“The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” Ludwig Wittgenstein
A poetic reverie on love and death, Laurie Anderson’s film Heart of a Dog was shown this past week at the Jerusalem Film Festival, both screenings followed by a conversation with the artist. It is a rare gift to experience an artist as present, as thoughtful and generous as Laurie Anderson. Even at the last screening, which ended sometime around midnight on Tuesday, July 12th, she was entirely attuned to the audience, listening and responding attentively to questions and comments, every gesture open, reaching out. It was inspirational, a night to remember.
Love and death occupy art, life and though incessantly, yet are so difficult to define and describe accurately. Every love and every death feels like a universe unto itself; infinite, elusive. It requires strength and evasive action to capture those feelings; Anderson has both. In her film, Anderson quotes Wittgenstein: “The limits of my language are the limits of my world.” In Heart of a Dog, her cinematic language works in several directions at once, reaching for the infinite. Black and white drawings and animation, video sequences of Lolabelle her rat terrier dog, Manhattan, trees and sky, beaches, x-rays, and old home movies from her childhood, merge with a complex soundtrack illuminated by Anderson’s vocal artistry. The emotional range of her voice, from mellifluous to menacing, is mesmerizing. The multiplicity of sounds, rhythms, genres, look, and tone creates a palimpsest of narratives and associations, sending the mind and feelings in several directions at once. After the film, Anderson told the audience at one point, “I’m always called a multi-media artist. If you’re an artist and looking for something to call yourself, multi-media is good because it doesn’t mean anything.” It’s a term that imposes no limits, giving the artist the freedom to do anything and everything, and in Anderson’s case – she does.
Don’t come to Heart of a Dog expecting anything resembling a traditional narrative. Images, sounds and stories – sometimes blazing on the screen for an instant, sometimes leisurely narrated, infused with reverence and humor, embracing all aspects of human life, rejecting the dictates of convention. New York after 9/11, Lolabelle playing piano, childhood memories, personal and philosophical musings fill the film, accompanied by an evocative soundtrack that culminates in the magnificent Lou Reed’s Turning Time Around.
There will be an additional screening of Heart of a Dog at the Jerusalem Film Festival on Sunday, July 17, 2016 at 12:00. Laurie Anderson will not be present at this screening. Tickets and additional information are available on the festival website.
