Are you anticipating The Lost Weekend: A Love Story?

[twogurusindrag]

The documentary covering May Pang's relationship with John Lennon releases in a week. Are you interested? I am.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19812518/

[DaVa-67]

I'm really looking forward to this!
Thanks for the post.

[Lord Reith]

Yes I am.

[Lord Reith]

I watched this last night.

In its favour, it has some nice (not rare unfortunately) anecdotal footage of John from that period, doing the weather forecast, deejaying on radio and clowning around with friends and fans. Unsurprisingly though, there is little to no performance footage and only a few seconds from his actual records. Most of the music is by a soundalike band, with some contributions by Julian. But the footage shown is entertaining enough in its own right as it is a welcome break from the po-faced solemnity of the earlier period. The weatherman footage is probably my favourite, and it's a shame the actual broadcast doesn't exist!

Unfortunately all this is hamstrung by an albatross of a narrative from May Pang, who continues to prosecute the tedious notion that Yoko was a manipulating bitch who brainwashed poor John and took him away from his true love (who else but May?) In this respect she is like Pete Best, in that she has siezed hold of an irrational notion and has clung to it like a life raft, refusing to believe all the overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

John loved his wife. There was no "love story" with May. The same scene played out as has in a million suburban homes, where a middle aged man becomes bored with his life and takes up with the 19yo babysitter. He may even leave his wife for a while, and kid himself that he is a much younger man again. But in the end he almost always goes back to his wife, and that is the end of it. The real tradgedy here is that May still can't see that she was nothing but a fling for John. Sure he loved spending time with her, but looking at her what man wouldn't? It's daft to imagine that an unsophisticated girl barely out of her teens could offer someone like John anything other than companionship.

The film tries to paint John in a good light, but really it doesn't do him any favours. The notion of a 40 year old woman dragooning a junior assistant young enough to be her daughter into being John's paid concubine is repugnant at best. That John went along with it does his reputation no favours at all. John was always ashamed of this period and you can understand why. He was lost and at a low point. He made some nice music and had some good times with his pals, but it all went absolutely nowhere and never had any chance of doing so. It was the proverbial dead end.

The one thing i did enjoy most was the plethora of rare photos, including the last known photo of John and paul together, snapped the day after the "toot and a snore" session. Looking at this pic, there's just so much to be sad about. And I really was almost brought to tears by the photo May snapped of John signing the contract that dissolved The Beatles partnership in 1974.

See this film if you can. It is entertaining if occasionally annoying and disturbing. In the end it's worth it just for the John and Paul stuff.

last john and paul photo.jpg (263.46 KiB) Viewed 521 times

[harrythebannister]

Thanks for the review LR I may get around to watching this over the weekend.