Wonderful Movie

A Masterpiece!

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

To grasp where this film is coming from I guess you'd have to read the short story by Max Steuer (originally a dream) on which it is based. It plays as a bargain basement melange of Robbe-Grillet and Kafka, with the attention immediately grabbed by the arresting title sequence juggling mug-shots of the three main protagonists to a sinister blurping accompaniment on the soundtrack; but which is soon allowed to dissipate by what follows. For a film that begins with the central figure decapitating a total stranger on a whim, 'The Committee' is an incongruously well-mannered, very British affair - albeit with hip sixties trimmings in the form of a soundtrack by Pink Floyd and a personal appearance by Arthur Brown.Ian Wilson's cool black & white photography is presumably intended to evoke 'L'Année Dernière à Marienbad', and as in 'Marienbad' there's a lot of talk but very little actually said. The plush backdrop is here provided by the London School of Economics, where Steuer - author of 'The Scientific Study of Society' (2003) has been ensconced in the philosophy department since 1959, and was at the time of the making of 'The Committee' a lecturer in economics and social sciences. The endless gnomic prattle may be a joke at the expense of his colleagues there.

Brief, surreal, enigmatic British film from the late 60's. It opens with a man killing another in a car for seemingly no reason(think Albert Camus existential murder tale "The Stranger"), only to then sew it back on, to find the man is appalled but otherwise fine. The second half of the film involves, people from all over the country being summoned to spend a weekend as part of a "committee", where the man who decapitated his fellow traveler earlier, is also summoned. Everyone wonders, but no one bothers to question the committee, after all it's a free weekend getaway, and they are told they will make very important decisions. Our hero is lead away from the party which features performances by psychedelic wild man Arthur Brown of (The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown, seen on cover here), by an even more enigmatic stranger who proceeds to explain to him, in a 20 minute conversation, the nature of individuality and community, freedom and order, impulse and the nature of the committee. The conversation is really the cornerstone of the film (the screen-writer who became an economist after the lack of success with this film, likens it to The Matrix in reverse, and he's not far off. The conversation scene is also parodied in the climax of Grant Morisson's "Animal Man").Anyway it's a mysterious film for fans of mysterious, philosophically dense movies(it's hour time line keeps the movie from treading into boredom). The most disappointing aspect of this film is actually the Pink Floyd soundtrack, which is good, but not nearly as good as fans of the original band(Syd Barret days) will imagine it must be. A good movie, all but lost to the common man before the days of Netflix. If you like political, psychological, and philosophically challenging films, and "wierd tales", than this is not to be missed

The Committee captures the essence of artistic film school movie making. While strange, sometimes confusing, and certainly disturbing, it is nonetheless a brilliant film and one that certainly deserves to be seen more than it is.It appears from time to time at British film retreats and small art movie houses, but is not available on video as it has never been officially released. It is, nevertheless, somewhat of a "white whale" to fans of Pink Floyd (who contributed much original, unreleased material to the soundtrack). There are apparently bootlegs of it floating around, although in miniscule numbers. None have been seen in public.If you ever have the chance to see this, and are a fan of art school films, then The Committee is for you!It should be noted that Pink Floyd also contributed to the soundtrack for "Tonight Lets All Make Love In London", a Peter Whitehead film. (In addition to those mentioned by Phantom Moonhead).

The only thing I know about this film is that is of interest to "die-hard" Pink Floyd fans because they did the soundtrack for it. From what I understand the entire soundtrack is 50 minutes long but Pink Floyd only did about 17 minutes of it. I have never seen this film for sale anywhere,the other films that have a Pink Floyd soundtrack can all be found,they are:A Day In The Life Of San Francisco (1966)More (1969)Zabraskie Point (1970)The Valley (La Vallee) (1972)If anyone has anymore information about this film,please let me know.