“¿Qué pasa, New York?” A Dialog with Sam Rice-Edwards on John & Yoko’s ‘One to One’

A CONVERSATION WITH SAM RICE-EDWARDS

Atwood Journal: Thanks a lot for chatting! So that you’re in New York for press proper now?

Sam Rice-Edwards: Yeah, precisely. I’m somewhat bit jet lagged, really, simply arrived final night time however hanging in there.

I traveled to London for 5 days final summer time and was not absolutely awake the whole time!

Sam Rice-Edwards: Yeah, it’s onerous! The place are you based mostly?

So proper now I am in Philadelphia, which was good as a result of they only held the press screening final Thursday.I used to be capable of Amtrak there in a short time. I’ve now seen ‘One to One’ 3 times as a result of I received the press screener, watched it once more with a bandmate of mine, and my girlfriend and I simply went to the New York press premiere.

Sam Rice-Edwards: Ooh, wonderful.

[An action figure of John Lennon falls over in the Zoom background].

That was the Ghost of John.

Sam Rice-Edwards: Oh, have a look at that, there you go! He’s simply so impressed that you just’ve seen the movie so many occasions. That’s what it was.

My first query is an enhancing query. There’s a lot narrative heft to every thing that is happening in Vietnam with Nixon, we see flashes of Angela Davis and stuff, however within the edit there’s numerous humor. The second that I laughed out loud is when Lennon’s at a rally and says, ‘we have to deliver the machines house.’ After which we minimize to an advert for a washer. Lennon’s working by way of “Hound Canine” and we minimize to Nixon tickling the ivories. Yoko mentioned she was upgraded ‘from being a bitch to being a witch.’ How did you toe that line in conserving the narrative grounded, however preserving the humor that was fairly quintessential to the Ono Lennons?

Sam Rice-Edwards: Yeah. I believe you mentioned it there, one thing that we actually needed to precise, actually, for 2 causes. As a result of one is, as you simply mentioned, they had been so playful as a pair, and as people as nicely. And so humor and playfulness and creativeness was an enormous a part of who and what Yoko is, and who they had been as a pair. But additionally, we had been attempting to current life in 1972, and the fact of life is that you’ve one thing very critical subsequent to one thing very humorous. In life, we stumble upon all these various things and really if issues are one tone, it really turns into much less actual in a means and a bit monotonous.So we had been actually attempting to combine issues up, and when it comes to how we discovered that line, it’s actually only a sort of ‘suck and see’ sort of state of affairs the place you attempt stuff out and you’re feeling like, “oh, that goes a bit too far”, or “that comes throughout as actually disrespectful,” so it’s simply actually feeling your means ahead. And never shying away from issues that shock, as a result of really generally you do need issues to be surprising or very shocking. Generally once you really feel that, you’re like, “oh, let’s go together with that. Let’s make a courageous determination right here”.

Yeah. The second with George Wallace, the third time I nonetheless jumped somewhat bit.
I cherished the framing of flicking by way of the tv channels! I believe there’s a sure tendency to mythologize Lennon and Ono. They had been sofa potatoes! They cherished channel browsing. And what I actually appreciated is how naive Lennon was allowed to look right here. There’s audio the place Allen Klein is on the telephone and John’s saying “why cannot I sing a music a couple of jail riot”? And you then hear the breath being held over the telephone. “Oh, positive. I am going to write a music for the IRA,” identical to McCartney did across the identical time. There was that very gung-ho “Let’s dive proper in after which fear concerning the penalties later.” Have been there any mandates about audio that may have been somewhat bit too ‘sticky’? And what was the intent with permitting John particularly to look so wide-eyed and so naive with among the causes he was diving into in ‘72?

Sam Rice-Edwards: When it comes to the Lennon property, they actually stood again. This can be a movie made by Kim McDonald and the producers, and Peter Wesley and Mercury Studios. They had been clearly concerned, however they very a lot revered Kevin as a filmmaker and allowed him to do what all of us needed to do to make movie. In order that they had been nice in that respect and in plenty of respects they had been very useful. And I believe when it comes to Lennon coming throughout as form of wide-eyed, we needed this movie to be an opportunity for folks to actually get to know John and Yoko in a means that they’re once they’re away from public view, and to spend time with them. [John] was somebody who was extraordinarily curious and adventurous, at all times attempting new issues. And there was a facet [where he] allowed himself to dive into issues, and I believe to have that it’s a must to have a component of naivety. And I believe within the movie, what we had been attempting to indicate is that they got here to New York escaping the UK and the form of vilification of Yoko and the breakup of the Beatles. They fell right into a world that they cherished and had been very a lot influenced by the folks round them, Jerry Rubin and that form of gang had a way that they may change the world. They grew to become fairly political, John, particularly, and thru the course of the movie, they got here to appreciate “perhaps we will’t change the world on an enormous scale. We are able to perhaps do some smaller issues, some extra human issues,” such because the live performance.

On the inverse of how Lennon walks again among the “Black Panthers, White Panthers and all that jazz,” there’s that picture of Yoko within the bag doing efficiency artwork items, et cetera, this extra mercurial spirit. And you then hear her on the telephone, extraordinarily tactful mitigating numerous enterprise stuff, mending fences. The pull quote for Atwood’s evaluation, the ballot quote was Yoko’s, “Have you ever ever heard both of the three Beatles make a remark about me? It’s chauvinism.” And I would think about numerous child boomer readers won’t be thrilled that is the pull quote, however that is the one which caught out to me. Has Yoko seen this documentary?

Sam Rice-Edwards: I prefer to suppose she has, I don’t really know for positive. However she’s stepped again from coping with the Lennon property and Sean Lennon has actually stepped into that function. I wish to suppose she has, however actually Sean was the one that we had been related to.

Fantastic! It is a large job to contextualize two of the most important artists of the 20^th Century and share their final identify, and deal with the audio remixing and numerous PR, they’re big footwear to fill.

Sam Rice-Edwards: Yeah, Sean was nice, I’ve to say. He was very supportive of the movie.I used to be in a screening the place we performed it for him for the primary time, and it was really fairly shifting watching it with him as a result of clearly it’s so extremely private for him. He did a incredible job with the audio. The live performance was wonderful, however there have been numerous issues in the way in which it was recorded and shot and so forth. And so there was numerous work to be completed. And he actually purchased the sound to life

Did I see Paul Hicks’s identify there as nicely within the audio combine?

Sam Rice-Edwards: Probably, I’m unsure. Paul Hicks, what was he doing. with Sean, you imply?

I believe it was one thing with the audio. I do know that Dhani Harrison works loads with Paul Hicks, and I flagged the identify within the credit.

Sam Rice-Edwards: Sure.

Yeah, it is such an apparent factor to say, however what a voice. Lennon simply had that like pure, ripping rock vocal. “Immediate Karma” has not been outta my head, the Wurlitzer piano has simply been on loop. Is there going to be an audio tie in a ‘Dwell in New York’ companion to the movie? Or is it, will the audio simply stay because the soundtrack?

Sam Rice-Edwards: Do you imply ‘will there be a launch of the live performance’? Sure. I believe sure, that there’ll really be a launch of a live performance movie. However I dunno when that’s popping out. Clearly we haven’t received the entire live performance within the movie, the live performance is on the coronary heart of our movie however it’s not a ‘live performance movie’ as such. You go there and it’s an awesome cinematic expertise, I believe, to observe the movie since you actually, within the moments the place we delve into the live performance, you are feeling like you’re on the solely live performance that John did after leaving The Beatles, ever.And so it’s that have, however the movie that we made, hopefully, everybody feels is larger than a live performance movie in a means. It’s extra concerning the time and about John and Yoko, who they had been as folks and what was occurring in 1972 and the way that weirdly parallels to now. So I believe that may be a greater movie than simply the live performance.

(Word: A four-track EP for Report Retailer Day was adopted by an August twelfth teaser for the ‘Residents of Nutopia’ that the live performance’s audio launch is forthcoming).

Oh, talking of parallels to now, what luck – not luck, obviously- however the live performance that the choir gave to Nixon the place they held up the ‘Cease The Killing’ banner. And what was it, 4 or 5 weeks in the past {that a} choir went to the White Home and sang the music from Les Miserables (“Do You Hear The Folks Sing?”) That’s so eerie, how pertinent the entire “Free the Folks, Cease The Killing” is, it is about ‘Nam, however it’s additionally about now.

Sam Rice-Edwards: It’s distressing. It was a really unusual factor as a result of, instantly. we noticed the parallels between then and now. I say now, a yr in the past, a yr and a half in the past, or perhaps somewhat longer, we might see the form of fractures in society had been comparable. The polarization of proper and left and the identical points had been on the fore, gender politics, race, setting. So, we might see the parallel right away, and it’s one thing that we needed to replicate, however we didn’t actually, it solely grew to become clear how vastly parallel it was turning into as we had been enhancing the movie. And after the movie was completed, as Nixon and George Wallace someway represented Donald Trump. After which, there was an assassination try, and the parallels went on and on. Nixon’s landslide victory and so forth. So, it grew to become fairly unusual, really.

So, a timeline query: Final summer time, there was a field set that was purported to be for Thoughts Video games, however there was Some Time in New York Metropolis materials folded into it. And there is a letter from the time interval of this movie when Lennon was speaking about, “oh, we will get Dylan for a tour, and he met with McCartney at Financial institution Road.” There is a letter from across the time they wrote the songs about Eire inviting Wings to hitch the one-to-one live performance. Timeline clever, was that materials one thing you had been conscious of or did that come to mild after enhancing was already underway?

Sam Rice-Edwards: I believe, I can’t keep in mind particularly, however within the form of recess of my thoughts, it rings a bell, and I really feel like we knew about that on the time. The factor is that, there are numerous different information on the market and letters and paperwork, however actually the movie that we got down to make was a visible cinematic movie, and we needed it to actually give folks a time capsule and a slice of John and Yoko at the moment with out delving into info and displaying stills of letters and that form of factor. What we’ve is all movie or video of the time. If there have been issues that we knew, however we didn’t have any materials that we might use, then actually we couldn’t get them into the movie. They had been attention-grabbing to know however it didn’t work within the format of the movie.

Completely. When it comes to utilizing all out there audio and video, there are some great cameos. I knew that Stevie Marvel had been on the live performance, however the way in which he simply slides into body and completely rips “Give Peace a Likelihood” is great. I wasn’t shocked per se, however it was attention-grabbing to listen to Might Pang’s voice. She put out her personal doc final yr. Then, Phil Spector pops into body fairly a bit… and Alan Ginsberg has his share of retroactive controversies as nicely. Was there any thought paid to how any of the gamers look looking back, or was all of it a diary of what was occurring within the second, and also you solid to 1 facet ‘what was to be’?

Sam Rice-Edwards: Yeah, I believe it’s a very good query and it’s one thing that we spoke about loads. It’s not a movie that appears looking back at what these characters did after, or what got here to mild and that’s undoubtedly essential stuff to speak about and course of, however that’s not the movie that we had been making really. We had been making a movie that was within the second, on the time. And what folks knew then. Even to the purpose the place we didn’t title folks, folks popped up on display screen. Angela Davis, she’s simply not titled in any respect. If know who she is, you then get it. If you happen to don’t know who she is, you simply get a sense for that form of factor occurring at the moment. We had been attempting to create the world that John and Yoko noticed at the moment, they usually didn’t see identify titles, they didn’t know any of the stuff that we all know perhaps now about Ginsberg or whoever, looking back. So, we had been actually attempting to color an image of that second.

In keeping with that, the tip of the primary narrative pans out from the TV in Bang Road and sirens move by. And Jim Kelner alludes to, “We’re not attempting to get ourselves shot right here.”

Sam Rice-Edwards: Yeah.

Is despite the fact that it is a narrative time capsule, had been the sirens deliberate and an allusion to the place the story is heading? I am inquisitive about that selection, the sirens on the window on the finish.

Sam Rice-Edwards: Yeah, it’s a form of movie that you may select what you need from it, not in a foul means, in a great way. It’s all there and you can also make the connections and everybody will make totally different connections. We determined very a lot to be within the timeframe of them at Financial institution Road and that, that felt like a pure interval for the movie to be in. And we didn’t wish to rehash stuff about John’s deaths, which has been so nicely documented in lots of movies. However that’s to not say that it’s not alluded to in ways in which you talked about, the sirens not so straight, however clearly Jim Kelner had a form of foreboding feeling with that dialog that that they had. So it’s in there in essence, however it’s not a basic a part of the narrative of the time, of the movie.

“Freda Peeple,” which performs over the credit, that is the one choice that postdates the narrative, that is a observe from ‘73. After which every thing else is Someday in New York Metropolis. I might be flawed there, but-

Sam Rice-Edwards: It’s both “Some Time in New York Metropolis” or the live performance. As a result of clearly numerous the songs had been [older], “Come Collectively” and so forth. However when it comes to after the time interval [of the narrative], I believe that he wrote that music within the time interval, however it got here out later. And in addition the music simply earlier than it was simply one thing I forgot the identify of [“Mind Games”], so these two on the finish, they arrive out after our time interval, however they had been written in the course of the time interval. So we felt that they had been apt for the ending. And in addition that they had the fitting form of ‘feeling’ and, “Freda Peeple” in a means was like wanting again on the movie and summarizing John and Yoko’s feeling of what they had been attempting to say by way of the movie.

“Freda Peeple,” by coincidence, might be my favourite solo Lennon music. I used to be very glad that made it into the credit.

Sam Rice-Edwards: It’s humorous that lots of people love that observe, I imply, it’s clearly a very well-known observe, however it’s not one which’s you consider right away once you say, “What’s your favourite. Lennon solo observe?” However we saved on assembly individuals who had been like, “I like that observe.” So that you’ve received some associates on the market!

Sure, glorious! Being conscious of time, that is my final query. I jumped out of my chair once I noticed among the house video footage within the doc. As nice because the live performance was, the shaky seventies video digicam of the Lennons in Cambridge on the feminist convention, and contained in the Dakota, it’s fairly jaw-dropping. Is there extra of that footage, and will that be a challenge unto itself?

Sam Rice-Edwards: Clearly the stuff that, the Portapak stuff, that’s the format that the black and white stuff in Cambridge and on the feminist convention was shot on.It’s this outdated format known as Portapak. There’s clearly extra tapes of that, we had numerous that footage, however really it’s all the identical stuff with them driving round and so forth. So actually I believe, we informed the story and what we felt was the easiest way from that footage.

It isn’t actually a query for me. I believe it’s a query [where] it’s essential pay money for the Lennon Basis and see what else they’ve received within the vaults. However I don’t know, I believe all the perfect stuff that we had is within the movie. Of that point and, perhaps that there’s not that a lot stuff that truly exists of [the Ono-Lennons] at the moment. We had been actually happy to have discovered all of the stuff that we discovered that’s within the movie and that, and it feels very wealthy. There’s solely a finite quantity. I’m sorry. I really feel like I’ve given you a very dangerous reply there.

No, under no circumstances!

Sam Rice-Edwards: So one thing that occurred two or three months into the edit was any individual from the Lennon property known as up man known as Simon Hilton, who had been serving to us loads. And he had been out in New York on the Lennon Archive. He’d been strolling across the archive and located this field on a shelf, not labeled. And he seemed in it and located these tapes. Anyway, he gave us a name and he mentioned “I believe we’ve received one thing you may be all in favour of.” And it turned out that it was all of the telephone conversations that they had simply been sitting on, all this time for the final 40 or so years 50 years! And nobody had actually checked out them. In order that was a very sort of magical second. As soon as we obtained these, we immediately knew that they had been one thing very particular. ‘Trigger you by no means hear John and Yoko speaking like that, the place they actually don’t really feel like they’re being listened to, they’re not that out of the general public eye. It was immediately very revealing about who they’re. It was an awesome second to obtain that archive.

That is lovely. Born in paranoia, however was one thing narrative and exquisite all these years later!

Sam Rice-Edwards: Precisely. That’s a really John and Yoko factor to do, isn’t it?To show paranoia into one thing extra constructive.

“Don’t despair, paranoia’s in every single place.” Thanks a lot for taking the time to speak concerning the doc, I’ll in all probability see it a fourth and fifth time!

Sam Rice-Edwards: Look, thanks a lot. And yeah, it’s actually nice to listen to that you just loved the movie. Thanks, take care!

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One to One is now streaming on Apple TV, Amazon Prime Video, Fandango at Residence and YouTube.

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