BFI Flipside 009: Permissive (Lindsay Shonteff, 1970)

[Liger]

Lindsay Shonteff's grimy groupie movie finally makes it to DVD and Blu-ray (released January 25th). Here's the BFI press release:



When Suzy arrives in London to visit an old school friend, she is unwittingly plunged into the ruthless world of the 'groupie'. Fuelled by sex, drugs and jealousy, her new lifestyle fosters in her a cold, cynical instinct for survival. But tragedy is never far away.



With its effective blend of gritty location work, brooding flash-forward devices, and a soundtrack by cult acid folk and prog rock legends Comus, Forever More – who also star – and Titus Groan, Permissive is a dark British counter-cultural artefact that's shot through with grim authenticity.



As a bonus, this release also includes Stanley Long's ultra-rare Bread, a film which, whilst exploring the same cultural milieu as Permissive (and featuring its own bona fide cult British rock band, Juicy Lucy), takes a somewhat more light-hearted approach to its subject.



Special features:

• All films transferred to High Definition

• Original Permissive trailer

• Bread (Stanley Long, 1971, 79 mins): whilst hitch-hiking back from the Isle of Wight Festival, a group of friends decide to stage their own music event. But how will they afford it?

• Bread – outtakes (13 mins): newly transferred from the original negative

• 'Ave You Got a Male Assistant Please Miss? (Graham Jones, Jon Astley, 1973, 4 mins): a humorous short film in which a 'permissive' couple are given some useful advice

• Extensive illustrated booklet with contributions by I.Q. Hunter and Lee Dorrian, and Comus band-members' recollections of working with Lindsay Shonteff



And here are some online reviews:



http://www.blu-raydefinition.com/reviews/permissive-blu-ray-review.html



http://www.dvdactive.com/reviews/dvd/permissive.html



http://cathoderaytube.blogspot.com/2010/01/permissive-bfi-flipside-blu-ray-review.html



http://www.cinedelica.com/2009/12/dvd-review-permissive-1970.html

[Pye]

name='Liger' timestamp='1263564718' post='377013']

Lindsay Shonteff's grimy groupie movie finally makes it to DVD and Blu-ray (released January 25th). Here's the BFI press release:



When Suzy arrives in London to visit an old school friend, she is unwittingly plunged into the ruthless world of the 'groupie'. Fuelled by sex, drugs and jealousy, her new lifestyle fosters in her a cold, cynical instinct for survival. But tragedy is never far away.



With its effective blend of gritty location work, brooding flash-forward devices, and a soundtrack by cult acid folk and prog rock legends Comus, Forever More – who also star – and Titus Groan, Permissive is a dark British counter-cultural artefact that's shot through with grim authenticity.



As a bonus, this release also includes Stanley Long's ultra-rare Bread, a film which, whilst exploring the same cultural milieu as Permissive (and featuring its own bona fide cult British rock band, Juicy Lucy), takes a somewhat more light-hearted approach to its subject.



Special features:

• All films transferred to High Definition

• Original Permissive trailer

• Bread (Stanley Long, 1971, 79 mins): whilst hitch-hiking back from the Isle of Wight Festival, a group of friends decide to stage their own music event. But how will they afford it?

• Bread – outtakes (13 mins): newly transferred from the original negative

• 'Ave You Got a Male Assistant Please Miss? (Graham Jones, Jon Astley, 1973, 4 mins): a humorous short film in which a 'permissive' couple are given some useful advice

• Extensive illustrated booklet with contributions by I.Q. Hunter and Lee Dorrian, and Comus band-members' recollections of working with Lindsay Shonteff



And here are some online reviews:



http://www.blu-raydefinition.com/reviews/permissive-blu-ray-review.html



http://www.dvdactive.com/reviews/dvd/permissive.html



http://cathoderaytube.blogspot.com/2010/01/permissive-bfi-flipside-blu-ray-review.html



http://www.cinedelica.com/2009/12/dvd-review-permissive-1970.html

Just wanted to see if anyone else has become fascinated by this film? Already a fully-fledfged Comus fan, it's this film I have to thank to alerting me to Forever More and Titus Groan, and its such a fantastic record of the bleakness of Britain in 1970. If only the DVD had contained some cast or crew reminiscenes!