Shadowing the Third Man

Gerhard Polt's new comedy.

This British documentary is more than an analysis of John Lennon's song "Imagine" and its ramifications for the world we live in, it's a tentative documentary on John (and Yoko)'s art and songs' influence on a lot of people in all parts of the world and from all walks of life. As such, it should be better known and considered part of the Beatles "canon". The footage shows everything from a John Lennon Museum in Japan to a John Lennon elementary school in Liverpool to his influence on the thinking of a former Communist from Georgia (of the former USSR). It is provocative and very well made with a serious contribution from Yoko.

Eric Hobsbawm, the great Marxist historian, travels on the Pressburg Railway from his native Vienna to Bratislava (formerly Pressburg). A journey of a mere 35 miles takes him through a tiny landscape that has seen some of the most turbulent political changes of the century - from the lost world of the Habsburgs to Europe's newest state, Slovakia.