John Lennon’s last interview, just hours before he was shot on Dec. 8, 1980, was turned into a documentary directed by Steven Soderbergh, which debuted Saturday at the Cannes Film Festival.
in a New interview with Associated Press.Soderbergh defends the film’s limited use of AI to visualize concepts from that two-hour interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono:
Soderbergh decided to let the audio play. He was able to find ways to visualize much of the film, but that still left a big void where the conversation became more philosophical. “I worked on everything that could be solved, except that, for as long as possible,” Soderbergh says. “Then came the inevitable moment of: Okay, but what are we actually going to do? We started playing and ran out of time and money. That’s where the Goal piece came in.” Soderbergh accepted an offer to use Meta’s artificial intelligence software to conjure surreal images for those sections, which make up about 10% of the film.
When Soderbergh revealed the news earlier this year, it caused quite a stir. Was one of America’s top filmmakers using AI? In a movie about a Beatle, no less? The AI parts (overwhelmingly criticized by critics at Cannes) are quite banal and do not differ much from the special effects: there are no Lennon deepfakes. But they put Soderberg at the forefront of an industry-wide debate about the uses of AI in filmmaking. It’s a conversation the director, who has made movies on iPhones, is eager to have.
While the film follows John and Yoko’s conversation, “I needed a way to visually follow them in flight,” Soderbergh says, “or I won’t do my job.” Although when asked about the strong negative reaction, Soderbergh acknowledges that “I knew what was coming. I take it very seriously and I understand why people have an emotional response to this topic. As I’ve said before, I feel like I owe people the best version of whatever art I’m trying to make and complete transparency about how I’m doing it.”
AP: Some fear that generative AI will destroy the film industry. But you don’t see him as a boogeyman.
SODERBERGH: I think most of the jobs that matter when you’re making a movie can’t be done by this technology and will never be done by this technology. As anyone can create something that meets a certain standard of technical perfection, imperfection becomes more valuable and interesting. We’ve yet to see someone with any creative credibility use full AI on something and see how people react. I think it is necessary. How do you know where the line is until someone crosses it?
“I don’t think what I’m doing crosses it. Some people may disagree. I don’t know where my line is yet. I’m waiting to see…
