Patience (After Sebald)

Since W. G. Sebald’s death in a car crash in 2001, his reputation has only grown and he’s now regarded as one of the most significant authors of our time. Patience isn’t a portrait of Sebald or an adaptation of his work, but an aesthetic response to his writing.

A multilayered, highly original essay on landscape, art, life, and loss, the film travels through the English coastal landscapes described in Sebald’s The Rings of Saturn, one of the most discussed and highly praised literary works of recent years. This striking footage is interwoven with Sebald’s texts (read by Jonathan Pryce) and commentaries by artists and critics such as Tacita Dean, Rick Moody, and Chris Petit. Director Grant Gee, best known for his fluid, impressionistic rock docs Meeting People Is Easy(about Radiohead) and Joy Division, has created a film that’s essential viewing for Sebald devotees as well as those seeking an introduction to the writer and anyone interested in documentary filmmaking as an art form. (80 mins., video)