Release History
"Are you happy with the filming?""What do you mean, happy?"
"Well do you think it's interesting?"
"What do you mean, interesting?" —,
The original release, running for one hour, only featured the live footage. The film was scheduled for a special premiere at London's Rainbow Theatre, on 25 November 1972. It was canceled at the last minute by the theater's owners, Rank Strand. Their eventual explanation was that the film didn't have a certificate from the British Board of Film Censors and they wouldn't allow the Rainbow Theatre, which was a music venue, to be a venue for showing a film and thus could be seen to be in competition with their other established cinemas.
Maben was concerned that one of the problems with the film was that it was too short. In early 1973, Maben was fly fishing with Waters, and suggested the possibility of improving the film by watching them at work in a recording studio. Subsequently, Maben was invited with a small crew using a single 35mm camera to Abbey Road Studios to film supposed recording sessions of The Dark Side of the Moon, as well as interviews conducted off-camera by Maben, and footage of the band eating and talking at the Abbey Road Studios cafeteria. Maben was particularly happy about this footage, feeling it captured the spontaneous humour of the band. This version was released in August 1974, and ran for 80 minutes. The recording sessions were actually staged for the film, as the recording of the album had been completed when these sessions were filmed in January 1973 and the band was mixing the album at the time.
The film wasn't financially successful according to Mason, though Maben disagrees, and suffered particularly from being overshadowed by the release of The Dark Side of the Moon not long after the original theatrical showing. Reportedly when someone mentioned he had made a substantial amount of money from the film at a show, Waters had him ejected from the building. However, it was released on video several times.
The director's cut is a 2003 DVD re-release running 92 minutes. In addition to the concert and interview footage, it includes more overlaid imagery including footage from the Apollo space program and computer-generated images of space and Pompeii, and overall has a busier, "updated" feel. The original 4:3 aspect footage is presented in "fake widescreen" in this version. The DVD also contains the original one-hour release in the "features" section, a collection of black and white footage of the band in Paris filmed by Maben in 1972, and an extensive interview with the director.
Read more about this topic: Pink Floyd: Live At Pompeii
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