Patti Smith: Dream of Life

I'll be honest. I've always known who Patti Smith was, was vaguely aware of her relationship with, and to, Robert Mapplethorpe and of her music. But she was never hugely on my radar. Why, at the library today, I was compelled to pick up a documentary about her is a mystery, a serendipitous mystery. Dream of Life is brilliant, one of the best documentaries (I even hate calling it that as it has qualities of a fictional art house film) I've seen. Part black and white, part color, old footage and new, overlapped with Patti's music and poetry, Robert's art, family photos, it plays like a photo collage but more. Honestly, it is so good, I'm not actually done with watching it as I write this...