'I think of her as a proto-punk': documentarist Svetlana Zill on Anita Pallenberg

'I THINK OF HER AS A PROTO-PUNK: DOCUMENTARIST SVETLANA ZILL ON ANITA PALLENBERG The co-director considers her revelatory account of the Stones' muse of mayhem

The co-director considers her revelatory account of the Stones' muse of mayhem

Anita Pallenberg was a vital presence in the Stones’ most vital years. Her bright eyes and hungry mouth betrayed a ferocious appetite for pleasure and adventure, taking her from a nun-schooled Rome childhood to New York’s downtown art crowd, then modelling in Munich, where in 1965 she engineered an encounter with “shy” Keith Richards, a similarly callow Mick Jagger and her first, violent Stones lover Brian Jones. Richards saved her from Jones’ paranoid abuse in 1967, and they became notorious outlaw lovers for the next decade.

Music Reissues Weekly: West Coast Consortium - All The Love In The World

WEST COAST CONSORTIUM - ALL THE LOVE IN THE WORLD Top-drawer British harmony pop

Top-drawer British harmony pop band whose promise was unfulfilled

West Coast Consortium’s first single was July 1967’s “Some Other Someday,” a delightful slice of Mellotron-infused harmony pop which wasn’t too far from The Ivy League’s “Funny How Love Can be” and The Rockin’ Berries’ “He’s in Town” – each of which were hits in, respectively, 1965 and 1964. All three bands were on the Pye label and its associated imprint Piccadilly.

Blu-ray: The Dreamers

★★★★ BLU-RAY: THE DREAMERS Bertolucci revisits May '68 via intoxicated, transgressive sex

Bertolucci revisits May '68 via intoxicated, transgressive sex, lit up by the debuting Eva Green

Isabelle (Eva Green) leans over, her long hair catches fire from a candle, and Matthew (Michael Pitt) devotedly snuffs it out. She doesn’t miss a beat at this real-life accident, consumed already by The Dreamers’ closed world of a Left Bank apartment in May ’68, where sexual transgression stands for the barricades and baton charges outside.

Music Reissues Weekly: Congo Funk! - Sound Madness from the Shores of the Mighty Congo River

CONGO FUNK! Sound Madness from the Shores of the Mighty Congo River

Assiduous exploration of the interconnected musical ecosystems of Brazzaville and Kinshasa

Brazzaville is on the north side of the Congo River. It is the capital of the Republic of the Congo. Kinshasa is on the south side of the Congo. It is capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly known as Zaïre. The cities face each other, about 1.5km apart, divided by the river and being in different nations.

Blu-ray: Happy End (Šťastný konec)

★★★ BLU-RAY: HAPPY END Technically brilliant black comedy hasn't aged well

Technically brilliant black comedy hasn't aged well

Happy End’s big draw is its central conceit, that of a convicted murderer narrating his life story backwards from the guillotine to the cradle. Made in 1967 by Oldfřich Lipský (1924-1986), renowned as a director of off-beat comedies, you wonder how on earth such a peculiar film was produced during such a turbulent time in Czechoslovak history.

Ripley, Netflix review - Highsmith's horribly fascinating sociopath adrift in a sea of noir

★★★ RIPLEY, NETFLIX Highsmith's horribly fascinating sociopath adrift in a sea of noir

Its black and white cinematography is striking, but eventually wearying

There would have to be a good reason for making another screen version of Patricia Highsmith’s 1955 novel The Talented Mr Ripley, already successfully adapted by Anthony Minghella in his 1999 film. 

Mothers' Instinct review - 'Mad Women'

★★★ MOTHERS' INSTINCT Sixties suburban duel veers between daftness and spooky power

Sixties suburban duel veers between daftness and spooky power

This is a Nineties psycho thriller in Mad Men clothes, undermining its Sixties suburban gloss and Anne Hathaway and Jessica Chastain’s desperate housewives with genre clichés, yet sustained by the courage of debuting director Benoît Delhomme’s un-Hollywood conviction.

Music Reissues Weekly: Niney The Observer Presents Lightning and Thunder!

NINEY THE OBSERVER PRESENTS LIGHTNING AND THUNDER! The start of the reggae polymath

Valuable collection dedicated to the early works of the reggae polymath

Winston Holness started his own record label in 1969. Missing a finger, he became known by many folks as Niney. Born 7 December 1944, he had lost a thumb in an accident at work. By the point his imprint debuted, he had sung on a Clement “Coxsone” Dodd-produced track and was working as a salesman for other producers, including Clancy Eccles, Bunny “Striker” Lee and Lee “Scratch” Perry.