La Vallee
WhileThe Godfatherwas making moviegoers an offer they couldn't  refuse,La Valléewas 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  (includingWalkaboutandAguirre: The Wrath of God),La  Valléedazzled 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