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Heart of a Dog



Heart of a Dog marks the first feature film by multimedia artist Laurie Anderson in over thirty years. A cinematic tone poem that flows from a sustained meditation on death and other forms of absence, the film seamlessly weaves together thoughts on Tibetan Buddhism, reincarnation, the modern surveillance state, and the artistic lives of dogs, with an elegy for the filmmaker's beloved rat terrier, Lolabelle, at its heart. Narrated by Anderson with her characteristic wry wit, and featuring a plaintive, free-form score by the filmmaker, the tender and provocative Heart of a Dog continues Anderson's five-decade career of imbuing the everyday with a sense of dreamlike wonder.

DIRECTOR-APPROVED SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

• High-definition digital master, with 5.1 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack on the Blu-ray
• New conversation between director Laurie Anderson and coproducer Jake Perlin
• Footage of Anderson's 2016 Concert for Dogs
• Trailer
• PLUS: An essay by film critic Glenn Kenny

Minkin wrote:Laurie Anderson in the closet.

This one has the best story of any of these I've watched. When she said she was cutting herself off and Tout Va Bien would be the last, I wondered if guests to the closet impose their own limit on how many things they take. Then it turns out,

Spoiler

You can take any number you want, but you can never leave. (cue long guitar solo)

Laurie Anderson in the closet -- does that mean that HEART OF A DOG will be joining the collection? Or will it be released by HBO?

Heart of a Dog (Laurie Anderson)
A memoir of the life and death of her dog, as the occasion for ruminations on life, death, mourning, the afterlife, the aftermath of 9/11, with some extraordinary reminiscences from her own life. Something of the same form and style as Marker's Level Five (or Sans Soleil), but more playful and personal. One of the highlights of the year for me.

News from Criterion Cast, Laurie Anderson's Heart of a Dog is going to be available from Criterion's iTunes channel on March 1st

That's great news! I loved Heart of a Dog, it reminded me a bit of Sans Soleil.

Laurie Anderson’s Heart of a Dog

From Vudu's website :

That's terrific. I really hope Criterion can release her phenomenal 1986 concert film Home of the Brave, which is no longer held by Warner Bros. As an aside, I saw a screening of it with Anderson and the film's producers earlier this year, and they said it was the first film to have ever had a digital intermediate produced.

Disappointingly slim release.

Was hoping for another Christgau extra, oh well.

I mean, unless there's another Laurie Anderson release coming along (please please Home of the Brave oh god), it's disappointing that they'd put out a barebones release for one of the biggest people in audiovisual performance art, who has literally decades of work that has gone almost totally unseen on home video.

New features:

- Alternate no-music soundtrack
- Deleted scenes
- Lolabelle’s video Christmas card

Beaver-Dog

(Afterthought: My play on it makes it look like it's actually a Todd Solondz film instead. This is where people cry for a completely different reason.)

My dog was pretty bored by this, I on the other hand thought it was great. This doesn't reinvent the cine-essay or anything like that, but as an extension of Anderson's work (I was most consistently reminded of 'Language is a Virus') it feels novel enough to be super exciting. It doesn't hurt how polished, entertaining, and smartly structured all the pieces are. There are a number of diversions that go on, especially considering the length, but they all lead back satisfactorily to the ideas of sadness, isolation, and paranoia that Anderson builds off of the dual life of Lolabelle and post-9/11 New York. Definitely one of the funner Criterion releases in a while.

Really dug this, though I kind of wish I had not listened to the album first. That final story she tells about the incident on the ice with her brothers, and her mother’s reaction, turns me into a blubbering mess.

I was surprised at how much the shots of Lou moved me. Never mentioning him by name (until the text dedication at the end) makes his couple of appearances all the more touching, especially the shots on the beach.