Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii (1972) on Netflix
G19721h 24mDocumentaryMusic
In October 1971, Pink Floyd performs a live set inside the ancient Roman amphitheater at Pompeii, with no audience beyond the film crew. The band brings its regular touring equipment.
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- Netflix4.7/5
- IMDb8.6/1011,683 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
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Plot summary
Filming takes place over four days in October 1971, when the amphitheater at Pompeii is closed to the public. Pink Floyd plays live with its regular touring equipment, carried by truck from London, and the natural echo of the ruins shapes the recording. Power is insufficient at first, so a cable of about 750 m is run from the town hall. The band records songs in sections and splices them together, among them Echoes, A Saucerful of Secrets, One of These Days, and Careful with That Axe, Eugene, some shot at night with minimal lighting. A few children slip in and watch quietly. The remaining numbers are filmed that December in a Paris studio, where a dog named Nobs joins for Mademoiselle Nobs.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii (1972)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Outtakes and alternative shots held at the Archives du Film du Bois D'Arcy were destroyed when an employee of the owners, MHF Productions, judged the footage worthless and incinerated all 548 cans of the original 35 mm negatives.
- Pink Floyd's touring equipment was trucked from London to Pompeii, where filming was plagued for days because the site's power supply could not drive it; the problem was solved with a cable of roughly 750 m run from the local town hall.
- Director Adrian Maben lost his passport while on holiday in Naples, and when he went back to the Pompeii amphitheatre to look for it he decided the silence and ambient sounds of the deserted ruins would make a good backdrop for the band's music.
- Ugo Carputi, a University of Naples professor of architecture and a Pink Floyd fan, persuaded the local authorities to close the Pompeii amphitheatre for six days for filming; access was secured after payment of a "fairly steep" entrance fee.
- A special premiere of the film at London's Rainbow Theatre on 25 November 1972 was canceled at the last minute by the theater's owner, Rank Strand, because the film had no certificate from the British Board of Film Censors and the theater risked being seen as competing with cinemas.
- The Beastie Boys' video for "Gratitude" is an homage to the film and shows speaker cabinets the group bought that were still labeled "Pink Floyd, London"; it ends with a dedication to all the people who died at Pompeii.
- David Gilmour returned to the Pompeii amphitheatre in July 2016 for two concerts on his Rattle That Lock Tour and was named an honorary citizen of Pompeii; the shows were recorded and released in 2017 as Live at Pompeii.
- Before the film was made, Adrian Maben pitched David Gilmour and manager Steve O'Rourke a movie in which Pink Floyd's music played over paintings by René Magritte, Jean Tinguely, Giorgio de Chirico and others; the band rejected the idea.
