Dir: Kevin McDonald and Sam Rice-Edwards | UK Doc 90′
Kevin McDonald and Sam Rice-Edwards’ One to One: John & Yoko is an assemblage of archival film and aural recordings, exploring the life and times of John Lennon and Yoko Ono who after the breakup of The Beatles in 1969 left an affluent lifestyle in rural England with preference for the edgy life style offered by New Yok of the early 1970s.
There are many telling details including how Ono felt about the way she was viewed by The Beatles, the background behind benefit concerts including support for child victims of the Willowbrook Scandal and comparisons with the exile and return of Charlie Chaplin to USA happening alongside Lennon’s own fight with immigration authorities. Both Lennon and Ono were fascinated by the growth of Television as an early form of social media which they saw as replacing the traditional family routine of sitting around a fireplace as the centre of family life.
Difficult relationships with activists like Jerry Rubens, which ended after differences involving the use of force became problematic, are covered along with both Lennon and Ono settling into more conventional family life with the arrival of a son that would culminate in tragedy. The death of Lennon is fleetingly referred to by the filmmakers.
Documentary assemblage is not the film’s only function as One to One develops in its second half as a visual essay and a chronicle of times past, reflecting the present. The life of Lennon and Ono in America was a key cultural element of the times which involved a highly contentious war in Vietnam, movements about race and gender and the rise of students with acts of protest. This was reflected by a rich tapestry of music which Lennon and Ono added to with songs like Give Peace A Chance and Imagine.
One to One contains vivid contemporary footage linked to the election of 1972 which provided the Republican Richard Nixon with a landslide victory against the Democrats which he would lose two years later after the disgrace of Watergate. Parallels with today and 2024 America are felt as the film progresses into a thought-provoking visual essay and chronicle of our times, raising questions as to how much has changed between 1972 and 2024. With music as a force to not only imagine but also give peace a chance, it could be argued that this was much more organic and easier in 1972 than in 2024. Peter Herbert
ONE TO ONE premiered at Venice and London Film Festivals 2024 | Coming to UK Cinemas in 2025