Much like “Lou Reed’s Berlin,” we’ve been dying to see the rock doc “Patti Smith: Dream Of Life,” by director Steven Sebring.
The film debuted at Sundance earlier this year, played many a smaller film festival this spring, and now has a firm release date of August 6 for its regular theatrical release. In New York, the doc will debut at Film Forum, for the rest of North America, consult your like-minded repetory theater.
WHEN PEOPLE ASK HER “HOW DOES IT FEEL TO BE A ROCK ICON?” Patti Smith says she “always thinks of Mount Rushmore.” Steven Sebring’s directorial debut takes a lyrical, stream-of-consciousness approach that is exactly right in his affecting portrait of the “rock ’n’ roll Joan of Arc” (Stephen Holden, The NY Times) who can bring a crowd of devotees to their feet chanting “Glor-i-a!” as effectively as she can share her pain over the early death of her husband, Fred (Sonic) Smith and her brother, and the loss of her close friend Robert Mapplethorpe and of other artists she admires (Allen Ginsberg, Gregory Corso, William S. Burroughs). Everyone knows that Patti Smith’s music, poetry and politics are fearless, funny, raw and original. But this film also captures her physical presence – her gamine beauty – and a charming, self-effacing style that will take you by surprise and leave you deeply moved.
A source close to the project tells us the DVD release for ‘Dream Of Life’ will probably arrive in early 2009.
Watch: “Patti Smith: Dream Of Life” trailer
