HEART OF A DOG
DOCUMENTARY D: Laurie Anderson. U.S. 75 min. Sep 13, 9:30 pm Isabel Bader Sep 14, 11:45 am TIFF Bell Lightbox 2 Sep 20, 10:15 am Bloor Hot Docs. See listing. Rating: NNNN
Musician, multimedia artist and moviemaker Anderson attempts to process a lot of things in this experimental documentary: her anger at America’s post-9/11 shift into a surveillance state, her grief at the death of her beloved dog Lolabelle and her conflicted feelings about her mother’s subsequent passing.
Like much of Anderson’s work, it’s odd, atonal and mordantly funny, finding strange humour in the juxtaposition of ostensibly serious things. Absent almost entirely from the narrative is Anderson’s late husband Lou Reed, whose face is seen just twice, by my count.
As Heart Of A Dog progresses, the reason becomes clear: Anderson can’t even discuss his death in the abstract. Instead, she’s made a movie with a Lou-shaped hole at its centre – which, oddly enough, feels like exactly the right response to a loss so huge.
