from the feet to the upper thighs of hundreds of men and women, as we listen to the sound of the panning apparatus and a variety of conversations about the project. Though
has some interesting moments, it doesn't have the drama or the humor of
.
Ono and Lennon also collaborated on two Lennon films (whether a film is a 'Lennon film' or an 'Ono film' depends on whose basic concept instigated the project).
(1970) is one of the most ingenious single-shot films ever made. A camera pans up the cloaked bodies of Lennon and Ono, then on up into the sky above a village, higher and higher across snow-covered fields (the camera was mounted in a hot-air balloon, which we never seethough we hear the device that heats the air) and then up into the clouds; the screen remains completely white for several minutes, and finally, once many members of the audience have given up on the film, the camera rises out into the sunny skyscape above the clouds. The film is a test and reward of viewer patience and serenity. For
a camera was mounted so that we can watch the construction of a building, in time-lapse dissolves from one image to another, several hours or days later. The film is not so much about the action of constructing a building (as a pixilated film
Page 144
of such a subject might be), as it is about the subtle, sometimes magical changes that take place between the dissolves.
is more mystery than documentation.
(1971)not to be confused with the recent
(1988, directed by Andrew Soltwas the final Ono/Lennon cinematic collaboration: it's a series of sketches accompanied by their music. Since 1971 Ono has made no films, though she did make a seven-minute video documenting the response to a conceptual event at the Museum of Modern Art:
(1971). She has also made several music videos that document her process of recovering from Lennon's death
(1981),
(1981),
(1982)as well as records and art objects.
Of course, she remains one of the world's most visible public figures and the most widely known conceptual artist.
I spoke with Ono at her office at the Dakota in May 1989.
<><><><><><><><><><><><>
Were you a moviegoer as a child?
I was a movie buff, yes. In prep school in Tokyo you were supposed to go directly home after school. But most of us kids often went to the movies. We used to hide our school badges and sneak into the theater.
Do you remember what you saw?
Yes, I mostly saw French films. There was a group of kids who liked American filmsJimmy Stewart and Katharine Hepburn, Doris Day and Rock Hudson, Bob Hope and Bing Crosbyand there was another crowd of girls who thought they were intellectuals, and went to French films. I was in the French film group. We would go to see
[1945], that sort of thing. It was a very exciting time. I loved those films.
Did you see some of the early French surrealist films from the twenties?
Those things I saw much later. We're talking about when I was in high school in the late forties. I saw the surrealist films in the sixties in New York and Paris.
The films I saw in high school that were closest to surrealism were the Cocteau films,
and
[1950]. Those films really gave me some ideas.
The earliest I know of you in connection with film is the sound track you did for Taka Iimura's
in 1963 by hanging the micro-
Page 145
phone out the window. I know the later
reels that were made in 1966, but did the Fluxus group get involved with film before that?
