Patti Smith: Dream of Life reviews
Review by on 22 Sep 2008
More a musical biographic poem than biopic, Sebring’s intimate portrait of the legendary Patti Smith is an even more radical departure from the conventional rock documentary than D.A. Pennebaker's DON’T LOOK BACK (1975). Edited with a dream like logic this beautiful sequence of footage, shot over an astonishing period of twelve years, candidly reveals the artist “shaking the dust of performance off her feet” - backstage with her children, visiting her parents and surrounded by old photographs, and mementos in her now abandoned Detroit family home.
Sebring’s heartfelt record begins in 1994 with Patti’s re-emergence from semi-retirement after the sudden and unexpected deaths of both her husband and brother. No stranger to loss - her close associate Robert Mapplethorpe died some years before – Smith began a descent into her own private season of hell. Heeding the advice of close friend Allen Ginsberg to “let go of the departed and continue in your own life’s celebration” she returned on tour with Dylan.
That Smith’s own incendiary performance owes much to Ginsberg is movingly captured in the incantatory power of the devotional mantra she chants at his own later funeral. Smith’s acute sense of loss is not only personal but political, holding up images of the war ravaged Golden Dome Mosque in Baghdad she passionately indicts Bush in a powerful anti-war statement. Like the Peyote Necklace made by Mapplethorpe each sequence of Sebring’s documentary contains ‘a dream in every bead’ of a phenomenal artist who ‘straightens Burroughs’s tie outside the Chelsea Hotel’ is now influencing another generation of ‘Johnnie’s’ in turn.
Sarah Pottle, Festival Daily
More a musical biographic poem than biopic, Sebring’s intimate portrait of the legendary Patti Smith is an even more radical departure from the conventional rock documentary than D.A. Pennebaker's DON’T LOOK BACK (1975). Edited with a dream like logic this beautiful sequence of footage, shot over an astonishing period of twelve years, candidly reveals the artist “shaking the dust of performance off her feet” - backstage with her children, visiting her parents and surrounded by old photographs, and mementos in her now abandoned Detroit family home. Sebring’s heartfelt record begins in 1994 with Patti’s re-emergence from semi-retirement after the sudden and unexpected deaths of both her husband and brother. No stranger to loss - her close associate Robert Mapplethorpe died some years before – Smith began a descent into her own private season of hell. Heeding the advice of close friend Allen Ginsberg to “let go of the departed and continue in your own life’s celebration” she returned on tour with Dylan.
That Smith’s own incendiary performance owes much to Ginsberg is movingly captured in the incantatory power of the devotional mantra she chants at his own later funeral. Smith’s acute sense of loss is not only personal but political, holding up images of the war ravaged Golden Dome Mosque in Baghdad she passionately indicts Bush in a powerful anti-war statement. Like the Peyote Necklace made by Mapplethorpe each sequence of Sebring’s documentary contains ‘a dream in every bead’ of a phenomenal artist who ‘straightens Burroughs’s tie outside the Chelsea Hotel’ is now influencing another generation of ‘Johnnie’s’ in turn.
Sarah Pottle, Festival Daily
Review by on 21 Sep 2008
Melancholic, poetic and strange, this film plunges the viewer completely into Patti Smith's world, in a series of black and white or dreamily-coloured filmstock that evokes the iconic images of Patti from the 1970s and blends seamlessly with older footage. Her unique voice, vision and hypnotic performances permeate the film, by turns intense, moving and humorous.
"Deep" was the word that seemed to be circulating amongst the audiences after the late-night screening. Maybe it's because although she is a wonderful creator of surface, of images (and Sebrings cinematography reflects that), it's never just about surfaces for Patti Smith. She's always digging, delving, into books, art, history... and in a slightly mystical, rock 'n' roll way, into the soul.
She's an extraordinary person, unchangingly girlish even in her 60s, masculine in her stride and clothing, both caught up with herself as icon and completely open to others, always absorbing and reflecting her encounters in her music, words and performances. It's hard to imagine what someone who has never heard of her might make of this film, but if, like me, you're a fan, be prepared to be completely transported and seduced.
Melancholic, poetic and strange, this film plunges the viewer completely into Patti Smith's world, in a series of black and white or dreamily-coloured filmstock that evokes the iconic images of Patti from the 1970s and blends seamlessly with older footage. Her unique voice, vision and hypnotic performances permeate the film, by turns intense, moving and humorous. "Deep" was the word that seemed to be circulating amongst the audiences after the late-night screening. Maybe it's because although she is a wonderful creator of surface, of images (and Sebrings cinematography reflects that), it's never just about surfaces for Patti Smith. She's always digging, delving, into books, art, history... and in a slightly mystical, rock 'n' roll way, into the soul.
She's an extraordinary person, unchangingly girlish even in her 60s, masculine in her stride and clothing, both caught up with herself as icon and completely open to others, always absorbing and reflecting her encounters in her music, words and performances. It's hard to imagine what someone who has never heard of her might make of this film, but if, like me, you're a fan, be prepared to be completely transported and seduced.
Film details
Patti Smith: Dream of Life
DOCUMENTARIES / MUSIC AT THE MOVIES
Director: Steven Sebring
USA, 2008.
109 mins. English.
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