Latest news with #OnetoOne:John&Yoko
Otago Daily Times
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
New window on Lennon and Ono's world
John Lennon and Yoko Ono in a scene from the documentary. A new documentary about John Lennon and Yoko Ono transports you back to the '70s, Seren Stevens writes. Confronting truths and inspiring compassion share the stage in the riveting documentary One to One: John & Yoko. Directed by academy award winner Kevin Macdonald (One Day in September, The Last King of Scotland), the film follows John Lennon and Yoko Ono after their move to New York, following the break-up of the Beatles. The film is skilfully comprised of previously unheard and unseen phone calls and home films, alongside TV clips and interviews with Lennon and Ono — a collection of material that, on paper, doesn't sound particularly captivating. However, Macdonald's artful storytelling and slick social commentary provides an experience that leaves you in awe. The film begins with restored 16mm film footage of John and Yoko's 1972 full-length concert, ''One to One'', which was dedicated to the children at Willowbrook State School, an underfunded institution for people with intellectual disabilities. The restored footage is vibrant and electric, transporting you back half a century. Flickering images of a crowd full of denim jackets, young men with shoulder-length hair and enthusiastically thrown peace signs set the scene. In the background, Lennon's Power to the People is softly chanted. Then, his live version of New York City begins blasting, picking the audience up in a whirlwind of the '70s. One to One: John & Yoko cleverly uses the convention of TV channels to create an immersive experience of life in the 1970s; of the fashion, the humour, the language and the political scene. The viewer is placed in Lennon and Ono's tiny one-bedroom apartment in New York, where a retro colour TV sits at the end of a messy bed. The channels switch between late-night talk shows, football matches and a news broadcast of the Attica Prison revolt. President Nixon appears several times, giving warm and reassuring speeches, while people in the background call for him to stop bombing Vietnam. Through the seemingly random TV channels, the director lays out the political state of the world. The intense polarisation of the political scene is highlighted in a way that feels confronting and yet familiar — eerily so. In an interview recording, Lennon jokingly describes the TV in their bedroom with a quote that explains the entire film. ''It's a window on the world. Whatever it is, that's our image of ourselves that we're portraying.'' As can be expected, Lennon's live music performances from the ''One to One'' concert are interspersed throughout the film. The songs have been remastered by Sean Ono Lennon, who also produced the film, to lift the music to a previously unheard reimagining. The beautiful and provoking aspect of the film is the way it effortlessly presents the full context of the time in which Lennon and Ono wrote their music. It builds on the sense that their songs were made with the intention of using the real, unfiltered world as their music video — as this film does. Lennon was simply narrating what was already being seen. By successfully surrounding the audience in the rose-coloured hypocrisy of the '70s, the film offers the deeper meaning of Lennon's music. Despite being a story about Lennon and Ono's escape from the Beatles break-up, the film is truly centred around the injustices of the era. True to Lennon and Ono's purpose, their fame is only a consequence, while their advocacy and activism is the takeaway from the film. Racial injustice, male chauvinism, the atrocities of the Vietnam War and the neglect and abuse of the intellectually disabled are all addressed meaningfully throughout the film. The intense and compassionate dialogue heard from Lennon, Ono and other key characters is heard in activism today, bringing the story home. Ono's honest account of how she was treated by the media following the break-up of the Beatles is also a focus; and it's a gut-wrenching glance at the cruelty the media can incite. One to One: John & Yoko is an eye-opening film that will change the way you hear Lennon's music and see the world today. The level of clarity, art and compassion Macdonald presents is astounding, as is the way he conjures the atmosphere of the '70s into the film. Lennon and Ono's love story is as intriguing as ever, and the film shines a new light on their love for each other, for music and for the world. The film One to One: John & Yoko screens as part of the NZ International Film Festival. The Regent, Monday, August 18 at 11am and Saturday, August 23 at 12.15pm.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Different President, Same Song: Trump Pulls a Nixon in His Battle Against The Boss
Before Donald Trump took to Truth Social to rage against Bruce Springsteen — calling him a 'dried out 'prune' of a rocker' and threatening ominously that 'we'll all see how it goes for him' — another American president once tried to silence a politically outspoken rock star. But Richard Nixon didn't just tweet insults at John Lennon. He tried to deport 1970s-era culture war — now resurrected in a new doc, One to One: John & Yoko — echoes eerily in Trump's latest feud with American music royalty. Lennon, a British citizen with a U.S. green card living in New York at the time, had aligned himself with the radical left and spoken out forcefully against the Vietnam War and Nixon's re-election. The Nixon administration responded by weaponizing immigration law, trying to boot Lennon back to the UK over an old pot bust. It was a thin pretext, and everyone knew files were opened. Surveillance began. Lennon became a target. The former Beatle hit back the only way he knew how, through his music. 'I've had enough of reading things by neurotic, psychotic, pig-headed politicians,' he sang in 'Gimme Some Truth,' the song that opens the second side of 1971's Imagine. 'No short-haired, yellow-bellied son of Tricky Dick is going to Mother Hubbard soft soap me.' More from The Hollywood Reporter PragerU's Plan to Red Pill Our Kids Drummer and Music Talent Agency Owner Killed in San Diego Plane Crash Kid Cudi Testifies About Porsche Bombing, L.A. Home Break-In He Says Sean "Diddy" Combs Was Behind Finally, in 1975, after years of legal battles, a federal court shut down the case, calling it 'selective deportation based on secret political grounds.' But the damage had already been done: Lennon's activism had been effectively neutered. And five years later, at just 40, Lennon was gunned down by a deranged fan outside his home on New York's upper west side. Nearly fifty years later, Trump isn't going after foreign-born singers — at least not yet — but his public attacks on domestic critics like Springsteen, Beyoncé and Oprah Winfrey carry a familiar whiff of authoritarian payback. The latest dust-up began May 14, when Springsteen, performing in Manchester, England, told the crowd:'The America I love… is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.''There's some very weird, strange and dangerous shit going on out there,' the Boss went on. 'In America, the richest men are taking satisfaction in abandoning the world's poorest children to sickness and death.'Within 48 hours, Trump fired back online, unloading on Springsteen's music, his looks, his politics, his intelligence ('Dumb as a rock') — and issuing a vague but chilling warning about 'how it goes for him' once he returns to the after, Trump expanded the attack, accusing Springsteen, Beyoncé, Oprah, and Bono of accepting illegal campaign payments from Kamala Harris. 'CANDIDATES AREN'T ALLOWED TO PAY FOR ENDORSEMENTS,' he screamed in all caps. 'IT'S NOT LEGAL!'There is, of course, no evidence of wrongdoing. According to Rolling Stone, Harris paid for services — town halls, rallies, performances — through the artists' production companies, as required by campaign law. But facts never slowed Nixon, in the early 1970s, Lennon's name didn't appear on Nixon's infamous 'Enemies List,' which included such liberal luminaries as Jane Fonda, Paul Newman, Gregory Peck and Barbra Streisand. But he was treated like one. Trump, it seems, is reviving that playbook — only this time, he's skipping the secret memos and going straight for the digital bullhorn. Trump, who has famously poor taste in music (he thinks Kid Rock is the next Frank Sinatra), is now treating some of the country's greatest performers like enemies of the state. What comes next for them — Subpoenas? Canceled visas? IRS audits? — is anyone's guess. Best of The Hollywood Reporter Most Anticipated Concert Tours of 2025: Beyoncé, Billie Eilish, Kendrick Lamar & SZA, Sabrina Carpenter and More Hollywood's Most Notable Deaths of 2025 Hollywood's Highest-Profile Harris Endorsements: Taylor Swift, George Clooney, Bruce Springsteen and More
Tom's Guide
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Tom's Guide
How to watch 'One to One: John & Yoko' online from anywhere
"One to One: John & Yoko" is a powerful documentary that captures a defining moment in the lives of two of the 20th century's most iconic cultural figures. Centered around the 1972 "One to One" benefit concert at Madison Square Garden (the only full-length show he played after leaving The Beatles), the film offers an intimate look at John Lennon and Yoko Ono's partnership — both artistic and personal. Here's how you can watch "One to One: John & Yoko" online around the world and from anywhere with a VPN. 'One to One: John & Yoko' will be released on Friday, May 9, via Prime Video. The documentary is set to be available to stream via digital platforms from this date.• U.S. — HBO/Max• CAN — Crave• AUS — Max• Watch anywhere — try NordVPN risk-free Through rare archival footage, personal recordings, and remastered concert performances, the documentary reveals the behind-the-scenes intensity of their work and the social causes that motivated them. This is a must-watch for music lovers, Beatles fans, and anyone interested in how art and activism can intertwine. "One to One: John & Yoko" provides an intimate portrait of a couple who defied convention, using the stage not just for performance, but for purpose. Read on and discover how you can watch "One to One: John & Yoko" online with all the streaming details you need below. "One to One: John & Yoko" premieres in late 2025 on HBO's Max platform. Max prices start at $9.99/month if you don't mind ads, going to $16.99/month for ad-free and $20.99/month if you want the option to watch content on up to four devices and in 4K. For even better value, you can pay for a whole year upfront and effectively get 12 months for the price of 10 on any of its tiers. Max is also the place to watch "The Batman" online. HBO can also be added to OTT streaming services such as Hulu, Amazon Prime Video and Disney Plus. Traveling outside the States? You'll need to use a VPN to unblock Max when abroad. Max is no. 1 on our best streaming services list for its vast, high-quality library, including all of HBO's prestige series like "Game of Thrones", "The Last of Us" and "Succession", plus recent offerings among the best Max shows such as "House of the Dragon", "True Detective: Night Country" and "The White Lotus". If you're traveling overseas and "One to One: John & Yoko" isn't airing where you're currently located, that doesn't mean you have to miss the show while you're away from home. With a VPN (virtual private network), you can stream the show from wherever you are. We've evaluated many options, and the best VPN you can get right now is NordVPN. It meets the VPN needs of the vast majority of users, offering outstanding compatibility with most devices and impressive connection speeds. You can try it risk-free for 30 days if you take advantage of NordVPN's no-quibble money-back guarantee. There's a good reason you've heard of NordVPN. We specialize in testing and reviewing VPN services and NordVPN is the one we rate best. It's outstanding at unblocking streaming services, it's fast and it has top-level security features too. With over 6,000 servers across 110+ countries, and at a great price too, it's easy to recommend. Get over 70% off NordVPN with this deal Using a VPN is incredibly simple. 1. Install the VPN of your choice. As we've said, NordVPN is our favorite. 2. Choose the location you wish to connect to in the VPN app. For instance, if you're visiting the U.K. and want to view a U.S. service, you'd select a U.S. server from the location list. 3. Sit back and enjoy the show. Head to your streaming service app — so Max, for example — and watch "One to One: John & Yoko" online from wherever you are in the world. You can watch "One to One: John & Yoko" in Canada on the Crave streaming service. It lands late 2025 and you can see our full episode guide at the bottom of this page. Crave subscriptions start at $9.99/month for its Basic plan (720p video, includes ads) all the way up to $22/month for Premium (ad-free, 4K, downloadable shows). Those on vacation away from Canada will need one of the best VPNs to log in back home to use Crave. We recommend NordVPN. There is no release date for "One to One: John & Yoko" in the U.K. yet, but it is likely to end up on Sky Atlantic very soon and also available for Sky subscribers to watch via the Sky Go app, which is available on smartphones, computers, games consoles and a host of TV streaming devices. Not a Sky subscriber? Plans currently start from £31/month. Alternatively, Sky Atlantic content is also available to watch with a flexible Now Entertainment Membership. Prices usually start from £9.99/month, though a special offer is currently allowing new subscribers to sign up for £6.99/month. Americans on vacation in the U.K. who want to catch the show sooner will need a good streaming VPN to log in back home. We recommend NordVPN. Aussies can catch "One to One: John & Yoko" when it premieres on Max (now available Down Under) in late 2025. Plans start at $9.99/month. Not at home? Don't panic. You can still watch the show from your usual domestic streaming platform with a VPN. We recommend NordVPN. This documentary explores the creative and personal partnership between John Lennon and Yoko Ono, focusing on their 1972 "One to One" benefit concerts and the social activism that defined their collaboration. Yes, it includes remastered footage from the "One to One" concerts at Madison Square Garden, along with archival material and behind-the-scenes insights. The film features contributions from friends, collaborators, and music historians who provide context on the couple's influence on art, music, and political movements of the early 1970s. We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
The Guardian
30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Borrowed Time: Lennon's Last Decade review – reverential reminiscence takes its time
We have recently seen a slew of intriguing movies about John Lennon's post-Beatles existence: The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, about Lennon's brief relationship with his assistant May Pang, and Kevin Macdonald's excellent archive-clip-collage study One to One: John & Yoko. Now here is a lengthy and self-consciously reverential film, which is sadly the weakest of the group. It doesn't quite get to grips with the implications of its own title (was Lennon on 'borrowed time', exactly, in the 1970s?) and there's an awful lot of hot air from an awful lot of talking heads in its lengthy running time, some of whom are regaling us with less-than-premium-quality anecdotes – often just beamingly recalling the pinch-me moment they actually met John Lennon and, wow, he said hi and they couldn't believe it. The film covers the whole period from Lennon's arrival in New York right through the decade, the solo albums, quarrels with Paul, protests, interviews, joint ventures with Yoko, the struggle to get a green card, the 'lost weekend' with Pang, and finally his murder at the time he was planning an ambitious new global tour. Beatles-expert veterans like Ray Connolly and Philip Norman offer their reminiscences, along with broadcasters like Andy Peebles, Bob Harris and Tony Palmer – but, frankly, there are no alpha-level surviving intimates of Lennon. Obviously, there's food for thought here, a fair bit of wheat among the chaff: I didn't know that John Lennon did a special concert in New York with Tom Jones and Peter Sellers called A Salute to Sir Lew Grade, which is the kind of detail that would appeal to Beatles obsessive Craig Brown. One interviewee had an overhead view of Lennon's dead body on the sidewalk from his apartment window and, believing that a photo would be in bad taste, he instead did an eerie on-the-spot painting of the grim scene – which the film shows. And it's still a strange moment to see the TV news interview with Paul McCartney reacting at the time, clearly in shock, nervously chewing, appearing to be casual and even callous. I think Lennon himself might have been impatient with some of the piety here, but it's always interesting and sincere. Borrowed Time: Lennon's Last Decade is in UK cinemas from 2 May.
Forbes
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
The Story Of How A Lost Box Of Tapes Changed John Lennon's New Documentary
It's not often that a forgotten box of tapes that haven't been touched in years – if not decades – changes the course of one of the most high-profile documentaries of the year. But that's exactly what happened during the making of One to One: John & Yoko, the powerful new film co-directed by Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards. The documentary focuses on John Lennon and Yoko Ono's brief-but-transformative time living in New York's Greenwich Village from 1971 to 1973, and it's built around the couple's One to One benefit concerts at Madison Square Garden. The shows, held in August 1972, were Lennon's only full-length live solo performances after the Beatles split. They took place during a moment of intense political activism in the U.S., as well as one of personal reinvention for the musicians, all as Nixon's second administration was just starting…and then unraveling. Thanks to newly uncovered archival audio recordings, including intimate phone conversations, the film offers a rare and unusually personal look at Lennon and Ono's private lives during one of their least understood periods. "Simon Hilton... found this box of tapes that no one had touched in decades," One to One: John & Yoko co-director Sam Rice-Edwards explained during a recent conversation. "It was really a special moment — it was exactly what we were after." The tapes, discovered deep within the Lennon Estate's archives in New York City, contained recordings of phone calls from when he and his wife lived in Greenwich Village for a time. They taped every conversation, and talks between Lennon and music industry professionals and journalists, as well as several between Ono and others, are used plainly in the film. Fans get to hear them just as they were decades ago. Lennon trying to set up a failed tour of America. Ono defending herself against attacks from the press. Combined with painstakingly restored footage from the One to One concerts, these recordings allowed the filmmakers to build a documentary that feels less like a conventional rock doc and more like an immersive experience. "We tried to make a film where you could hang around with John and Yoko in 1972 and see that time through their eyes," Rice-Edwards said. That approach turns everyday moments — answering phones, preparing art exhibitions, sitting in front of the TV — into revelatory insights about two artists that the world can't seem to get enough of. It's hard to find a new and interesting way to cover a musician who has already been the subject of countless pieces of media, and the accomplishment of that goal is one of the great successes of One to One: John & Yoko. The result has clearly resonated with audiences. One to One: John & Yoko has already grossed more than $600,000 at the global box office, which is an impressive number for an archival-heavy documentary. In our conversation, Rice-Edwards spoke about the archival discovery and how it completely changed the making of this movie, the challenges of piecing together decades-old material, and why he believes the "mundane" moments tell us more about John and Yoko than any polished biography ever could. Hugh McIntyre: Sam, I watch a lot of music documentaries, and I'm always thrilled when I get to the end of one and I've learned something and experienced something different. So I want to congratulate you on that. Rice-Edwards: That's lovely to hear. That's exactly what we set out to do really — something different in an area that's packed full of films that, while not all the same, tend to follow the beaten path and the normal narrative. We wanted to do something fresh and different. We wanted people to come out of the film and feel like they've had a fresh experience. McIntyre: Which is especially difficult when you're covering maybe the most covered musician of all time. Rice-Edwards: When Kevin [Macdonald, co-director] We really focused a lot on letting people spend time with John and Yoko as they were, away from the public eye. We felt that would allow people to get to know them in a way that hadn't really been done before. McIntyre: For Beatles fans, real John and Yoko fans, that's almost worth the price of admission alone. Getting that inside look at their daily, mundane routines. Gathering flies for the art exhibit.. just the daily humdrum of their lives. Rice-Edwards: The thing is, in a film we really want to connect to other humans, to learn about other people. And when someone is in the public eye, they have a sort of armor or defense — a barrier to being their true self. Sometimes it shines through, but actually the mundane, as you put it, can often be super interesting when it comes to really getting to know someone. Something that seems boring or unexceptional can actually show you a lot. We tried to make a film where you could just hang around with John and Yoko in 1972 and see that time through their eyes. McIntyre: The standout of this film and how you were able to make it was the footage and the audio recordings that no one's ever seen or heard. They're really incredible. Tell me the story — these must have come from Yoko, I assume? Rice-Edwards: They came from the Lennon estate. What actually happened was we were quite far into editing the film, and someone called Simon Hilton — who's part of the Lennon estate — was over at the archive in their own kind of lock-up in New York. I like to imagine him walking around and stumbling across this dusty shelf, a box no one had touched in decades. It was unlabeled. But he found these recordings that had been made in 1972, from the exact period we were covering. No one had really listened to them before. It was a special moment — it was exactly what we were after. Getting behind the scenes and spending time with John and Yoko in their everyday lives. McIntyre: The visual recordings or the audio? Rice-Edwards: Those were the audio recordings. They had a phone on Bank Street — Line 1, Phone 9 — and everyone called into that phone. They had a recorder hooked up to it. These were recordings made in 1972, and while they had been recorded, they'd never really been listened to. It was kind of crazy, being maybe the fourth or fifth person ever to hear those calls. Quite amazing. McIntyre: When you're going through both the visual and audio material, some really great stuff made it in. But there must have been so much that just didn't fit. Were there things that stood out, that maybe you wish had been included? Rice-Edwards: That's actually quite a tricky question to answer, because it wasn't like there was one cut that we had to change to fit in the audio. The cut was constantly evolving. And a big part of the film was presenting the world through John and Yoko's television — Kevin's idea. They watched a lot of TV and believed it could show what humanity was saying about itself. That meant there was a huge amount of archive material available, because it could be anything that was on American TV in 1972. We were constantly sifting through hours and hours, thousands of clips. Sometimes we didn't even know why something felt right, just that it did, on a gut level. Some clips lasted three days in the cut, some a week, some a month. What you see in the finished film is really a collection that stood the test of time. A body of material that we think shows the 1972 that John and Yoko experienced. McIntyre: These concerts were so important to Lennon — his only post-Beatles shows — and you highlight why he was doing them. Why do you think it took so long for there to be a film about these concerts, given how much interest there is in him and The Beatles? Rice-Edwards: A couple of reasons. First, they were really badly recorded and filmed. The story is that everyone was very high at the concert, and they filmed it poorly. Plus, the initial concert film that aired on TV fifty years ago, they had pulled the negative into tiny pieces to make that, and it had all been stuck back together in crazy sequences. There was a huge amount of work needed to piece it all back together. A lot of audio work too. We remastered and remixed the tracks. Sean Ono Lennon did that, actually. People knew the concert existed. They knew it was Lennon's only post-Beatles concert. But the state of the material meant no one really knew what to do with it. So over time, the estate and we together put it back together, remixed it, and now it can be seen in its full glory. McIntyre: I was about to ask if there was ever an interest in sharing it purely as a concert film, but it sounds like that's not really on the table. Rice-Edwards: Well, actually that might happen later. There's something in the works — a pure concert version, showing the performance without our film's framing. But the film we made, I don't think it's really a concert film. It's a film that has a concert in it. With a bit of careful work, you can make it work. There is a lot of great footage. I was kind of joking, but sometimes you'd go through it and there'd be strange camera moves, or the camera would go out of focus for ten minutes. That actually helped us, visually. We didn't want a classic concert film. We wanted the audience to connect to John and Yoko. So we let shots run very long. We didn't cut all over the place with a frenetic edit. We wanted it to feel like you were actually at the concert. We were sort of forced into that approach, but it ended up being a good place to be forced into. McIntyre: You've got a great long shot toward the end, when they're jamming and doing 'Give Peace a Chance.' That's a phenomenal ending moment. Rice-Edwards: Yeah, it felt like the right ending. The end of the concert, and the moment where John turns it back onto the audience. Nixon had won in a way — John had lost the battle, but maybe he won the war. It's a strange analogy when talking about 'Give Peace a Chance,' but that's what it felt like. It was their response: "Give us a chance, there's another way." That sentiment has echoed through time. McIntyre: As you dug through the thousands of hours of content, what did you learn about John and Yoko that your research prior didn't tell you, things you didn't know before? Rice-Edwards: It's funny. The whole process really was about getting to know them in a deeper way. Looking back, I don't think I really knew them at the start of the project. They were sort of two-dimensional figures to me, a little thin. But over time, they became three-dimensional, complex characters. There's a lot I could say. On Yoko's side, I came away thinking she's actually a very strong person. She'd been vilified by the British press, attacked constantly. She also had to fight her way through a very male-dominated avant-garde art scene. Her daughter had been kidnapped by her ex-husband. Despite all that, she still managed to thrive, to live an active and engaged life. That takes an enormous amount of strength. Another thing that stood out was that they were both always searching for something — especially John. He was always looking to become a better person. From the Maharishi to primal scream therapy, then moving into more political engagement during the timeframe of our film — he was constantly searching, trying to better himself. He had a very curious, searching mind. And I think Yoko was the same. One more thing I'd mention—they both had very difficult childhoods, for different reasons. John wasn't an orphan, but he never really knew his parents. They were cold with him. From that, I think both he and Yoko had the ability to step outside of social conditioning. They could look at society with a more childlike, wide-open viewpoint. You see that in John's music, in Yoko's artwork. They never just accepted society as it was. They were always kind of on the outside, looking in with an open mind. And I think that really connected them. McIntyre: Do you know if Yoko has seen the film? Have you heard her thoughts? Rice-Edwards: Well, just before the film's release, Sean took over running the Lennon estate. He's the person we dealt with directly. He came in for a screening, which was quite amazing. It's obviously so personal for him. It was an emotional experience. We've mainly dealt with him. I can't say categorically whether Yoko has seen it, but I'd like to think she has. Sean said it was the most truthful portrait of his mother that had ever been made. That meant a lot to him. So I hope that if she has seen it — or when she sees it — she'll feel the same way.
