John Lennon Flies London to Nice for the Cannes Film Festival – 14 May 1971
Friday 14 May 1971 | Travel
On the morning of Friday 14th May 1971, John Lennon and Yoko Ono flew from London to Nice on the French Riviera. They were accompanied by their assistant Dan Richter and checked in to the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes — one of the most celebrated hotels in Europe, perched on a rocky promontory between Cannes and Nice, and long a favourite of artists, filmmakers, and the international cultural elite.
The purpose of the trip was not a holiday. Lennon and Ono had two films screening at La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs — the Directors’ Fortnight — an independent showcase running alongside the official Cannes Film Festival programme. They also attended the festival itself during their stay in the south of France.
La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs: The Directors’ Fortnight
La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs had been founded in 1969 in the aftermath of the events of May 1968, when the Cannes Film Festival had been shut down by directors and critics in solidarity with the student and worker uprisings across France. The Directors’ Fortnight was conceived as an independent, non-competitive alternative to the official festival — a space for experimental, political, and avant-garde cinema that might not find a home in the main programme.
It was exactly the right context for Lennon and Ono’s work. By 1971 they had been making experimental films together for several years, and their output — conceptual, provocative, and deliberately outside the mainstream — was precisely the kind of cinema the Directors’ Fortnight had been created to champion.
Fly (1970)
Fly was a 25-minute film directed by Yoko Ono, with John Lennon composing and performing the soundtrack. Shot in New York in 1970, it follows a single fly as it moves across the body of a naked woman — a work that sits at the intersection of body art, experimental cinema, and conceptual provocation. Lennon’s soundtrack — a sustained, keening vocal improvisation — gives the film an unsettling, hypnotic quality that amplifies rather than explains the images.
The film had been produced under the umbrella of Lennon and Ono’s Bag Productions, the vehicle through which they released much of their collaborative artistic work in this period. It was one of a series of short films they made together that challenged conventional ideas about what cinema could be and what it was for.
Apotheosis (1970)
Apotheosis — also known as Balloon — is a 19-minute film in which a camera attached to a hot air balloon rises slowly from a snow-covered field in Lavenham, Suffolk, through low cloud, and eventually into clear blue sky above the clouds. The ascent is filmed in real time, with no cuts and no commentary. The effect is meditative, almost transcendent — the title, meaning ‘elevation to divine status’, is entirely apt.
The film had been shot in January 1970 and was another product of the Lennon-Ono artistic collaboration that had been running since their relationship began in 1966. Like Fly, it was a work that demanded patience from its audience and rewarded that patience with something genuinely unusual.
The Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc
The Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes is one of the most storied hotels in the world. Opened in 1870 and set within a 22-acre park on the Cap d’Antibes peninsula, it has hosted F. Scott Fitzgerald — who used it as the model for the Hôtel des Étrangers in Tender is the Night — as well as Marlene Dietrich, Cary Grant, Elizabeth Taylor, and generations of Cannes Film Festival visitors.
For Lennon and Ono, it was a fitting base: a place where art, celebrity, and the Mediterranean light had intersected for a century. The hotel sits between Cannes and Nice, making it an ideal location for festival attendance while offering the privacy and seclusion that Lennon, by 1971, increasingly required.
Lennon and Ono as Filmmakers
The Cannes screenings were part of a sustained period of artistic activity that Lennon and Ono had been engaged in since the late 1960s. Their film work — which included Two Virgins (1968), Rape (1969), Self Portrait (1969), Apotheosis (1970), and Fly (1970) — was consistently experimental and consistently controversial.
It was also, in its way, a political act. By presenting their work at La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs rather than seeking mainstream distribution, Lennon and Ono were aligning themselves with the independent, anti-establishment tradition that the Directors’ Fortnight represented. In 1971, with Lennon’s political activism at its most intense — Power to the People had been released in March, and Imagine was being recorded that summer — the choice of venue was entirely consistent with his broader stance.
May 1971: Where Lennon Was
The Cannes trip came at a significant moment in Lennon’s post-Beatles life. The Beatles had formally dissolved in April 1970. John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band — the raw, confessional album recorded in the aftermath of his primal therapy sessions — had been released in December 1970 to critical acclaim. Power to the People had been a UK top five hit in March 1971.
That summer, back in England at Tittenhurst Park, Lennon would record Imagine — the album that would become his most celebrated solo work and one of the most recognised songs of the twentieth century. The Cannes trip sits in the brief, creative interlude between the intensity of Plastic Ono Band and the making of Imagine.
Later in 1971, Lennon and Ono would relocate permanently to New York City, where Lennon would spend the rest of his life.
Key Facts: 14 May 1971
- Date: Friday 14 May 1971
- Journey: London to Nice, France
- Accompanied by: Yoko Ono and assistant Dan Richter
- Hotel: Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc, Antibes
- Purpose: Screening of Fly and Apotheosis at La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, Cannes Film Festival
- Films screened: Fly (dir. Yoko Ono, 1970) and Apotheosis (dir. Lennon & Ono, 1970)
- Context: Between Power to the People (March 1971) and the recording of Imagine (summer 1971)
Frequently Asked Questions
Did John Lennon attend the Cannes Film Festival?
Yes — John Lennon and Yoko Ono attended the Cannes Film Festival in May 1971. They flew from London to Nice on 14 May and stayed at the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes. Their films Fly and Apotheosis screened at La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs, the independent Directors’ Fortnight showcase running alongside the main festival.
What films did John Lennon and Yoko Ono show at Cannes in 1971?
Fly (1970), a 25-minute experimental film directed by Yoko Ono with a soundtrack by Lennon, and Apotheosis (1970), a 19-minute film in which a camera rises by hot air balloon from a snowy field in Suffolk through cloud into clear sky. Both screened at La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs.
What is La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs?
La Quinzaine des Réalisateurs — the Directors’ Fortnight — is an independent, non-competitive showcase that runs alongside the official Cannes Film Festival. Founded in 1969 in the spirit of the May 1968 uprisings, it champions experimental, political, and avant-garde cinema outside the mainstream festival programme.
Where did John Lennon stay during the Cannes Film Festival in 1971?
Lennon and Ono stayed at the Hôtel du Cap-Eden-Roc in Antibes — one of the most celebrated hotels in Europe, set on the Cap d’Antibes peninsula between Cannes and Nice on the French Riviera.
What was John Lennon doing in 1971?
In 1971 Lennon was at one of the most creatively intense periods of his solo career. Power to the People was released in March, the Cannes trip came in May, and that summer he recorded Imagine at Tittenhurst Park — the album that would become his most celebrated solo work. Later in 1971 he and Yoko Ono relocated permanently to New York City.
→ John Lennon | Paul McCartney | George Harrison | Ringo Starr
Shop John Lennon Merch: Shop by Era
0 comments