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REMEMBERING JOHN LENNON’S LOST, MAYBE GAY WEEKEND
In the bookstores is a new John Lennon bio, Lennon Revealed, and speculation about Lennon’s famous “lost weekend” to Spain with Marianne Faithfull where it’s long been rumored that he had an affair with manager Brian Epstein. In an interview published on the Today show site, author Larry Kane discusses the topic and brings up one of the best independent films of the 1990s.
Did John Lennon and Brian Epstein have physical sexual relations with each other?
It was a question that was on many minds within the Beatles’ circle, and to a lesser degree within the Liverpool music scene. Later, it would be written about by the Lennon biographer, Albert Goldman, in his book “The Lives of John Lennon,” and it was the focus of the screenplay and feature film, “The Hours and Times.” Goldman recklessly stated in his book that John used sex with Brian Epstein to advance his career as the self-proclaimed leader of the Beatles. It was a tawdry assumption, designed most likely to sell books, yet it doesn’t make sense in light of the fact that John was already the band’s unquestioned leader. Furthermore, Lennon’s key power and tool in terms of leverage was his talent. “The Hours and Times” also leads the viewer to believe that Epstein’s famous infatuation with John Lennon may have been requited while in Barcelona. Its portrayal of the four-day interlude is more subtle than Goldman’s take, but it does have Lennon and Epstein practically flirting with each other, while leaving the big question itself unanswered.
The Hours and Times was the 1991 directorial debut of Christopher Munch, a slender (just over an hour) fictional representation of the possible event that still holds up today. It’s a great example of independent filmmaking that by directorial craft, great acting and an imaginative concept transcends the poverty of its production. Here’s an excerpt:
The Hours and Times is available on DVD from Amazon.
