Laurie Anderson's film HEART OF A DOG

Funny, moving, very Buddhist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v37BnyHefnY

I read this as Louie Anderson. Would likely be a much different film. After watching the trailer I would like to see this.

i reviewed the soundtrack for this (which i think is literally the soundtrack). preferred the really graceful book of the dead stuff to the post-9/11 jitters stuff, which felt kinda perfunctory here compared to homeland, altho it's maybe better w visuals. ghost of lou unmentioned but omnipresent in a really wrenching way.

xgau's review fwiw:

The soundtrack to a film I missed is also Anderson'a simplest and finest album, accruing power and complexity as you relisten and relisten again: 75 minutes of sparsely but gorgeously and aptly orchestrated tales about a) her beloved rat terrier Lolabelle and b) the experience of death. There are few detours—even her old fascination with the surveillance state packs conceptual weight. Often she's wry, but never is she satiric; occasionally she varies spoken word with singsong, but never is her voice distorted. She's just telling us stories about life and death and what comes in the middle when you do them right, which is love. There's a lot of Buddhism, a lot of mom, a whole lot of Lolabelle, and no Lou Reed at all beyond a few casual "we"s. Only he's there in all this love and death talk—you can feel him. And then suddenly the finale is all Lou, singing a rough, wise, abstruse song about the meaning of love that first appeared on his last great album, Ecstasy—a song that was dubious there yet is perfect here. One side of the CD insert is portraits of Lolabelle. But on the other side there's a note: "dedicated to the magnificent spirit/of my husband, Lou Reed/1942-2013." I know I should see the movie. But I bet it'd be an anticlimax. A PLUS

Didn't even realize it had been released as an album!

(MD'A also said something to the same effect, I think ... that the movie would almost be better with your eyes closed. I disagree, but admit that its not exactly Sans soleil.)

A plus!!!!! damn, when was the last time he did that?

obvs I must hear this ASAP

how did Xgau "miss it"? It's not going anywhere, and is in its premiere NYC run. Wacky old coot.

Lou appears.

I disagree, but admit that its not exactly Sans soleil.

Chris Marker gets a thanks in the credits, along with Homeland Security.

does the dog die at the end

xp I <3 this alien

the dog dies near the beginning, as does her mother; it does not unfold in chronological order.

she did a Q&A yesterday which was very relaxed and anecdotal after beginning "I really don't like Q&A's," absorb the meaning of the film however you wish, etc.

Hate that I have to wait until March to see her, but I'll be front row.

really looking forward to this, but looks like it will be on HBO rather than a full cinema release?

It will be on HBO eventually. It will get theatrical showings where you'd expect:

http://www.heartofadogfilm.com/#find

She might be partly an alien (from Illinois), but also a rich NYC person who gets piano lessons for her blind dog.

this film looks intriguing, though i've long felt that anderson is kind of a pretender when it comes to film. her big films from the 1980s have--for me anyway--a deadly combo of slack visuals and overweening self-regard. everything seems geared to demonstrate how surprising! quirky! and profound! anderson is, but the film format seems to somehow underline the limits of her imagination, unlike her albums.

this thread title made me think of

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P20i0nMKy58

for which i am exceedingly grateful. what a great song.

"her big films from the 1980s " did she have more than Home of the Brave?

He's given roughly 65 A+s, which still puts this in pretty elite company. You can view 'em here

https://rateyourmusic.com/list/Arits/robert_christgaus_a_/

That said, he gives an A+ to some pretty dodgy albums (Licensed to Ill? Play???)

can get with most of those

except for the Clapton and Firesign Theater entries

Licensed to Ill is def a masterpiece

i'm going to see it on sunday along with a concert for dogs!

http://www.cinefamily.org/films/special-events-december-2015/#concert-for-dogs-heart-of-a-dog-w-laurie-anderson

<3

saw this again the other night on an even bigger screen in Queens.

the dog concert was great btw, although none of the dogs seemed to want to cooperate when laurie instructed them all to howl en masse

the film itself = A++++ would watch again

oh hey morbs we were in the same theater! wacky

She should have used a harmonica, dogs will howl to that. What was the dog music like?

the ever elusive BN ;)

last night's Times Square dog concert

http://gothamist.com/2016/01/05/photos_videos_from_laurie_andersons.php#photo-1

(17 F)

this movie was so good