Patti Smith: Dream of Life -- a review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Patti Smith: Dream of Life opened at the Granville theatre in Vancouver this weekend, and, knowing that my colleague David F. Dawes is something of a fan,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/11\/patti-smith-dream-of-life-a-review.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Patti Smith: Dream of Life -- a review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Patti Smith: Dream of Life opened at the Granville theatre in Vancouver this weekend, and, knowing that my colleague David F. Dawes is something of a fan,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/11\/patti-smith-dream-of-life-a-review.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-11-01T17:42:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/SQ01TLszafI\/AAAAAAAACAs\/ko8o0I8Svds\/s400\/vlcsnap-6368982.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/11\/patti-smith-dream-of-life-a-review.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/11\/patti-smith-dream-of-life-a-review.html\",\"name\":\"Patti Smith: Dream of Life -- a review\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2008-11-01T17:42:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2008-11-01T17:42:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\"},\"description\":\"Patti Smith: Dream of Life opened at the Granville theatre in Vancouver this weekend, and, knowing that my colleague David F. Dawes is something of a fan,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/11\/patti-smith-dream-of-life-a-review.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/11\/patti-smith-dream-of-life-a-review.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/11\/patti-smith-dream-of-life-a-review.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Patti Smith: Dream of Life — a review\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/\",\"name\":\"FilmChat\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\",\"name\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\"},\"description\":\"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Patti Smith: Dream of Life -- a review","description":"Patti Smith: Dream of Life opened at the Granville theatre in Vancouver this weekend, and, knowing that my colleague David F. Dawes is something of a fan,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/11\/patti-smith-dream-of-life-a-review.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Patti Smith: Dream of Life -- a review","og_description":"Patti Smith: Dream of Life opened at the Granville theatre in Vancouver this weekend, and, knowing that my colleague David F. Dawes is something of a fan,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/11\/patti-smith-dream-of-life-a-review.html","og_site_name":"FilmChat","article_published_time":"2008-11-01T17:42:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/3.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/SQ01TLszafI\/AAAAAAAACAs\/ko8o0I8Svds\/s400\/vlcsnap-6368982.png"}],"author":"Peter T. Chattaway","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter T. Chattaway","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/11\/patti-smith-dream-of-life-a-review.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/11\/patti-smith-dream-of-life-a-review.html","name":"Patti Smith: Dream of Life -- a review","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2008-11-01T17:42:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-11-01T17:42:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde"},"description":"Patti Smith: Dream of Life opened at the Granville theatre in Vancouver this weekend, and, knowing that my colleague David F. Dawes is something of a fan,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/11\/patti-smith-dream-of-life-a-review.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/11\/patti-smith-dream-of-life-a-review.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/11\/patti-smith-dream-of-life-a-review.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Patti Smith: Dream of Life — a review"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/","name":"FilmChat","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde","name":"Peter T. Chattaway","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Peter T. Chattaway"},"description":"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":559,"date":"2008-11-01T17:42:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-01T17:42:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/11\/patti-smith-dream-of-life-a-review\/"},"modified":"2008-11-01T17:42:00","modified_gmt":"2008-11-01T17:42:00","slug":"patti-smith-dream-of-life-a-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2008\/11\/patti-smith-dream-of-life-a-review.html","title":{"rendered":"Patti Smith: Dream of Life — a review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ <\/a>
Patti Smith: Dream of Life<\/a> opened at the Granville theatre<\/a> in Vancouver this weekend, and, knowing that my colleague David F. Dawes<\/b> is something of a fan, I asked him if he would have any interest in reviewing it for this blog. He said he would, so voila:<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

PATTI SMITH<\/a> is talking to a friend about a question she gets asked too often: \u201cHow does it feel to be a rock icon?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think of Mount Rushmore,\u201d she smiles.<\/p>\n

The scene is from a film which is anything but carved in stone. Steven Sebring\u2019s Patti Smith: Dream of Life<\/a><\/i> is full of vitality, evincing a lively imagination worthy of its subject. It is an evocative and incisive portrait of a brilliant poet, ferocious vocalist, open spiritual seeker and rabble rouser of the first order.<\/p>\n

Blessedly, there\u2019s not one reference to \u2018 Godmother of Punk<\/a>,\u2019 a cliche frequently attached to Smith. The film does more than justice to the breadth of her art beyond rock \u2018n roll, including her poetry and painting.<\/p>\n

Sebring had an unprecedented opportunity to film Smith over an 11-year period, beginning in 1995. The result could have been far too disjointed. Instead, the director has skillfully distilled the footage into a series of vignettes \u2014 with scenes clustered around different concepts.<\/p>\n

We see Patti\u2019s meditations on the death of loved ones, such as husband Fred Sonic Smith<\/a> and lover Robert Mapplethorpe<\/a>; tributes to her influences, including William S. Burroughs<\/a>, Bob Dylan<\/a> and Allen Ginsberg<\/a>; her carefree interactions with her family; and her fiery peace activism. While some might find the combination of topics chaotic, the film holds together as a suitably many-faceted portrait of a complex personality.<\/p>\n

Memorable sequences include: Patti goofing around on guitar with playwright Sam Shepard<\/a>; Smith and a friend expressing shock and awe over a draconian invoice on a Prada bag; and her righteous outrage over the war in Iraq<\/a> and other W. Bush misadventures.<\/p>\n

The film\u2019s style is by turns poetic, documentary and abstract. It is mostly black and white, with effective intrusions of colour. A few moments are confusing, showing people interacting with Smith without clarifying their relationship to her. But this occasional lack of concrete information also enhances the free-flowing evocation of an artist and her milieu; and continuity is provided by narration spoken by Smith.<\/p>\n

Some sequences are simply riveting. At one point we see a series of colour close-ups of Smith passionately vocalizing in concert; however, we hear no vocals \u2014 but instead very intense, discordant instrumental music which perfectly evokes the expressions on the singer\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

Speaking of concert footage: there are some simply amazing sequences \u2014 handheld camera reflecting the energy of the musicians and fans, with Patti in your face, a force of nature unleashed.<\/p>\n

Indeed, the film is appropriately permeated with Smith\u2019s music \u2014 acoustic and electric songs, and poetry incantations. Highlights include \u2018Rock N Roll Nigger,\u2019 \u2018Land,\u2019 Ginsberg\u2019s \u2018Spell,\u2019 and the harrowing \u2018Radio Baghdad.\u2019<\/p>\n

As for Patti herself, she comes across as both intimidating and endearing \u2014 undeniably charismatic, gentle-hearted, opinionated, bursting with artistic and political passion.<\/p>\n

Her spiritual side is mostly presented in a low-key fashion. She is shown occasionally wearing a cross. More significant is a sequence showing her wandering in the Middle East. A skillful montage combines images of Arabs in a mosque; Jews praying at the Wailing Wall; and Patti in an Orthodox church.<\/p>\n

The most upfront portrayal of her spirituality occurs in the final credits, which features her reworking of a Psalm. Calling on \u201cthe Rock that is higher than I,\u201d she sings \u201chear my cry, O Lord\u201d in a heartfelt plea for aid.<\/p>\n

Overall, Dream of Life<\/i> is an outstanding debut for director Sebring. More importantly, it is a worthy tribute to one of the most phenomenal talents of our time.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"