If you were in any doubt as to the reach of Patti Smith’s influences as punk and poet, watch the concert scenes where luminaries such as Bono and Thom Yorke huddle on the sidelines and watch their hero with all the gauche admiration of teenagers.
That’s the kind of devotion Smith has inspired in the great and the good and the misunderstood since the 70’s and this documentary, filmed over eleven years (from 1995) is a gently engrossing look at her life and work using a rhapsodic collage of interviews, lyrics, concert footage and what can only be described as professional home movies.
The film, while shadowed by the deaths of her husband, her brother and – during the course of the eleven years – her father, is an uplifting and slightly dreamy experience.
It’s out now on DVD and comes with a 24 page colour booklet. Recommended.