A now obscure hour long “trance film” from 1965 about the late Vali Myers (1930-2003). Myers was an Australian dancer, painter, occult adherent and media personality who served as a muse to famous folk ranging from Tennessee Williams to Patti Smith, and was known as much for her flamboyant lifestyle as her “talent.” She was later profiled in another documentary, 1990’s little seen THE TIGHTROPE DANCER, directed by Ruth Cullen.
VALI (a.k.a. VALI, THE WITCH OF POSITANO) was the debut documentary by the late counterculture legend Sheldon Rochlin (1939-2002) and his then-wife Diane (who later became Flame Schon). The Rochlins, best known for the notorious 1968 doco DOPE (1968), which depicted a young Londoner’s real-life dope addiction (and featured several appearances by Vali Myers), got a decidedly mixed reception with VALI. The smart-assed Village Voice critic Andrew Sarris dismissed it as “Vali of the Dolls,” yet the film won the 1965 Best Documentary award at the Mannheim Film Festival. It was later released on VHS in the 1980s by the Sheldon Rochlin owned Mystic Fire Video.
Utilizing an unobtrusive yet baroque style in its straightforward presentation of a very bizarre world, VALI takes place in Positano, Italy, during the mid-1960s. There we look in on a few days in the life of Myers and her then-husband Rudi Rappold (both of whom are credited as co-directors), residing in a fourteenth century Cliffside cottage that Myers has decorated in a manner that matches her outsized personality.
We see Myers scampering barefoot around the surrounding cliffs and caves, canoodling with Rappold, ecstatically dabbing make up on her face and performing obscure occult rituals as numerous dogs and other animals roam through the place. She also makes her way to nearby towns, where she’s mobbed by adoring crowds and dances amid what looks like a pretty boring party.
Music from Vali:
In lieu of the standard documentary talking heads, the Rochlins utilize voice-over interviews in which Myers (whose thick Australian accent and squeaky vocal tones make her words somewhat difficult to make out) discusses her work in a factory, her unassuming childhood in Australia, a period she spent living on the streets of Paris and her all-encompassing love of tattoos. Also provided are a wealth of fetishistic close-ups of the arcane objects scattered throughout Myers’s home, rendered enchanting and seductive through Sheldon Rochlin’s gorgeously ornate cinematography.
Does this film succeed in attaining Rochlin’s mission statement about the “transformation of consciousness, not only through spiritual teaching but through art, music, poetry and film”? I’d say no, although as an unvarnished product of its time, and an immersive peek into the twilit reality of its subject, VALI rates quite highly.
Vital Statistics
VALI (a.k.a. VALI, THE WITCH OF POSITANO)
Mystic Fire Video
Director: Sheldon Rochlin, Diane Rochlin, Vali Myers, Rudi Rappold
Producers: Sheldon Rochlin, George Plimpton, Mark Lawrence
Cinematography: Sheldon Rochlin
Editing: Sheldon Rochlin, Diane Rochlin
Cast: Vali Myers, Rudi Rappold