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The Body | |
---|---|
Directed by | Roy Battersby |
Based on | book by Anthony Smith |
Produced by | Tony Garnett |
Narrated by | Frank Finlay Vanessa Redgrave |
Cinematography | Tony Imi |
Edited by | Alan Cumner-Price |
Music by | Ron Geesin Roger Waters |
Production company | Kestrel Films |
Distributed by | Anglo-EMI (UK) MGM (US) |
Release dates | 1970 (UK) 24 February 1971 (US) |
Running time | 93 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | £108,000 [1] |
The Body is a 1970 British scientific documentary film directed and produced by Roy Battersby. In the film, external and internal cameras are used to showcase the human body. [2]
The film's narrators, Frank Finlay and Vanessa Redgrave, provide commentary that combines the knowledge of human biologists and anatomical experts. The film's soundtrack, Music from the Body , was composed by Ron Geesin and Roger Waters, and includes songs that were made using the human body as a medium. Waters is also the narrator of one scene.
The film was "suggested by" a science book by Anthony Smith. [3] The cost of optioning film rights and developing the project to take to market cost £11,000 which came from the NFFC. After a year, by December 1969 Battersby had a script. He showed this to the NFFC which resulted in another draft of the script. The NFFC agreed to provide half of the finance. In March 1969 Battersby met with Nat Cohen at Anglo-Amalgamated who agreed to provide the other half of finance on that day. [4] [1] Battersby shot about 300,000 feet of film of which 11,000 were used. "There was a lot of blood and film on the cutting room floor," said Garnett. [3]
Tony Garnett asked John Peel recommendations for who might do the soundtrack. Peel suggested Ron Geesin. [5] He did it with Roger Waters from Pink Floyd. Geesin later said:
It was an attempt... to put a deeply socio-human documentary about the human body into cinemas, using some then-pioneering micro-camera work: coursing along the various tubes and all that. The soundtrack did what all film soundtracks are supposed to do: duet with the visual content, for, against, unison, comment. The subsequent album for EMI consisted of most of that soundtrack, in its many parts: mine as originally recorded, Roger’s re-recorded, supplemented by two original tracks, little to do with the film and all to do with Roger and me having fun, ‘Our Song’ and ‘Body Transport’. [6]
In August 1971 Nat Cohen, whose company distributed the film, said it had recouped its negative cost in the Far East alone. [7]
The film was released on DVD on 7 October 2013.
Percy is a 1971 British comedy film directed by Ralph Thomas starring Hywel Bennett, Denholm Elliott, Elke Sommer and Britt Ekland.
George Roger Waters is an English musician and singer-songwriter. In 1965, he co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd as the bassist. Following the departure of the songwriter, Syd Barrett, in 1968, Waters became Pink Floyd's lyricist, co-lead vocalist and conceptual leader until his departure in 1985.
Atom Heart Mother is the fifth studio album by the English band Pink Floyd. It was released by Harvest on 2 October 1970 in the UK, and by Capitol on 10 October 1970 in the US. It was recorded at EMI Studios in London, and was the band's first album to reach number 1 in the UK, while it reached number 55 in the US, eventually going gold there.
Ronald Frederick Geesin is a Scottish musician, composer and writer known for his unusual creations and novel applications of sound, as well as for his collaborations with Pink Floyd and Roger Waters.
Music from The Body is the soundtrack album to Roy Battersby's 1970 documentary film The Body, about human biology, narrated by Vanessa Redgrave and Frank Finlay.
"Atom Heart Mother" is a six-part suite by the progressive rock band Pink Floyd, composed by all members of the band and Ron Geesin. It appeared on the Atom Heart Mother album in 1970, taking up the first side of the original vinyl record. At 23:38, it is Pink Floyd's longest uncut studio piece. Pink Floyd performed it live between 1970 and 1972, occasionally with a brass section and choir in 1970–71.
EMI Films was a British film studio and distributor. A subsidiary of the EMI conglomerate, the corporate name was not used throughout the entire period of EMI's involvement in the film industry, from 1969 to 1986, but the company's brief connection with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Anglo-EMI, the division under Nat Cohen, and the later company as part of the Thorn EMI conglomerate are outlined here.
The Transparent Anatomical Manikin (TAM) is a three-dimensional, transparent anatomical model of a human being, created for medical instructional purposes. TAM was created by designer – Richard Rush, in 1968. It consisted of a see-through reproduction of a female human body, with various organs being wired so specific body systems would light up on command on cue, with a pre-recorded educational presentation.
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Nat Cohen was a British film producer and executive. For over four decades he was one of the most significant figures in the British film industry, particularly in his capacity as head of Anglo-Amalgamated and EMI Films; he helped finance the first Carry On movies and early work of filmmakers such as Ken Loach, John Schlesinger, Alan Parker and David Puttnam. In the early 1970s while head of EMI Films he was called the most powerful man in the British film industry. He's been called "an unsung giant of British film who never got his due from the establishment in part because of anti-Semitism... the ability to be a successful studio head is very rare and most only last a few years. Cohen did it successfully at various companies for over two decades."
Treasure Island is a 1972 adventure film, based on the 1883 novel by Robert Louis Stevenson. The film stars Orson Welles as Long John Silver, Kim Burfield as Jim Hawkins, Walter Slezak as Squire Trelawney, Rik Battaglia as Captain Smollett, and Ángel del Pozo as Doctor Livesey.
The Go-Between is a 1971 British period drama film directed by Joseph Losey. Its screenplay by Harold Pinter is an adaptation of the 1953 novel The Go-Between by L. P. Hartley. The film stars Julie Christie, Alan Bates, Margaret Leighton, Michael Redgrave and Dominic Guard. It won the Palme d'Or at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival.
Picnic – A Breath of Fresh Air is a sampler issued by the Harvest Records label, originally released in 1970 and notable for including the previously unreleased Pink Floyd song, "Embryo".
Biomusic is a form of experimental music which deals with sounds created or performed by non-humans. The definition is also sometimes extended to include sounds made by humans in a directly biological way. For instance, music that is created by the brain waves of the composer can also be called biomusic as can music created by the human body without the use of tools or instruments that are not part of the body.
Our Song may refer to:
Up Pompeii is a 1971 British sex comedy film directed by Bob Kellett and starring Frankie Howerd and Michael Hordern. The film was shot at Elstree Film Studios, Borehamwood, England and is based on characters that first appeared in the British television sitcom Up Pompeii! (1969–1975).
Green Grow the Rushes is a 1951 British comedy film directed by Derek N. Twist and starring Roger Livesey, Richard Burton and Honor Blackman. It was the first film to be released by ACT Films, an entity formed by a trade union for filmmakers. The film was produced by John Gossage and funded by the National Film Finance Corporation and the Co-Operative Wholesale Society Bank. It is an adaptation of the 1949 novel of the same title by Howard Clewes.
El Condor is a 1970 American Western film directed by John Guillermin.
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A Raise of Eyebrows is the debut album by Scottish composer Ron Geesin, released in June 1967 by Transatlantic Records. Recorded in his home studio in Notting Hill, Geesin aimed to make a humorous album of social commentary that reflected his musical abilities. Considered a work of electronic and experimental music, the album exemplifies Geesin's tape manipulation of sounds and his skills on numerous instruments, including guitar, piano, banjo and devices atypical to music, and explores music, poetry, spoken word, satire, noise, and sound collages.