Russel Brand lookie-likie Pierre André Clémenti usually played preternaturally pale, effete, spaced-out bourgeois hippies, making an effectively bizarre turn in gloomy Venetian thriller 'Designated Victim' with fellow sublimely gifted acting weirdie Tomas Milian, while an interesting, albeit fey young actor, very little in his dramatic repertoire can prepare one for the hyperbolically lysergic visual overload of outré filmmaker Clémenti's triumphantly tripped out, gonzo Godardian, deliciously self-indulgent celluloid freak out 'Visa de censure n°X' which plays out like a dopamine-drenched aria to age of Aquarius absurdity that is very much an eminently 'groovy' artefact of its time that still holds a singular fascination today, not just for its intriguing historical elements, but having a mesmeric energy all of its own!
Apparently 5 bong years in the making, the clearly dope-raddled Clémenti's heroically hallucinatory experiment aggressively eschews cogent narrative for a frequently fanciful frenzy of dizzying double-exposures, delirious editing, psychedelic multicoloured montages of gorgeously glassy-eyed, scantily attired astral travellers, while the sylph-waisted, messianic-looking Clémenti frequently places his not unlovely tousle-haired visage in many of his restless THC-infused visions there's a goodly multitude of majestically mashed, nakedly uninhibited long-hairs cavorting against sumptuously sun-hazed vistas sublime! 'Visa de censure n°X' plays out madly like a solarized Tangerine Dream, and the heavenly trance-like dopamine dizzy raga-rock by musicians Yvan Coaqeuette & Cyrille Verdeaux is, for me, the true 'high' point of moviemaker Clémenti hubristic overload of kooky, Kenneth Angered excess! While I adored the bravura extravagance, and frequently marvelled at the film's garish lack of subtlety, some viewers may well find Pierre Clémenti counter culture wig out 'Visa de censure n°X'' a trifle hard to endure.
