Patti Smith in Steven Sebring's movie about her, subtitled “Dream of Life." He began filming her 12 years ago WHEN Steven Sebring began filming Patti Smith, 12 years ago, he was, by his own admission, pretty much an amateur. He made his living as a fashion photographer, as he still does. He didn't own a movie camera. (He now does.) He had been hired by Spin magazine to shoot some pictures for a story on Ms. Smith, and although his wife, he said, “nearly fell off her chair" when he told her about the assignment, he didn't know very much about his subject, the singer, poet and artist whose 1975 album “Horses" had, if not revolutionized rock 'n' roll, at least infused it with a new and arresting sort of incantatory power. And, more to the point, he didn't know what he was getting into. Amateurs, bless them, never do.
“Patti Smith: Dream of Life," the movie Mr. Sebring emerged with after all those years of on-and-off, caught-on-the-fly filming, opens Aug. 6 at Film Forum in Manhattan, and it bears almost no resemblance to any other documentary about the punk- rock heroes of Ms. Smith's turbulent era. (Julien Temple's 2000 Sex Pistols movie, “The Filth and the Fury," and Jim Fields and Michael Granaglia's 2003 “End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones," are among the better ones.) “Over the years," Mr. Sebring recently said by phone from his Manhattan home, “Patti's been approached by a lot of filmmakers who wanted to do these rock 'n' roll historical pieces, and she's just never been interested in that. She says, 'You know, I'm alive, and I have more to say and a lot more things to do, and I don't need anybody talking about me.' “
But when she and Mr. Sebring met, at her home in Detroit, there was, he said, “an immediate connection." Ms. Smith had then been living there for a decade and a half with her husband, the guitarist Fred (Sonic) Smith, rarely recording and never performing. After her husband's death, though, in 1994, she put together a band, finished the beautiful album “Gone Again" and was preparing to appear onstage for the first time since the end of the '70s. It was the first live performance of her tour, at Irving Plaza, that gave Mr. Sebring the idea of making a film.
“She was a totally different woman onstage," he said, “nothing like the person I'd photographed in Detroit. I thought, this is too interesting not to put on film."
“Patti Smith: Dream of Life," the movie Mr. Sebring emerged with after all those years of on-and-off, caught-on-the-fly filming, opens Aug. 6 at Film Forum in Manhattan, and it bears almost no resemblance to any other documentary about the punk- rock heroes of Ms. Smith's turbulent era. (Julien Temple's 2000 Sex Pistols movie, “The Filth and the Fury," and Jim Fields and Michael Granaglia's 2003 “End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones," are among the better ones.) “Over the years," Mr. Sebring recently said by phone from his Manhattan home, “Patti's been approached by a lot of filmmakers who wanted to do these rock 'n' roll historical pieces, and she's just never been interested in that. She says, 'You know, I'm alive, and I have more to say and a lot more things to do, and I don't need anybody talking about me.' “
But when she and Mr. Sebring met, at her home in Detroit, there was, he said, “an immediate connection." Ms. Smith had then been living there for a decade and a half with her husband, the guitarist Fred (Sonic) Smith, rarely recording and never performing. After her husband's death, though, in 1994, she put together a band, finished the beautiful album “Gone Again" and was preparing to appear onstage for the first time since the end of the '70s. It was the first live performance of her tour, at Irving Plaza, that gave Mr. Sebring the idea of making a film.
“She was a totally different woman onstage," he said, “nothing like the person I'd photographed in Detroit. I thought, this is too interesting not to put on film."
