Patti Smith Portrait by Steven SebringWednesday night’s POV broadcast of Patti Smith: Dream of Life (9 pm most PBS stations, check local listings) has been generating a lot of critical acclaim in the press and online. Sign On San Diego‘s Remote Possibilities blog names it a “TV Pick of the Week” and part of a “Genius Blowout” when coupled with tonight’s American Masters biography of Louisa May Alcott. Union Tribune staff writer Karla Peterson gushes that together the stories of these “groundbreaking women” represent “oodles of joy.”

The New York TimesManohlia Dargis reviewed Dream of Life back in August 2008 when it opened at New York City’s Film Forum. She wrote: “Created over a heroic 11 years . . . a lovely . . . first feature. . . . Mr. Sebring creates a structure for the film in which past and present seem to flow effortlessly and ceaselessly into each other.”

Toronto Globe and Mail film reviewer Liam Lacey says the film “paints a portrait of a defiantly creative life.” Salon‘s Andrew O’Hehir writes this “dazzling, dizzying documentary” is “frequently beautiful and intermittently haunting and could be called a meditation on aging and mortality, an intimate study of a peculiar variety of fame and a portrait of a genuinely remarkable person.”

Patti Smith appeared this past weekend on NPR’s Studio 360. Host Kurt Anderson remarked “if there is one person who embodies rock and roll in its purest form, it is Patti Smith.” Listen to the broadcast and special extended cut of their interview on the Studio 360 website.

And don’t forget to add your own review to the mix at the POV website. We’ll compile a list of of our favorite viewer reviews later this week. Tell us what you think of the film and what Patti Smith means to you.

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