Erection (1971) User Reviews

John and Yoko Ono Lennon's Erection is not what you think...unless you're aware of the other meaning

[tavm · 5/10 · 13 August 2009]

Well, this was another interesting, if not completely entertaining, short by Yoko Ono I watched on the UbuWeb. This time her husband, John Lennon, collaborated with her. It's just a bunch of stills taken by a stationary camera over eighteen months by Iain MacMillian of the construction of the International Hotel in London during 1970 and 1971. There's both daytime and nighttime shots and of the lights going up inside. Yoko wails (no way what she does is "singing") two of her songs: "Airmale" and "You" to the toy percussion instruments of the Joe Jones Tone Deaf Music Co. (Have you not heard of a more appropriate name?) Anyway, those squeaky (and other annoying) sounds were indeed provided by Jones who-no surprise here-was a former associate of Ono. Anyway, like I said, it was very interesting if not completely entertaining, but it's worth a look on the site I mentioned if you're so inclined. P.S. The hotel is on 147 Cromwell Road and is now called the London Swallow Hotel.

too short of a short

[zimbo_the_donkey_boy · 27 August 2003]

It was a nice idea for a film but I recall feeling that it was way too short. I don't think that Yoko invested enough effort into the project to make it what it could have been. I would like to see someone learn from this, go back, and do it right. } Watching a building go up before your eyes COULD be quite interesting.

videotaping an erection

[mrdonleone · 2/10 · 18 April 2009]

so if a guy meets you and he says 'I want you to look at my erection!' don't be alarmed, maybe he wants you to look at the film he made about how his house was to be built. yes! that's the only thing what happens in this movie! it's like the worst Warholian BEEP I ever saw! it's like filming the inside of your toilet before you flush it, in fact, it's less interesting to look at than that.

but if you do watch Lennon's Erection, be warned that he put a lot of background noise in it too. I mean, really, it's as if the building is being attacked by space mutants from hell or something! in the meanwhile, the building in progress is growing up as an erection can do too (in almost 20 minutes, what an accomplishment).

so if someone does ask you to watch his erection, be sure he wants to videotape it all.

Rather addictive boredom

[Shaolin_Apu · 8/10 · 20 November 2006]

Watching a building being erected a great fun? No, but discussing the event from any viewpoint while watching it could augment the pleasure considerably. It has anyway been a great choice from John Lennon and Yoko Ono to select a really interesting building for the subject of their film; an ordinary house could have made a way more boring viewing perhaps. There are not basically many films whose interest is so much dependent of viewers' free association. A row a still shots from a building being erected means very different thing to you if you're an engineer or if you are a woman pregnant with a baby. As the film does not contain any 'action' the Hotel being constructed 'happens' in a way baby does in mother's womb.

Poor

[Michael_Elliott · 29 April 2008]

Erection (1971)

* (out of 4)

Another strange short running just over 20-minutes shows the London International Hotel being built and captured via a still frame camera. I'm going to guess this was somewhat inspired by Andy Warhol's Empire but thankfully this here doesn't run eight hours. In slow motion we see the building "erect" before our eyes with a soundtrack by Ono, which has nothing more than various sounds, all of which are pretty annoying. I'm sure there are many out there who might enjoy this film and see it as some sort of art but I see it as pure boredom. There's nothing new going on here because this type of film (seeing a building go up or down before our eyes) has been done countless times before and even as early as 1900. At least those films didn't run at the length of this one. I'm sure there was something in Lennon's head that told him this would be a good thing to do but I'm not quite sure what it was.