FilmFest: The generations come together for a Beatles musical

By Casey Calvert

ROME, Oct. 26 – Twentysomethings aren’t supposed to like musicals. Or history. Or anything their parents can relate to. So when Paul Fanelli, 20, a Boston College student, uploaded a trailer for the new ‘60s inspired musical film “Across the Universe” onto his Facebook page, he shouldn’t have been inundated with responses.

Right?

Think again.

 

Fanelli's friends grew increasingly anxious for the film’s release. They pre-ordered the soundtrack of Beatles’ covers performed by the movie’s stars.

Could yesterday’s pop culture be cool again?

Julie Taymor’s “Across the Universe,” which premiered Thursday night at the Rome Film Festival, is the story of Jude, a working-class bloke from Liverpool, played by newcomer Jim Sturgess. Jude moves to New York City in the mid-1960s and quickly falls in love with upper-class Lucy, played by Evan Rachel Wood. Together, the pair embraces the counter-culture lifestyle – Vietnam War protests, political art, casual drug use.

The Detroit race riots tear a city apart. Bombs go off. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated. Naturally, this is shown through a series of choreographed dance numbers set to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” and “Come Together.” The movie includes supporting characters that evoke the spirits of Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin.

Sex, drugs, and rock ‘n’ roll aside, what is it about the 1960s that continues to mesmerize a generation half a century later? For Fanelli and others, it’s a matter of politics. “I think we love movies like “Across the Universe” because we see some of the same things now with the Iraq War as they did then with Vietnam,” he says. “Our generation lives with the feeling of an overbearing government, so we can appreciate that rebellious culture.”

It’s this feeling of connection that drives Generation Y to download “Revolution” onto their iPods and watch films like “Across the Universe.”  We live in a similar age of controversial foreign policy and freedom of self-expression. We agree with John Lennon when he sings, “we all want to change the world.”

Two additional screenings of “Across the Universe” are scheduled. Check out the times here.