Imagine (1972 film)

Imagine is a 1972 television film by John Lennon and Yoko Ono, filmed mostly at their Tittenhurst Park home in Ascot, England, during 1971, and intended for television. All the songs from Lennon's Imagine album appear in the soundtrack, and also the songs "Mrs. Lennon" and "Don't Count the Waves", from Ono's album Fly.

Synopsis

The program consists mostly of "film promos" around the song selection, interspersed with occasional slices of Lennon and Ono's life together, and also fantasy and "gag" sequences. In one of these, a succession of men (ranging from Lennon and Ono's assistants to celebrities including Fred Astaire, Jack Palance, Dick Cavett, and even George Harrison) escort Ono over and over through a doorway; in another, John and Yoko lose each other on the Tittenhurst grounds, and go looking.

Production

The director of photography was Daniel Richter, who was personal photographer for Lennon and Ono in the early 1970s. He earlier gained recognition playing the character Moonwatcher (an ape-man) in the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The title song "Imagine", was used years later in a worldwide simultaneous broadcast, to commemorate Lennon's life and music, on what would have been his 50th birthday (9 October 1990).

The film originally ran for 70 minutes. The VHS version, released in 1985 in the UK and 1986 in the US was trimmed to 55 minutes. "Mind Train" was completely cut, as was half of "I Don't Wanna be a Soldier", Yoko's whisper piece, which originally came after "Mind Train", and all of "Midsummer New York".

External links

• Imagine at the Internet Movie Database