Kevin Macdonald on Showcasing John Lennon’s ‘Political Engagement’ (and Recreating His New York Apartment) in ‘One to One: John & Yoko’
Shortly after they moved to New York in 1971, John Lennon and Yoko Ono became so paranoid that the authorities were bugging their phone that they decided to record their calls. More than 50 years on, a selection of these never-before-heard recordings form what Kevin Macdonald describes as the “beating heart” of his new documentary, “One to One: John and Yoko,” premiering in Venice Aug 30.
In one call, Ono candidly describes what it was like to be blamed for breaking up the Beatles. In another, Lennon describes his idea for a tour around the U.S. that would raise bail money in each town they play, alongside efforts to get Bob Dylan onboard (and persuade Dylan aggravator A.J. Weberman to please leave the musician alone). In some of the film’s most amusing moments, there are endless back-and-forths concerning Ono’s efforts to procure some flies for a new art installation (getting flies too far in advance was deemed unsuitable because, as one gallery figure pointed out, “the thing is, flies die every day.”)
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For Macdonald, the calls — alongside a treasure trove of footage, including home movies, but also commercials and news clips from that time of political upheaval — were central to crafting a “totally immersive archive film” and offer a surprisingly unique insight into one of the most famous cultural figures of all time.
“One to One” focuses on an 18-month period, post-Beatlemania and when the two had fled a life of luxury in the U.K. to hole up in a relatively humble two-room apartment in New York’s West Village, becoming immediate figureheads for the counterculture and anti-Vietnam War movements and go-tos for almost any activist group needing some celebrity support.
It concludes with the 1972 “One to One” charity concert for special needs children, which would end up being Lennon’s final full-length concert before his death in 1980.
Macdonald says that the project — his first as part of a partnership signed last year with Plan B — was initially brought to him as this charity concert, with restored and remastered footage, and remixed audio overseen by Sean Ono Lennon. But he broadened the scope, going back to ask the question about why Lennon and Ono would put such show. The answer, as the film gradually explains, is “because of John and Yoko’s political engagement,” but also because of their rampant TV consumption (the plight of the special needs children was brought to light in a news report they watched).
And so, the documentary helps showcase what he describes as Lennon’s incredible “open-mindedness” while in New York, alongside his curiosity and “intellectual openness,” something he says was rare for “one of the most famous men in the world.”
All of “One to One: John and Yoko” is constructed collage-like using archive material, with the exception of one key element — scenes within the couple’s apartment, which are scattered throughout the film and used to break up certain elements of the narrative.
Granted a filming budget, Macdonald decided to use this to remake the apartment as accurately as they could using photographs, pulling his Oscar-nominated wife, set decorator Tatiana Macdonald (“The Imitation Game”), out of retirement to oversee the production.
“We really did get very forensic on it,” he says, with months spent trying to find the exact posters they had on the walls and records scattered on the floor. “My wife said it was the hardest thing she’d done as it really had a detective element to it.”
But it all worked out.
Says Macdonald: “I’m really pleased because a couple of people who have seen it have said ‘Oh, they turned John and Yoko’s apartment into a museum.”
See a teaser for the ‘One to One: John & Yoko’ below.
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