The Moon Over the Alley

Caught The Moon Over the Alley on the BFI channel. The BFI's offerings are usually pretty hit or miss as to how good or bad the films are, with some real classics and some real duds. And The Moon Over the Alley was definitely a dud IMO.

The film is set in late 1970's London in the Notting Hill section. Back then, from what I've read and not being a resident of London, Notting Hill was down and out back then. Kind of like the East Village in NYC. The movie centers on the boarding house of a German couple and the surrounding neighborhood's working class, hippies, artist and the just plain marginal homeless. I got through about the first 20 minutes or so, but then the barely passable songs every five and the strained attempt for verisimilitude got wearing. I fast forwarded to the end - and this is where the movie went from quirky to nasty. There ensue a couple of scenes of violence and sexual assault that were jarring from the prior tempo of the film. It just threw the whole film off, IMO. And thus my low rating and caution before viewing this low budget, amateurish film.