STONED

UK, 2005, 103 minutes, Colour.
Leo Gregory, Paddy Considine, Natalie Cox, Monet Mazur, David Morrissey, Amelia Warner.
Directed by Stephen Woolley.

By 2005, only aficionados of Rock and Roll history of the 1960s will know who Brian Jones is. After this film, many audiences will feel that they have seen enough about him and, repelled, will not want to know more. For the record, he was the founder of the Rolling Stones, a composer and musician who succumbed to the 60s sex, drugs and rock’n’roll big time, showed very few attractive qualities and was dead, drowned, by the age of 27. At the time, pundits thought that without him that would be the end of the Rolling Stones. Forty years on, those pundits could not be more wrong.

Why a film about such an uninteresting character? A homage? A tribute? A desire to re-create the times? An attempt at analysis of the 1960s? Really, none of the above except, perhaps, a desire on the part of those fascinated by the ethos of the era to go back there.

The screenplay is fragmented in terms of time jigsaw pieces. The visual style aspires to remind audiences of the psychedelic consciousness of those years. We see bits and pieces and, if we care to, we might try to put them together into some coherent whole. But all that would produce would be a portrait of a dissolute young man, seeing him in sex, drugs and, occasionally, music action. Jones is played by Leo Gregory.

The characters who surround him do not ingratiate themselves with the audience either. (We actually see very little of Mick Jagger of Keith Richards.) There is his dominating manager, Tom Keylock who served as an adviser for the film, played by David Morrisey as if he were aping Michael Caine. There is the builder, Frank Thorogood (Paddy Considine) who is placed in the household to remodel his mansion but to keep an eye on him. There are the discontented builders and several available girls, including actress Anita Pallenberg. (Much of the film resembles Donald Camell’s 1970s film with Mick Jagger, Performance.) And, maybe, that is more than most potential audiences need to know, except that the screenplay announces that Thorogood on his deathbed in 1993 confessed that he had murdered Jones in the swimming pool.

1.The impact of the film? Content? Style?

2.Audience knowledge of Brian Jones, of the origins of the Rolling Stones, of lifestyles in the UK in the 1960s? The hedonistic philosophy? Freedom? Sexuality? The perspective of the 60s? Forty years on? Judgments?

3.The structure of the film: the giving of dates and times? A jigsaw puzzle? A satisfying completion of the puzzle or not?

4.The visuals, the psychedelic styles of the 60s, the influence of LSD and hallucinatory drugs? Changes of consciousness? Moving from reality to fantasy and back again?

5.Frank Thorogood and his personality, his being introduced to Brian Jones, the influence of Tom? His work on the house, collaboration with his fellow workers? The work, shifting fences etc? Not being paid? His asking for money, finally going to the office and making demands? The women? His meant to be baby-sitting Brian Jones? The drugs? His growing anger, his being looked down on by Jones? Experiencing the whims? His finally being fired? Not being paid? The anger – and his drowning Jones? The influence of the drugs? His behaviour after the drowning, with the police? Tom and his severing the relationship? The information that he confessed on his deathbed to killing Jones?

6.Brian Jones, his age, his career? The establishing of the Rolling Stones? His musical skills? Composing? His belief in freedom? With the group, alienated? His building the house? His whims and changing things? His times in Marrakesh? His relationship with the women, Anna, Janet? The role of Tom and management? The accountant in London? The relationship with Anita, love for her or not, her love for him or not? Her career? His wasting his time? The drugs, his illness? Separating from the Rolling Stones?

7.The women, Anna, Anita and her career, filming in Germany? Janet and her relationship with Tom, being cast off? Their presence at the time of Jones’s death? The police questioning? The aftermath?

8.Tom, his being made to look and sound like Michael Caine? Good at his job? Installing Frank, getting reports? His turning up and leaving, his control over Jones – and loss of control? Planting Frank? His relationship with Janet and his callous attitudes – yet staying with her?

9.The accountant, the business side of the Rolling Stones, the London office, Jones and his mismanagement of money? Frank and his demands, his being cut off? His visit to the office – and the women laughing at him?

10.The glimpses of the Rolling Stones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards? Their work, concerts? Collaboration with Jones? His separating from them? The aftermath of his death, the success of the Rolling Stones concert in Hyde Park?

11.Audience interest in this kind of story, memories of the swinging 60s, interest in Jones as a character or not? A wasted life?