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Peter Whitehead

Peter Whitehead

Directing

Biography

Peter Lorrimer Whitehead was an English writer, photographer and filmmaker who documented the counterculture in London and New York in the late 1960s. He is also known for his work as a director of promotional film clips (precursors to the modern music video) including a version of "Interstellar Overdrive" for Pink Floyd and several clips for The Rolling Stones.

Known For

Terrorism Considered as One of the Fine Arts
7.0

Adapting its title and theme from Thomas De Quincey's murder text, this long-overdue return to narrative cinema by the great British filmmaker Peter Whitehead is based around a mesmerizing psycho-geographical exploration of modern day Vienna. The film incorporates a record of the subversive underbelly of the city into a poetic meditation on conspiracy theory, ecoterrorism, time and cinema, retracing the story of The Third Man. Adapted from a trilogy of Whitehead's own Nohzone novels, the objective and subjective becomes blurred as the film director merges with the fictional detective in a journey into the murky activities of covert counter-insurgency groups. Kaleidoscopic in intent, the film mixes Noh theatre, Victorian novels, Vienna after the war, opium, domain names and Jacob's ladder "pitched twixt Heaven and Charring Cross".

Terrorism Considered as One of the Fine Arts

2009Movie
Tonite Let's All Make Love in London
4.5

Peter Whitehead’s disjointed Swinging London documentary, subtitled “A Pop Concerto,” comprises a number of different “movements,” each depicting a different theme underscored by music: A early version of Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive” plays behind some arty nightclub scenes, while Chris Farlowe’s rendition of the Rolling Stones’ “Out of Time” accompanies a young woman’s description of London nightlife and the vacuousness of her own existence. In another segment, the Marquess of Kensington (Robert Wace) croons the nostalgic “Changing of the Guard” to shots of Buckingham Palace’s changing of the guard, and recording act Vashti are seen at work in the studio. Sandwiched between are clips of Mick Jagger (discussing revolution), Andrew Loog Oldham (discussing his future) – and Julie Christie, Michael Caine, Lee Marvin, and novelist Edna O’Brien (each discussing sex). The best part is footage of the riot that interrupted the Stones’ 1966 Royal Albert Hall concert.

Tonite Let's All Make Love in London

1967Movie
Led Zeppelin: Live at the Bath Festival

The band wanted to capture the show for posterity, but Whitehead was under the impression he would make a documentary. He and cameraman Ernie Vincze captured the majority of the footage shot that night. In the spring of 1970, he would go on to edit a 42 minute rough cut of the footage using temp audio recorded by the film crew, as Led Zeppelin, unhappy with their performance, refused them access to the multi-track recordings. Whitehead then planned to film Led Zeppelin at the Bath Festival. Unfortunately due to heavy traffic entering the showgrounds, he and Vincze weren't able to film the band's arrival via helicopter, but proceeded to capture moments in the audience, backstage, and at the show itself. Whitehead would produce a B&W workprint of this footage in summer 1970 and also hoped to film the members at home, but upon receiving no input from the band, the project was shelved.

Led Zeppelin: Live at the Bath Festival

1970Movie
Jeanetta Cochrane
2.3

More consciously experimental than Whitehead's other works, this film draws on a variety of sources, including sequences of London shot while Whitehead was at the Slade School of Art, glimpses of the singer and model Nico, and footage of the psychedelic underground nightclub UFO. There is also on-screen text, a voice critiquing it, and music from Pink Floyd, at this point still fronted by Syd Barrett--Whitehead's old painting friend from Cambridge. The track here, "Interstellar Overdrive", was recorded by Whitehead before the band signed to EMI and is much more exciting and beat-driven than the version they would later record for the label. There is no explicit link between the content of the film and the Cochrane Theatre, which is is named after, but the theatre was used as a venue for the Spontaneous Festival of Underground Films in 1966.

Jeanetta Cochrane

1967Movie