In 1966, Yoko Ono released a five-and-a-half minute video consisting exclusively of nude bottoms; according to IMDb, she meant this to be a dialogue for world peace. She made it with her then-husband Anthony Cox, and according to the credits their daughter Kyoto Ono Cox is involved, which would mean she was about three at the time. To Yoko Ono the film is referred to as "No. 4." Since its release, however, it has been known simply as "Bottoms." It was a time of experimental and minimalism movie making--the period of Andy Warhol and George Landow. Ono and husband John Lennon would direct "Fly," a forty-five minute following of a fly crawling on a woman's body.
I have never had more difficulty in writing a review than attempting to do so for a five-and-a-half minute film about naked asses. There's no acting (is there?). Nothing really to mention about the cinematography. No screenplay. I presume the direction consisted of Ono telling her nude performers to shift their cheeks and such. I admire the advocacy of peace and dialogue; I'm not sure how naked rear-ends achieves those goals.
I don't know much about Yoko Ono but I've never bought the myth that she ruined the Beatles (and he can confirm it for me). If you've seen Martin Scorsese's new documentary on George Harrison, many of the interviewers, including Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney, argue that Harrison felt that the Beatles were keeping him down, and that his motivation to write his own music, along with the general tiring the group members had of each other, contributed more to the band's breakup than anything Ono did. I don't know enough about her art to say if she has made any lasting impact; at least I have seen "No. 4."
According to a writer on IMDb who remembers seeing the premiere decades ago, a UK critic wrote that "Bottoms" was only temporarily relieved by the occasional glimpse of scrotum.
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