In competition at the Annecy Festival, “Rock Bottom” by Maria Trénor pays homage to musician Robert Wyatt with a lush animated film

The Spanish director, whose first feature film is, obtained the approval of the British musician to tell a story of love and creation inspired by his life and that of his partner.

Animation is exceptional in that it offers unlimited freedom for the imagination to unfold. Spanish director Maria Trénor takes it on with luxuriant creativity for her first animated feature film, Rock Bottoma marvel loosely inspired by the tumultuous life of cult British musician Robert Wyatt.

Screened in world premiere on Wednesday June 12 at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival, where it is in competition, Rock Bottom takes the title of the album considered to be the masterpiece of the brilliant musician released in 1974 and produced by Nick Mason of Pink Floyd. A record which celebrates its 50th anniversary this June and for which we could not dream of a better celebration.

As a reminder, Robert Wyatt, now 79 years old, was for four years the drummer and singer of Soft Machine, a group fusing psychedelic rock and jazz, which he left in 1971. His destiny took a tragic turn on 1^er June 1973: during a London evening, where drugs and alcohol were flowing freely, he fell four floors from a bathroom window. With his legs in pieces, he is miraculously recovered but becomes paraplegic.

However, he always saw in this drama the beginning of his maturity and the opportunity to express himself even more accurately through his music. Trading drums for keyboards, during his convalescence he finalized what would become the dizzying Rock Bottoma strange album with poignant melodies.

Maria Trénor, who met Robert Wyatt a few years ago and obtained his agreement to carry out this musical odyssey, mainly tells a love story between two artists. That, intense and for a time self-destructive, of Bob and Alif, inspired by that of the musician with Alfreda Benge. This artist, who became his wife in 1974, has since illustrated all his album covers while acting as manager and lyricist on occasion, and worked for the cinema with Nicolas Roeg. In Maria Trénor’s version, she is a visual artist and director of experimental films.

Rock Bottom is not a biopic of Robert Wyatt, insists its author. The film “attempts to capture the essence of his artistic and personal experience, translating the emotional ups and downs of his life into images and stories.”, explains the screenwriter and director. She teleports us to the early 70s, in the middle of the hippie period, and takes us from the disreputable streets of New York (instead of London in reality) to Majorca, where Bob, like Wyatt, passed before his most obvious accident of his time with his lover.

Alif and Bob first experience cloudless happiness on this heavenly Balearic island, their creativity at its peak, she on her experimental films and he on his cracked and innovative compositions, diving at night into magical coves where they dance their love in sensual underwater ballets. An era of carefreeness and abundant creativity, where youth experienced their sexual revolution half-naked and discovered drugs, from cannabis to heroin and LSD.

The director excels at rendering exuberant parties and altered states of consciousness with an incredible profusion of colors and enchanting psychedelic effects. The story overlaps times and events, skillfully intertwining dream and reality, and the film’s soundtrack tactfully synchronizes the album’s six original songs Rock Bottom as well as other compositions by Robert Wyatt.

Maria Trénor also regularly varies styles, moving from animation using real actors to artisanal watercolors and surrealist black and white films (those that Alif makes). These visual feats compensate for the slowness of the screenplay, which takes its time to express the pangs of creation, drug addiction and passion, then the love-killing routine.

Because drug abuse, which causes hallucinations also rendered with extraordinary acuteness in the film – hedgehogs speak and bears dance –, soon comes to darken the couple’s relationship. When autumn comes, addicted to heroin and penniless, they each lose their inspiration and tear each other apart. Until the breakup and the return to New York, alone, of Bob, although he remained madly in love, and this accident which could have been fatal. “I don’t care what happened to me. As long as you’re with me”, Bob will say to Alif, who rushes to his bedside. On this romantic basis of fusional love and resilience through music, Maria Trénor creates a sensitive film of great beauty.

Gender : Musical animated film
Director : Maria Trénor
Country : Spain, Poland
Duration : 1h26
Exit : shortly

Synopsis : Through the music of Robert Wyatt, this animated musical comedy immerses you in the passionate love story of Bob and Alif, two young artists immersed in the creative whirlwind of hippie culture of the early 1970s.