All Together Now ~ a film about Love

All Together Now ~ a film about Love
Cirque du Soleil and The Beatles
Royal Cinema, Toronto
October 13, 2008
by Live Music Head

“Every generation,
as it grows,
finds the Beatles for themselves”
~ Sir George Martin

There is a lot of emotion in this film.
From hearing Dominic Champagne,
the artistic director and writer of Love
talk about visiting Yoko Ono at her Dakota apartment
and remembering the awful day John Lennon fell to his death,
to the writer/director talking about working so closely
with George Harrison on the project...
there is a lot of Love.
Until the devastating loss of Harrison
who died before seeing the project’s completion,
there is a lot of emotion weaved throughout this documentary.
I must admit that despite the musical production
led by the great George Martin and his son Giles,
I'm not much of a fan of the Love audio recording.
And despite the approval and support for the project
by the surviving Beatles themselves,
I must include myself in the group of sensitive fans
who cringe at the re-workings of Beatles songs.
I had to laugh when some of the musical director’s team
talked about their fear of having their houses burned down
by Beatle maniacs
in retaliation of daring to mess around
with any of the Beatles’ original recordings.
But the film really didn’t focus too much
on the actual Cirque du Soleil performances.
As the days were counted down
to the Mirage premiere in Las Vegas,
we were shown a lot of the Beatles themselves
along with their friends and family
(some of which were in clips shot in
our very own Canadian city of Montreal, Quebec).
When we first witness a hug between Olivia Harrison and Yoko,
it's emotional from the get-go.
I also loved seeing George Martin play air-cello
while listening to She’s Leaving Home,
and as Olivia looked on,
conduct the orchestra for My Guitar Gently Weeps.
These images will stay with me for a while.
But I think the highlight of the doc is the anticipation felt
while waiting for Sir Paul’s imminent arrival on set.
Witnessing the nervousness of the entire crew
over whether he would hate their vision,
McCartney finally does make his entrance
and all eyes stay glued to him.
It made me nervous too.
When scenes from the night of
the Las Vegas premiere finally arrives,
Cynthia Lennon and son Julian are spotted entering the Mirage
along with Ravi Shankar,
and Dhani Harrison sits with his mother.
Ringo and George Martin sit with Paul
and you'll witness them leaning into each other
making unheard comments, laughing.
And hearing even two notes of Eleanor Rigby
will cause you to stir in your seat.
Well, it did me anyway.
Perhaps after seeing this
behind-the-scenes documentary,
other fans like me
who hesitate seeing Cirque du Soleil’s Love,
will now want to see it.
The performance clip of A Day in the Life
certainly left me curious.
Kudos to Canadian filmmaker Adrian Wills
for showing us the Love.

The Beatles, Love
http://www.beatles.com/core/love/