John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s love story — and love affair with New York — gets a close-up in the first trailer for “One to One: John & Yoko.”
The upcoming documentary from Oscar-winning director Kevin Macdonald captures the couple in their post-Beatles early days in NYC in the early ‘70s, following them as they move into an apartment in Greenwich Village.
The clip begins with Lennon calling for a man named Howard, and the woman who answers the phone begins to spell out his name before recognizing who it is.
“You’re a member of The Beatles?” she says. “That’s right, yeah,” he replies.
A cereal-eating Lennon then says, “Good morning, folks. Have you had your breakfast yet?”
As images of Lennon and Ono flash by — including them raising their fists as the Statue of Liberty looms in the horizon — Ono says, “The Flower Generation is over, but we can start all over again, right?”
Then as the pair are eating on a park bench, Lennon says, “I just got to see the Village for the first time. I really feel at home there.”
As more rare and restored footage rolls — including some previously unseen material from their personal archives, including home movies filmed by the couple — Ono reflects, “I was considered a bitch in this society. Since I met John, I was upgraded into a witch.”
“I fell in love with an independent creative genius,” Lennon shares about his wife. “I started waking up.”
“One to One” takes its name from the two free concerts that Lennon and Ono held at Madison Square Garden in August 1972. The film chronicles the buildup to the all-star shows — also featuring sets by Stevie Wonder, Sha Na Na and Roberta Flack — which benefited children with special needs.
When asked by a reporter why they would do concerts for free, Lennon responds, “to change the apathy that all the youth have. To speak to them, to sing to them, and do anything to get them alive again. Viva la revolution!”
They would turn out to be the only full-length concerts that Lennon and Ono would ever play. And fittingly the music from the historic shows was produced by their son, Sean Ono Lennon.
Then as “Imagination” plays at the end, Lennon is asked “How would you like to be remembered?” He replies, “Just as two lovers.”
“One to One: John & Yoko” will open exclusively in IMAX on April 11 before a wider theatrical release on April 18, and then it will stream later this year on Max.