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1970 film
Apotheosis
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Directed by
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Release date
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Running time
| 17 minutes
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Country
| United Kingdom
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Language
| English
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Apotheosis
is a 1970 film directed by
John Lennon
and
Yoko Ono
.
[1]
Plot
[
edit
]
The film depicts a 17-minute-long journey on a
balloon
as it ascends and finally rises into the clouds. Lennon and Ono appear at the start of the film dressed in dark cloaks and hoods.
[1]
Production
[
edit
]
The film was shot in the village of
Lavenham
in Suffolk in eastern England; the couple had decided to reject footage from an earlier filming attempt in the Hampshire town of Basingstoke.
[2]
Lennon and Ono arrived at Lavenham's Market Place in their white Rolls-Royce driven by a chauffeur and booked into the nearby Bull Hotel in
Long Melford
as 'Mr and Mrs Smith'. The couple were accompanied by a film crew who were shooting a documentary for the BBC,
The World of John and Yoko
, which was broadcast over the Christmas period of 1969.
[2]
A local building company, W A Deacon & Sons, erected scaffolding to secure the balloon before release. The workers also helped lift Lennon and Ono into and out of the basket. A photograph of Lennon and Ono in the balloon was on the front cover of the
East Anglian Daily Times
on the following Monday. The couple left the basket shortly before the launch of the balloon, causing members of the public who had gathered to heckle them.
[2]
Nic Kowland, a frequent technical collaborator on films made by Ono, helped with the technical aspects of the film.
[2]
The idea for the film came from discussions the couple had had while making their album cover for
Two Virgins
while nude.
[3]
The 22,000 cubic metres (780,000 cu ft) of gas that filled the balloon cost £350, and permission for the flight was granted by the
Ministry of Defence
and Lavenham Parish Council.
[2]
The parish council had been contacted by the Beatles' company
Apple Corps
two days prior to the shoot to ask permission to shoot the film.
[2]
In a 2010 interview Ono said that making the film in Lavenham was "truly lovely" and that she would "love to go back there ... but it's not the same for me without John".
[2]
The couple had previously directed the films
Rape
and
Fly
and subsequently collaborated on
Up Your Legs Forever
.
[4]
Reception
[
edit
]
In 1972 the critic
Jonas Mekas
described the point at which the camera rose above the clouds as: "suddenly the cloud landscape opened up like a huge poem, you could see the tops of the clouds, all beautifully enveloped by sun, stretching into infinity..."
[4]
The film was shown at the
1971 Cannes Film Festival
.
[2]
It was also shown at the
Tate Britain
exhibition
A Century of Artists' Film in Britain
between 19 May 2003 and 18 April 2004.
[5]
References
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Further reading
[
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External links
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