Steven Soderbergh has incorporated artificial intelligence into his documentary about John Lennon, and he is eager to discuss the decision. The film, titled John Lennon: The Last Interview, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday.
The Final Interview
On December 8, 1980, the day he was shot, John Lennon and Yoko Ono gave an interview to a San Francisco radio crew from their home in New York's Dakota Apartments. They were promoting their album Double Fantasy, but the two-hour conversation ranged widely. Despite being warned against Beatles questions, Lennon and Ono were remarkably open. That same day, Annie Leibovitz captured the iconic portrait of a naked Lennon embracing Ono.
The interview itself is similarly intimate. The couple, particularly Lennon, discuss love, their relationship, creativity, life after the Beatles, raising their toddler son, writing songs in bed, and more. At 40, Lennon sounds like a man who has found clarity. 'I feel like nothing happened before today,' he said.
Soderbergh’s documentary transforms these surviving tapes into a film that demystifies Lennon and Ono as much as Get Back did for the Beatles. 'I was just so compelled by their generosity of spirit throughout the conversation,' Soderbergh told the Associated Press in Cannes. 'It's like the world took place in one day, in this apartment.'
The AI Solution
Making the film posed a challenge. Soderbergh was determined to let the audio play, but needed visuals for philosophical sections. 'I worked on everything that could be solved except that for as long as I could,' he said. 'Then there was the inevitable moment of: OK, but really what are we going to do? We just started playing and ran out of time and money. That's where the Meta piece came in.'
Soderbergh accepted an offer from Meta to use its artificial intelligence software to generate imagery for about 10% of the film. When he announced this earlier this year, it sparked an uproar. The AI segments, which critics at Cannes largely panned, are relatively mundane and resemble special effects. However, Soderbergh has placed himself at the centre of an industry-wide debate about AI in filmmaking.
Transparency and Debate
In an interview, Soderbergh emphasised the importance of transparency. 'The world outside of the creative context, we're not aware of the extent that this is being used and used to manipulate us,' he said. 'We find out after, by accident, by some whistle blower. I'm like my own whistle blower.'
He acknowledged anticipating a strong reaction. 'I take it very seriously, and I understand why people have an emotional response to this subject,' he said. 'But, yeah, you don't say yes to Meta offering you these tools and offering to finish the film and not know you're going to come in for some heat.'
Soderbergh does not view AI as a bogeyman. 'I think most jobs that matter when you're making a movie cannot be performed by this tech and never will be,' he argued. 'As it becomes possible for anybody to create something that meets a certain standard of technical perfection, then imperfection becomes more valuable.' He added, 'How do you know where the line is until somebody crosses it? I don't think what I'm doing crosses it.'
When asked about the prompts used for the animations, Soderbergh described 'circles of light that come out of nowhere, things like that. A black rose that turns into a Busby Berkeley thing and then a red rose.' He found the technology useful for quickly generating visuals he could respond to.
On the question of limitations, Soderbergh said his rule is: 'It has to be necessary. Is it the only way to accomplish what I want to see? Is it truly the best way to do it? That's the real question.' He predicted that many attempts with AI will fail those tests.
Despite the controversy, Soderbergh finds the conversation in the film deeply inspiring. 'Especially his burning desire to destroy the male rock star myth — at a time when that was not the mood anyone else was in,' he said. 'What I hope young people who see it get out of it is: This guy told the truth about everything from the jump, right up through the last day of his life.'
