"On December 8, 1980, John Lennon and Yoko Ono sat down to talk to a small crew from San Francisco's KFRC radio station in their Dakota Building apartment in New York. It was the only radio interview they gave to promote their album Double Fantasy, released three weeks earlier. For two hours and 45 minutes they spoke calmly, optimistically and, in Lennon's case, in an almost messianic voice, about life. That night, returning home, Lennon would be shot dead by Mark David Chapman."
"Given the circumstances, the interview could be viewed as prophetic, which is Steven Soderbergh's angle in his documentary John Lennon: The Last Interview, presented at Cannes in a special session. Soderbergh does not mince words. The title says it all. And at the beginning of the documentary, what Lennon says about the song (Just Like) Starting Over sets the stage. The theme is the couple's reconciliation, after a turbulent few years, and celebrates the rebirth of their love story."
"One verse says No one's to blame, I know time flies so quickly although Lennon insists that the lyrics go deeper and are actually about the gulf between men and women triggered by the feminist boom of the early 1970s. The message of reconciliation is meant to apply to men and women in general, he explains. Soderbergh, who edits all his films, intends that the documentary serve as a tribute to Lennon."
"Lennon's last interview had previously never been accessed in its entirety. After the ex-Beatle's death, only excerpts were broadcast. Now Soderbergh has the Lennon family on side, and has based the visual part on archive material, having compiled more than 1,000 images. His approach did, however, have its limitations. Lennon and Ono talk about their relationship, fatherhood, the future and sometimes get mired in the abstract."
On December 8, 1980, John Lennon and Yoko Ono gave a rare, full radio interview to KFRC in their New York apartment. The conversation lasted two hours and 45 minutes and covered life with calm optimism, including Lennon’s near-messianic tone. That night, Lennon was killed by Mark David Chapman, giving the interview a prophetic weight. The documentary John Lennon: The Last Interview uses Lennon’s remarks about “(Just Like) Starting Over” to set a reconciliation theme tied to the rebirth of their love after turbulent years. Lennon connects the song’s lyrics to broader tensions between men and women shaped by early-1970s feminism. The film relies on extensive archive imagery and faces challenges illustrating abstract moments.
Read at english.elpais.com
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