Prepare your eardrums for the battering of a lifetime in this surrealistic study of a rock idol's mental breakdown. The story is told almost entirely without dialogue as we trace the causes of the breakdown to the accompaniment of creeping advancements along corridors, fields, trenches and public lavatories from director Alan Parker's portentous camera. We see the boy lose his father in the war (World War Two), be smothered by his mother, shattered by stardom, alcohol and dope, deserted by his faithless wife and mesmerised by a neo-Nazi organisation. The disintegration of his mind is often depicted in horrendous cartoon sequences directed by Gerald Scarfe. Like these, the film's images are savage and cruel. And director Parker often marshals his symbolism superbly, especially in a sequence of schoolchildren being fed into a sausage machine. Be ready, though, to have your stomach well and truly turned. For this is really a rocky horror picture show.


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