Quickly seen: “Rock Bottom” by María Trénor

At the beginning of Rock Bottom, there's a little lie. A bohemian hippie night in the summer of 1973 sends Robert Wyatt over a fourth-story ledge. The former Soft Machine drummer is stoned and naked when he loses his balance. The accident, which leaves him a quadriplegic, should have taken place in London; instead, it's in New York. A strange shift that has the merit of removing Rock Bottom from the realm of biopic. Instead of touching the ground at the end of his fall, Wyatt's suspended body sinks into the Mediterranean while the first notes of the album that serves as the matrix for this musical and gives it its title resonate.

Rather than encompassing the Briton's entire life, María Trénor focuses on the few months of stasis in 1972 in Mallorca that led to his musical rebirth. The moments of experimentation and getting high with David Allen and Kevin Ayers. The close and self-destructive relationship with his partner Alfie Benge. But it's only when it depicts music that the film, too much in imitation of life, finally comes alive. To depict the magnetic storms that agitate Rock Bottom , the album, The film summons painting, video, and Dada photomontage. It's disconcerting, sometimes exciting. Impossible too, as capturing the contours of a fluid masterpiece, an aquatic odyssey, is a waste of time.