''Up Your Legs Forever'' is a 1971 film by
John Lennon
John Winston Ono Lennon (born John Winston Lennon; 9 October 19408 December 1980) was an English singer, songwriter, musician and peace activist who achieved worldwide fame as founder, co-songwriter, co-lead vocalist and rhythm guitarist of ...
and
Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono ( ; ja, 小野 洋子, Ono Yōko, usually spelled in katakana ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking.
Ono grew up i ...
. The film was made on 14 December 1970 on
West 61st Street in Manhattan, New York City, though the couple did not have permits to work in the United States at that time.
The film was based on Ono's earlier script ''Film No. 12 (Up Your Legs Forever)''. The earlier script was also known as ''Film No. 12 (Esstacy)''.
The script reads "The camera work of the film should constantly go up, up, up, non-stop. Collect 367 pairs of legs and just go up the legs (from toes to the end of thighs) pair after pair and go on up until you run through the whole 367".
The participants in the film were paid $1 each for their appearance, and each received a black and white instant photograph of them taken by Lennon.
The writer
Jonathan Cott
Jonathan Cott (born December 24, 1942) is an American author, journalist, and editor. Much of his work focuses on music, embracing both classical and rock. He has been a contributing editor at ''Rolling Stone'' since the magazine's founding, ...
in his 2013 book ''Days That I'll Remember: Spending Time With John Lennon & Yoko Ono'' wrote that Ono told him that "We can't have peace until we expose ourselves to each other. After you communicate like that then maybe we can have peace. And everyone who's in the film, including you, will be a star".
The film was made for a three evening series of films by Lennon and Ono at New York City's
Elgin Theater
The Elgin Theater is the former name of the building now known as the Joyce Theater, located on the corner of 19th Street and Eighth Avenue in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan in New York City. The theater showed films from its opening ...
.
Notable participants in the film included filmmaker
Shirley Clarke
Shirley Clarke (née Brimberg; October 2, 1919 – September 23, 1997) was an American filmmaker.
Life
Born Shirley Brimberg in New York City, she was the daughter of a Polish-immigrant father who made his fortune in manufacturing. Her mother w ...
, singer
David Johansen
David Roger Johansen (sometimes spelled ''David Jo Hansen''; born January 9, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known as a member of the seminal proto-punk band the New York Dolls. He is also known for his work under ...
, writer
Paul Krassner
Paul Krassner (April 9, 1932 – July 21, 2019) was an American author, journalist, and comedian. He was the founder, editor, and a frequent contributor to the freethought magazine ''The Realist'', first published in 1958. Krassner became a key ...
, lawyer
Allen Klein
Allen Klein (December 18, 1931 July 4, 2009) was an American businessman whose aggressive negotiation tactics affected industry standards for compensating recording artists. He founded ABKCO Music & Records Incorporated. Klein increased profits ...
, artist
Peter Max
Peter Max (born Peter Max Finkelstein, October 19, 1937) is a German-American artist known for using bright colors in his work. Works by Max are associated with the visual arts and culture of the 1960s, particularly psychedelic art and pop art.
...
, model
Taylor Mead
Taylor Mead (December 31, 1924 – May 8, 2013) was an American writer, actor and performer. Mead appeared in several of Andy Warhol's underground films filmed at Warhol's The Factory, Factory, including ''Tarzan and Jane Regained... Sort of ...
, critic
Jonas Mekas
Jonas Mekas (; December 24, 1922 – January 23, 2019) was a Lithuanian-American filmmaker, poet, and artist who has been called "the godfather of American avant-garde cinema". Mekas' work has been exhibited in museums and at festivals worldwi ...
, filmmaker
D. A. Pennebaker
Donn Alan Pennebaker (; July 15, 1925 – August 1, 2019) was an American documentary filmmaker and one of the pioneers of direct cinema. Performing arts and politics were his primary subjects. In 2013, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sci ...
, artist
Larry Rivers
Larry Rivers (born Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg) (1923 – 2002) was an American artist, musician, filmmaker, and occasional actor. Considered by many scholars to be the "Godfather" and "Grandfather" of Pop art, he was one of the first artists ...
, artist
George Segal
George Segal Jr. (February 13, 1934 – March 23, 2021) was an American actor. He became popular in the 1960s and 1970s for playing both dramatic and comedic roles. After first rising to prominence with roles in acclaimed films such as ''Ship o ...
, film director
Jack Smith and writer
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly Wolfe Jr. (March 2, 1930 – May 14, 2018)Some sources say 1931; ''The New York Times'' and Reuters both initially reported 1931 in their obituaries before changing to 1930. See and was an American author and journalist widely ...
.
Plot
The film shows, one at a time, 367 pairs of human legs. It was shot using an elevator rig that moved the camera vertically, allowing the camera to scan the legs from toes to thigh. The film is 70 minutes in length
and ends with a shot of Lennon and Ono's buttocks.
The soundtrack for the film consists of comments made during filming.
The film's credits are read out by Lennon.
Reception
In his 1995 book ''Screen Writings: Texts and Scripts from Independent Films'', Scott MacDonald describes ''Up Your Legs Forever'' as "less impressive" than other film script adaptations by Ono as it does not advance beyond her "remarkable previous feature ''No. 4 Bottoms'', which focuses on buttocks rather than legs".
References
{{John Lennon
1971 films
Films directed by John Lennon
Films directed by Yoko Ono
American avant-garde and experimental films
1970s English-language films
1970s American films
1970s British films