A Degree of Murder

A Degree of Murder (German: Mord und Totschlag, French: Vivre à tout prix) is a 1967 West German film, starring Anita Pallenberg and directed by Volker Schlöndorff. The film is mainly known because of the soundtrack composed by Brian Jones (founder of the Rolling Stones), Pallenberg's boyfriend at the time.

For the criminal law concept, see murder.
A Degree of Murder
Directed byVolker Schlöndorff
Produced byRob Houwer
Written by
Starring
Music byBrian Jones
CinematographyFranz Rath
Edited byClaus von Boro
Distributed by
Release date
  • 19 April 1967 (1967-04-19)
Running time
87 minutes
CountryWest Germany
LanguageGerman

The film won three German Film Awards. It was entered into the 1967 Cannes Film Festival.[1]

It was filmed in colour in West Germany in 1967.

Plot

Marie (Anita Pallenberg) shoots her ex-boyfriend with his own gun, after he attempts to beat her. Instead of reporting this to the police she hires two men to help her dump the body in a construction site near an autobahn. While doing this she becomes romantically involved with both men.

Cast

Home Media

The film was released on Blu-ray and DVD in Germany in 2019.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack by Brian Jones has never had an official release, possibly because of legal conflicts. Jones played on the soundtrack, while Yardbirds guitarist Jimmy Page, session pianist Nicky Hopkins, musician Peter Gosling, and Small Faces drummer Kenney Jones also contributed their respective instruments to the recording sessions which took place between late 1966 and early 1967 at IBC Studios in London. Jones stated that "the boys in the band played on the record" but Rolling Stones bassist Bill Wyman has said that neither he nor drummer Charlie Watts participated and Jones never specified exactly which members played on the soundtrack. Jones also claimed that included many session musicians, but according to the session logs most of the instrumentation was done by Jones himself.

In Rolling Stone issue #1171, Jimmy Page talks about working on the soundtrack."Brian knew what he was doing. It was quite beautiful. Some of it was made up at the time; some of it was stuff I was augmenting with him. I was definitely playing with the violin bow. Brian had this guitar that had a volume pedal – he could get gunshots with it. There was a Mellotron there. He was moving forward with ideas."

The musicians were:

References
  1. "Festival de Cannes: A Degree of Murder". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved 2009-03-10.
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