Film Reviews

Patti Smith: Dream of Life

• Rating:
• Director: Steven Sebring
• Starring: Patti Smith
• Details: US / 109mins (PG)

Patti Smith is one those artists that, perhaps criminally, passed me by. Not that '’ve an aversion to her music, it's just that I never got into her - or cared enough to get into her. It's odd too since Talking Heads, The Ramones, Blondie and Television - all late '70s CBGB heroes - are in my music collection. I realise I'm alone in this; recently two close friends of mine went to a Patti Smith concert in New York, a concert ruined by an overzealous fan who stood behind them screaming 'Pattiiiii! I’ve been into you since 1976! Pattiiiiiiiiiii! Aaaaaaaagh!' for the entire gig. So with that in mind, maybe I'm the best person to review a Patti Smith documentary. Does it appeal to the non-fan like myself? Yes and no. Yes, in that I'll definitely check out Horses, but no, in that I won't rush out to buy it. Shot over 11 years, Steven Sebring's Dream Of Life is just what the title suggests - a breezy, nonchalant jaunt through the career of one of New York's most famous musicians. Cutting back and forth between Smith's rise and contemporary interviews, Sebring's otherworldly approach has an intoxicating effect. Narrated by Smith in a tired but defiant style, the documentary is thankfully bereft of boring talking heads (the documentary style, not the band) and bursts to life during some raucous concert footage. It's an intimate portrayal: Letting the camera rove about untidy apartments and showing Smith's kids growing up on screen, Sebring attempts to get into every nook and cranny. He sometimes, however, is far too content to let her jam instead of getting into her head. Up against recent rockumentaries like The Future Is Unwritten, 30th Century Man and Joy Division, Dream Of Life can stand proud. A real Patti Smith fan will get a bang out of this and that overzealous fan in New York will love it. But then he was always going to, wasn't he? Flea, Tom Verlaine, Sam Shepard and Philip Glass make an appearance.

Review by Gavin Burke