Across the Universe

Jude is a young, restless worker who works in the docks of the bleak Liverpool of the 60s. He has never known his father, an American soldier, and wants to go look for him. Once he sets foot on land in New York, he becomes completely under the spell of flower power, the protest marches, and the drugs of the American counterculture of the 60s. Specifically for Cinema ZED Leuven The screening on June 25th will be subtitled in English. Commentaar Het idea to make a musical with exclusively songs by The Beatles is as simple as it is brilliant: they are part of the collective auditory memory and at the same time tell the story of a turbulent, delirious decade. Across the Universe tells that story through the love troubles of Jude and Lucy but colors quite a bit outside the lines and uses puppets, 3D animation, and psychedelic colors that seamlessly connect with the lyrics of the Fabulous Four. The production studio paid 10 million dollars for the rights to the songs but was not allowed to use original recordings and so all songs are sung live (for example, Bono, in the role of an LSD guru, takes care of I'm the Walrus), which only benefits the coherence between image and music.