Imagine: Nowhere Boy Grounds the Mythic John Lennon

As a teen, Harvey Weinstein worked at Apple Records with the responsibility to shepherd about a young band, The Beatles, he told the well-heeled guests at Lincoln Center’s Allen Room Sunday night. He introduced a new movie The Weinstein Company will release in time for John Lennon’s 70th birthday on October 8: Nowhere Boy. 

In a case of corporate synergy, the stunning evening hosted by Montblanc was the global launch of the Montblanc John Lennon donation pen, and connected with similar launches in Berlin, Tokyo, Hong Kong, and Mexico City. “Tonight we will make the world feel as one,” announced Montblanc CEO Lutz Bethge with Susan Sarandon by his side. He also affirmed a commitment by Montblanc to support education all over the world. Yoko Ono appeared on a large screen, live from Berlin’s Peace Tower to emphasize the message. In an important gesture, she spoke about allowing the Nowhere Boy filmmakers the rights to use the song, “Mother.” She mentioned yet another movie to open at the upcoming New York Film Festival limning his life in New York: Michael Epstein’s LennonNYC. 

The launch’s invitation promised a special music guest. It was indeed a pleasure to hear Christina Aguilera’s cover of “Imagine,” accompanied by Linda Perry at the piano. Later, as the Allen Room’s scrim was lifted, the word was emblazoned across Central Park’s entrance on Columbus Circle, where Strawberry Fields remains nearby, a memorial to the dead Beatle. You could see the machinery in motion, celebrating, yet also creating a myth of this man. You could see Yoko Ono’s interest in sanctifying John. At the same time that one can be a tad cynical and wary of exploitation, the Montblanc John Lennon pens are truly magnificent art objects gorgeously designed, gem encrusted, -- they’d be a thrill for anyone to own. 

The movie Nowhere Boy brought matters down to earth. Given that it is about an icon, large enough to be murdered by a madman and remembered in the way that everyone remembers those extraordinary moments: where you were when you heard, etc. this movie is small in the best sense. It tells the story of John’s youth, his highly confused parentage, dramatizing his brutish behavior and also revealing the sources of his most tender songs. A family story, Nowhere Boy features wonderful performances by the two women, his spirited birth mother Julia (a dynamic Anne-Marie Duff) and the aunt who raised him (the splendid Kristin Scott Thomas). This is the story of a young man whose life is a rage against an adverse, sad childhood full of loss and identity issues. As the teen John Lennon, the actor Aaron Johnson sports a pompadour appropriate to a Liverpool lad seeking to become a rocker in the manner of Elvis, but in real life he wears Rimbaud-like waves. He and director Sam Taylor-Wood, a noted photographer who was wearing an Alexander McQueen cocktail dress at the posh opening are recent parents and in between speaking to reporters and greeting Christian Siriano and  Alan Cummings, they worried how their six-week old daughter fared in her hotel room. Already out in England, the movie has had only modest success, Johnson said, because it opened the same day as Sherlock Holmes and Avatar. Harvey Weinstein recounted an early Nowhere Boy review: Sir Paul McCartney said he loved the movie, finding fault only with the casting of Paul: He was much more handsome.

Regina Weinreich

Graphic Design: Salpeter Ventura

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