Fly (1970 film)
1970 film by John Lennon and Yoko Ono
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fly is a 1970 avant-garde short film directed by John Lennon and Yoko Ono.[1] Filmed a year prior to the release of Ono's 1971 album of the same name,[2] the short depicts a housefly crawling around on the body of a nude woman, actress Virginia Lust. By the end of the film, multiple flies can be seen on Lust's body. The film's visuals are accompanied by "Fly", a composition by Lennon and Ono that would later appear on Ono's album of the same name.[3]
.png)
Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
Dan Richter
Jon Bloom
Daniel Seymour
Marc Stone
Nancy Kallile
Andy Burke
Bill Holderith
Yoko Ono
| Fly | |
|---|---|
Title screen | |
| Directed by | John Lennon Yoko Ono |
| Starring | Virginia Lust |
| Edited by | John Lennon Yoko Ono Dan Richter Jon Bloom Daniel Seymour Marc Stone Nancy Kallile Andy Burke Bill Holderith |
| Music by | John Lennon Yoko Ono |
Release date |
|
Running time | 25 minutes |
Production
| External image | |
|---|---|
 FLY, 1970. (Film still). ©Yoko Onovia: The Lowry [4] |
Fly was conceived as a two-sentence premise initially titled Film No. 11: "About a fly going from the toe to head of a lying naked body, crawling very slowly. The whole film should take about an hour."[5]
Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack was conceived in the Regency Hotel in New York on Christmas day in 1970.[5] Lennon recorded the soundtrack on a multitrack Nagra audio recorder in three parts. The first "movement" features vocal improvisations by Ono, and the second features those vocals played back on the recorder while Lennon performs on a guitar.[5] The third part of the soundtrack was recorded as follows: Lennon played guitar against the reversed playback of the second section of the soundtrack; this recording was then reversed (described by scholar Melissa Ragona as "a kind of double negative"),[6] and played alongside another vocal solo by Ono.[6] When the doubly-reversed recording finished, Ono continued performing vocally, and Lennon played a live radio.[6]
The soundtrack would later be released as a track titled "Fly", appearing on Ono's 1971 album of the same name.[7]