Recut Rolling Stones-Godard Flick Gets Screening For Fundraising Drive

SAN FRANCISCO — One Plus One, Jean-Luc Godard's original and unaltered version of Sympathy For the Devil, is being shown here by the West Coast Cinema Workshop, an organization of young, mostly penniless filmmakers who arranged for the premiere showing as part of a drive to raise $20,000.

The bread will be used to set up an editing and sound-transfer studio for 8mm and 16mm, which will then be made available to independent filmmakers at a nominal cost.

The Rolling Stones, 1963-1969: Behind-the-Scenes Snapshots

The showing is a direct result of criticism directed at producer Ian Quarrier, who fucked over Godard's final cut by changing the title and adding an ending which Godard considered in direct contradiction to the meaning of the film.

Godard didn't want to include the final version of the Stones' Sympathy For the Devil as performed in the recording studio. Quarrier tacked it on anyhow, and changed the title so as to appeal to rock and roll/Stones freaks.

Quarrier has not withdrawn the altered version – he's just put both films into distribution; prospective, exhibitors can choose whichever version they want. But regardless of the version shown, New Line Cinema (the distributor) is requiring exhibitors to pay an exorbitant percentage-of-net deal.

It's the usual story with the Stones these days – all the traffic will bear.

In any case, One Plus One ran for five days, March 11th-15th, at the Palace Theatre in North Beach – a gigantic movie palace that usually houses Chinese operas and midnight camp-cum-Art Movies.

This story is from the April 2nd, 1970 issue of Rolling Stone.