Barbet Schroeder	...	(Director)
Paul Gégauff	...	(Writer)
Jérôme Beauvarlet	...
Monique Giraudy	...
Michael Gothard	...
Jean-Pierre Kalfon	...
Valérie Lagrange	...
Néstor Almendros	...	Cinematographer
Denise de Casabianca	...	Editor

Tags: Buddhism Drama

Summary: While "The Godfather" was making moviegoers an offer they couldn't refuse, "La Vallée" was wowing art-house crowds with its flower-powered search for paradise in the jungles of New Guinea. It's there that an adventurous diplomat's wife (Bulle Ogier), hoping to find the forbidden feathers of a rare exotic bird, embarks on a deeper, more personal quest when she encounters a makeshift family of hippies seeking an unmapped valley from which visitors are said never to return. Like the structurally similar cult films from its era (including "Walkabout" and "Aguirre: The Wrath of God"), "La Vallée" dazzled the post-'60s subculture with free-spirited adventure and enigmatic beauty, captured here through the peerless lens of cinematographer Néstor Almendros. The hippie vibe seems mildly dated but its sensual context is timeless, and a climactic encounter with the primitive Mapuga tribe retains an intense cross-cultural mystique. Pink Floyd's celebrated soundtrack is mostly heard as background ambience, but it effectively enhances the film's compelling atmosphere of mystery and expectation. "--Jeff Shannon"