Smile (1968) User Reviews

The true definition of "slow-motion".

[matharvest · 16 July 2004]

This review does contain SPOILERS.

No.5 features John Lennon's head and shoulders against a leafy green- background for the entire two-take film. The film consists of John going from a deadpan face to a full-on smile. (omg i ruined it lol) If there's any sound during the film, it's very low ambiance coming from the surrounding foliage. A sure treat for those with the hots for Lennon wishing to kill an hour, but other than that, you may want to just fast-forward through. I got just over the halfway point before I walked off to the rest of the exhibit.

Another of John's failed attempts at making little things interesting.

[TOMNEL · 1/10 · 5 July 2008]

John Lennon was a great songwriter, and he never should've tried to be a filmmaker, but he did. In the late 60s and early 70s John Lennon wrote (if you can say there is writing here) and directed several short films, that he was trying to be artsy with. This one is surprisingly one of his best, which shows how much I despise his film-making.

The girls in the 60s went crazy over the Beatles, so if you were one of those girls, or just someone who is dying to see a sustained close up of John Lennon's face, then this is for you. Here we are treated to a slow motion 50 minute close up of John Lennon's face in which he gives a weird look like he's about to laugh, and then smiles. He seems to be standing in a garden, and all you ever see on screen is John's head and some trees and bushes in the background.

There's really not much to review. This is just a boring short film, that even students in love with stylistic artistic films would hate. Hopefully John had a good time making this, so at least one person in the world enjoyed anything that had to do with this.

My rating: BOMB/****. 50 mins.

Fluxus Lennon

[jmckahan · 14 November 2020]

The one-star review here makes the assumption that all films must be entertaining or be a "bomb". Smile is clearly an experimental film, so it must be looked at on its own terms. Smile is an exploration of high speed cinematography, which creates a film so slow that movement can barely be detected. This technique was executed in an earlier Fluxus film by Mieko Shiomi, Disappearing Music for Face (Fluxfilm no. 4) 1965.