Rock star, figure of the underground, poet, activist, writer… Patti Smith leaves no one indifferent, that she exasperates by her provocations and her exalted performances or fascinates by her freedom and her entire commitments. Sophie Peyrard and Anne Cutaia, directors of this documentary, are among the fans of the American. At the beginning, a few comments bordering on the ridiculous and declaimed with solemnity as “Patti makes a decisive gesture”, to teach us that she shortened her hair, make you fear the worst.
→ MAINTENANCE. Patti Smith: “Writing has always been at the center of my life”
Fortunately, the dreaded hagiography gives way after a quarter of an hour to a portrait that expands and becomes more complex with the words of the person concerned.. “No one had ever brought an electric guitar into a church before, and certainly not a girl! “, she boasts after a concert. Before abandoning the provocation, to confide: “I have always read the Bible from childhood and have always found it inspiring, not just spiritually but poetically. “
From the hit “Because the Night” to the autobiography “Just Kids”
The admirer of Rimbaud and Bob Dylan is discovered on stage, unleashing her rock power in her hits Because the Night, Gloria and People Have the Power. She understands herself by her words, from the collection of poems Seventh Heaven to the autobiography Just Kids. The committed citizen demonstrates political intelligence. “Critics are very patriotic. It is our duty to protest against injustices. It’s part of the American Way ”, she analyzes with clarity.
The woman, 75 years old today, finally appears entirely with her panache, her wounds, her resilience. She lost in a short time, from 1989 to 1994, her best friend Robert Mapplethorpe, her husband Fred “Sonic” Smith, her guitarist and her brother. Writing has become his refuge just as art has allowed him to invent his life. The recent years of Patti Smith’s career would have deserved a richer light.
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