THE season of rock documentaries at City Screen, York, continues this weekend with the pick of the new crop from 2008, Patti Smith: Dream Of Life.
Showing at midday in the Sunday Special slot, this portrait of the iconoclastic American punk songwriter, artist and poet was shot by fashion photographer Steven Sebring in the wake of Smith’s return to the fray after the unexpected deaths of her husband, fellow musician Fred “Sonic” Smith of the MC5, and her brother Todd in the winter of 1994.
In his full-length feature directorial debut, after his earlier work for fashion mags and Ralph Lauren campaigns, Sebring assembled the sage survivor’s tale of Dream Of Life over 11 years of filming in pastel colour and the smokiest black and white.
Smith’s live performances retain all her fabled visceral intensity, but the informal footage away from work at rest and play is the more revealing, impressionistic and irreverent too, as she chews the fat at her childhood home with her ageing parents, philosophises animatedly amid her clutter and banters with Michael Stipe and playwright and actor Sam Shepard.
For tickets, phone 0871 704 2054 or book at picturehouses.co.uk
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