My favorite thing this week has made my list of all-time favorite films. It’s Patience (After Sebald), an evocative homage to the writer W.G. Sebald’s 1995 book The Rings of Saturn. The film is a series of commentaries by his acquaintances and admirers played over images of the route that the character walked in East Anglia in the The Rings of Saturn. Both the film and the book weave an almost incomprehensible web of history consisting of individual parts that I guarantee will stick with you. You’ll learn about silkworms, Sir Thomas Browne, Virginia Wolfe, and English geography to name just a few. You can see the scope of the topics in this map. If you love the downbeat half as much as I do, you’ll love this film.
If you’ve read Sebald you owe it to yourself to see it. If you haven’t, it’s an accessible introduction that is worth your time even if you have no desire to read The Rings of Saturn. I recommend it if you like documentaries, art films, Sebald, or just want to watch something different. There is one copy available through SWAN.