mason's preference for an apple pie without crust) and a dog is baying at the moon during "Mademoiselle nobs". In short, "Pink Floyd: live at Pompei" will delight any Pink Floyd fan.

Tracks:
Echoes Part I
Careful With That Axe, Eugene
A Saucerful Of Secrets
Us And ThemOne Of These Days
Mademoiselle Nobs
Brain Damage
Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun
Echoes Part II

Bonuses:
Original Concert Film (1973)
Interviews
Photo Galleries
Lyrics
Pompeii Map/History
…..

Original Release: 1973
Director's Cut Release (this one): 2001