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Rating: One thing is certain: one must go and stay on the road, embark on a journey. Only in this way will it be possible to have new experiences, see new places, meet different people. As if to say that where the armchair ends, life begins. In essence, this is the message conveyed by an epochal novel like "On the road" by an author like Jack Kerouac, published in the middle of the last century. So significant that it is not only the reference book of the Beat generation but also influential in the following decades for young generations who identified with the so-called counterculture in opposition to the establishment.
This is the necessary premise to fully see and appreciate the film "La Vallée", directed by Barbet Schroeder in 1972, the subject of my review. And indeed, this film has a very particular history since it was not dubbed or distributed in Italy at the time. Barbet Schroeder was essentially a niche author (his previous feature film "More" had not met much commercial success), at most he could be indicated for those art cinemas frequented by university students inclined to open endless debates after watching a film. What was known, again here in Italy, was that the band Pink Floyd had recorded an album in 1972 (in line with their psychedelic style) titled "Obscured by clouds," which was the soundtrack of a film titled "La Vallée". And to see the work, several decades had to pass since only about ten years ago, as part of the series "Raro video / Visioni underground," the corresponding DVD was published in its original language with subtitle options. One might say that it's never too late... But beyond the aforementioned peculiarities related to distribution difficulties, the film deserves to be retrieved for valid reasons which I will later call back upon.
At the center of the story is Viviane (played by a skillful and radiant Bulle Ogier), the young wife of the French consul in Melbourne, who is in New Guinea. A typical wealthy Parisian woman, bored and a bit stressed (the scene where she complains to a taxi driver about the slow-moving city traffic in a village on the island is priceless), she has an import business of exotic items. In particular, she wants to obtain rare feathers from local birds to be delivered to Parisian boutiques. But to succeed in this endeavor, she should venture into an unexplored area of New Guinea. Fortunately, she encounters and meets a group of French hippies also intending to reach that area, so she decides to follow them. Only that these young compatriots of hers have a different purpose from hers: they intend to reach that area simply because it is a mythical valley not marked on any map since it is constantly covered with clouds. The journey will be crucial for Viviane, not so much for acquiring the rare feathers mentioned earlier, but especially for the inner growth that will change her. In fact, she will end up embracing the hippie lifestyle philosophy of her travel companions, adapting to practices of free love, consumption of natural substances with intoxicating effects, and a greater harmony with natural life.
To the point that, on the way to reaching the destination, Viviane and the hippies will encounter groups of the Mapuga tribe engaged in ritual celebrations aimed at courting the favor of the gods, objects of animistic worship. However, it will be evident that a true harmony between people from such different worlds is inconceivable: even the hippies, in relation to those natives, turn out to be mere tourists coming from a completely alien part of the world. And subsequently, it will be bitter to note that, arriving exhausted near the goal, our travelers will only be able to see the sun's rays pierce the thick cloud cover hovering over the mythical valley, a sort of earthly Eden on the horizon, yet always difficult to reach...
As a premise, I said that the theme of the journey is the leitmotif that informs this Schroeder film, an author very attentive to objectively recording the youthful tensions of those years. If in "More" the protagonists represented that self-destructive drift of those who immersed themselves in the world of drugs to escape a reality considered dull, in "La Vallée" there is a felt necessity (very widespread at that time) to move to areas far from the civilized world, in search of a lost Eden (in mythic Orient) where one could recreate a different life. Furthermore, the film shows the propensity of the characters to journey because it is this very act that is important, more than reaching a mythical destination. In fact, from the film's ending, it’s unclear whether the journey reaches its destination. Only Viviane, the one who on the way has acquired a different awareness, manages to see in the distance the area that has been so much talked about.
Finally, I would add another consideration. A film like this, released in 1972, speaks to us of a mentality typical of those times, when there was a greater propensity and curiosity to relate to worlds and people different from our civilization. That there was subsequently a regression (rather than an evolution) in the spirit of the times, we notice it before our eyes. If the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 made us believe that the world would expand and become uniform, today it is evident how our societies have embarked on the opposite path. Without mentioning the salient historical events of the twenty-first century so far transpired, we now find ourselves with new walls, mistrust and fear toward the different (read migrants), isolation induced by pandemic events. In this global context, embarking on a formative journey as advocated at the time of the Beat generation is unfortunately just a retro utopia.
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