Sunday, February 17, 2008

Teen's interview with John Lennon yields Oscar nod


By Etan Vlessing


TORONTO (Hollywood Reporter) -
A 1969 encounter between a
14 year-old Beatles fan and John Lennon has inspired "I Met the
Walrus," a five-minute Canadian film contending for an Oscar
for best animated short.

Think "Almost Famous" with the Beatles. Except this
portrait of a young boy in a dream landscape is told from his
lips. The voice track for "I Met the Walrus" is based on an
interview Jerry Levitan did 39 years ago with a surprisingly
accommodating John Lennon.

Levitan, now a lawyer in Toronto, recalls doorstepping as a
fake photographer to get into Lennon and Yoko Ono's room at the
city's King Edward Hotel.

"My heart was beating so fast. I was like Al Pacino in 'The
Godfather,' where he's in the restaurant with the planted gun
and about to kill the cop," he says, remembering how he
summoned the courage to knock at Lennon's door.

When Levitan did knock, the door opened a crack, he uttered
"Canadian News," and was led in.

Levitan recalls Lennon throwing him a broad smile as he
entered the crowded room. He fumbled with a Super 8 camera and
an old Kodak Brownie around his neck to maintain his ruse.

After Levitan got Lennon to sign his copy of the "Two
Virgins" album, he summoned yet more chutzpah.

"I just said to John, 'Can I come back later and bring a
tape recorder and do an interview on peace so I can let kids
listen to it?"' he recalls.

To his surprise, Lennon agreed. Later that day, Levitan
jumped a long line of media, including U.S. network news
reporters, to do a 40-minute interview with Lennon and Ono.

For 36 years, Levitan sat on the audiotape, until 2005 when
he met Toronto-based animator Josh Raskin.

The duo agreed to pare the 1969 interview down to five
minutes and overlay the voice track with a visual narrative of
pen sketches by James Braithwaite and digital illustrations
from Alex Kurina.

The resulting animated short has earned a host of awards on
the festival circuit on its way to the Oscars.

Animator Raskin says festival audiences empathize with a
young boy's nervousness and disorientation in his hero's midst
while a visionary Lennon boldly riffs on youth culture and
global conflict.

"You hear a larger-than-life figure interviewed by a
relatively naive, over-excited teenager," Raskin observes.

Levitan, who produced "I Met the Walrus," says his Beatles
encounter forever changed his life, not least because knocking
at Lennon's hotel room door could have gone horribly wrong had
the famed Beatle or his handlers turned him away.

"My big fear (was) someone (saying), 'Who are you? You're
nothing, go away!' How would I have picked myself up from
that?" Levitan says.

Instead, Lennon welcomed the Beatles fan across the
threshold and saw value in making a recording with a
14-year-old to reach yet more young people with his message.

"The most important thing (for Lennon) at that moment
wasn't getting on CBS or ABC, but talking to this kid for a
long time," Levitan marvels.


Reuters/Hollywood Reporter

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