Here is my fourth list: my ‘Top 3 and a bit’ films about Poetry.

As with drink and alcoholism, I decided to divide this list into two parts, otherwise there would have been just too many films to watch and, in any case, there are two different classes of film: films about real poets, and films about poetry. So this is my lists of films about poetry and my next list will be films about real poets. Having said that, there is some crossover – so fictional stories about real poets (such as Shakespeare in Love) have been included in this list.

I have watched/rewatched some 16 films on this subject in the last two weeks and, I am sorry to report, that along with some great films I have also seen some self-indulgent, pretentious rubbish! However, I guess that’s the way of things.

So, here are my Top 3 films about Poetry, together with notes on several additional films which are certainly worthy of attention:

(1)        Paterson (2016 – Jim Jarmusch)

Paterson (Adam Driver) is a bus driver in Paterson, New Jersey. We view a week in his life, watching his daily routine: he wakes shortly after 6:00 am next to his wife, Laura (Golshifteh Farahani); he eats his breakfast and walks to the bus depot; he drives his bus all day, stopping for lunch on the way; he walks home for his dinner; he takes their dog, Marvin, for a walk and stops off at a local bar for a drink; he goes to bed. With some subtle changes, we watch him do this from Monday to Friday. And all the time he thinks about and writes his poetry, which appears on the screen as it goes through his mind or as he writes it down. Laura, meanwhile, is not a creature of routine: her days are varied and rather wacky. The weekend brings surprises, but I would hate to spoil this magnificent slow-burn of a film by giving too much away here. Needless to say, Paterson is in the right place: Paterson NJ has a tradition of poetry – it was the home of William Carlos Williams and Alan Ginsberg. I watch this film every year or so and I never tire of it – it thoroughly deserves its number one spot in my list.

(2)        Poetry (2010 – Lee Chang-Dong)

A group of children playing by a riverbank watch the body of a teenage girl floating past. Mi-ja (Yoon Jeong-hee), a 66-year-old woman, is diagnosed with early-stage Alzheimer’s. As she leaves the hospital, she sees a distraught mother grieving the loss of her teenage daughter. On the way home, Mi Ja sees a poster for an adult literacy class on poetry: she has always dreamed of becoming a poet. She travels to the home of a well-to-do, elderly, male stroke victim, for whom she acts as carer and maid. Several hours later, she returns home to make dinner for her ill-mannered grandson, Jong-wook (Lee David), for whom she is responsible: his mother, her daughter, lives and works a long way away and they have not seen her for some time. And in a matter of a few minutes, all the key elements of Mi-ja’s deeply moving story are in place. The storytelling is at times very sad, at times beautiful, at times brutal. This is not an easy subject; however it is tackled in an utterly compelling and uncompromising manner. There is so much scope here for sentimentality: the Alzheimer’s, the stroke-victim, and the grandmother–grandson relationship; however, Lee Chang-Dong’s film never falls into that trap. We act as witnesses: the film never explains, and as such there is some ambiguity in the ending, which leaves one thinking about it long after it has finished. Mi-ja’s closing poem (the only poem she has written) is breath-taking. I have just discovered this film, and it is wonderful – find it and watch it!

(3)        Il Postino (1994 – Michael Radford)

Chilean poet Pablo Neruda (Philippe Noiret) is exiled with his wife for political reasons to a small Italian island. Hang on, I hear you say, he’s a real poet, so he is in the wrong list – not so: he may be a real poet, but this is an entirely fictional story. On the island, his post is delivered by a young, poorly educated and barely literate son of a fisherman, Mario Ruoppolo (Massimo Troisi). Slowly the two develop an unlikely friendship and discuss, naturally enough, poetry and the sea. When Mario falls in love with local waitress Beatrice Russo (Maria Grazia Cucinotta), he enlists the poet’s help to win his girl. This is a lovely, gentle, slow-burn about friendship and love. The film is in Italian, but directed by British director Michael Radford, with an astonishingly light touch, allowing the story to tell itself: nothing ever feels forced or out of place. The film won at least 28 awards (I lost count) including BAFTAs for Best Film Not in the English Language and Best Director. Sadly, Troisi was extremely ill during the making of the film, and died just before filming was complete.

And the Honourable Mentions …

The following films are those that came close to making my Top 3, but did not quite get there (the ’bit’), listed in alphabetical order:

Black Mountain Poets (2015 – Jamie Adams)

Lisa (Alice Lowe) and Clare (Dolly Wells), two sisters on the run after being interrupted by the police while trying to steal a JCB, go into hiding in deepest darkest Wales. Here they steal a car belonging to the Wilding Sisters, two poets on their way to a poetry retreat in the Black Mountains (so, nothing to do with the North Carolina postmodernist movement then!) In order to remain in hiding, they decide to ‘become’ these poet sisters. Then lots of silly things happen and it becomes totally unbelievable that they could possibly get away with this ludicrous impersonation. And so surely this belongs in the Also Ran section of my list… except, as the film goes on, the relationship between the sisters becomes more and more fascinating and their characters become more and more endearing, and I ended up really enjoying it! There is excellent support from Tom Cullen, playing Richard, the man they both fancy, and a wonderful comic turn from Rosa Robson as a published poet who is also part of the weekend retreat.

Dead Poets Society (1989 – Peter Weir)

John Keating (Robin Williams) returns to Welton Academy, which he attended as a teenager, to teach in the English department. He is one of those inspirational teachers we hear so much about: his rather unusual teaching methods inspire his class to strive to live life to the full (Carpe Diem and all that). As a result they revive the Dead Poets Society, of which, as a student, Keating had been a founder member. They meet after lights-out in an old Indian cave to recite poetry. However, as one might have guessed, things don’t turn out quite as planned. I may sound a little disparaging, but I honestly am not: I love this film and watch it every couple of years. Williams is excellent, as are the young cast of schoolboys (look out for Ethan Hawke as Todd Anderson). The film won a stack of awards, including a Best Film BAFTA, and an Oscar for Tom Schulman’s screenplay.

Nostalgia (1983 – Andrei Tarkovsky)

A Russian poet, Andrei Gorchakov (Oleg Yankovsky), travels to Italy in the footsteps of Pavel Sosnovsky, an 18th-century Russian composer, who lived for a while in Italy and, on return to Russia, committed suicide. His Italian translator Eugenia (Domiziana Giordano) is smitten with him, but he is not interested – his trip has made him nostalgic for his homeland. Amazing – just like I actually understood a Tarkovsky film! Having said that, it is not that difficult to keep up with, although it is rather heavy in symbolism. Apparently, this is a very personal piece for Tarkovsky, coming shortly after he left Russia in search of artistic freedom and found himself full of nostalgia for his homeland. Is it worth watching? Yes, absolutely. Is it about poetry? Well not really, no. So why is it in the list? It is about a poet and the symbolism and imagery make it relevant.

Shakespeare in Love (1998 – John Madden)

Again, before anyone tells me that Shakespeare was also a real poet, this is very much a work of fiction. It tells the story of the writing of, and first production of Romeo and Juliet, but not as it really happened. Here we see the story teased out from a creatively-blocked Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes), as he falls in love with the fictional Viola de Lesseps (Gwyneth Paltrow). Unfortunately, she is engaged to be married to Lord Wessex (Colin Firth) who is not best pleased by her involvement with the theatre. There are a host of historical characters alongside Shakespeare, including Kit Marlowe (Rupert Everett), Queen Elizabeth 1 (Judy Dench) and Richard Burbage (Martin Clunes). The screenplay was originally written by Marc Norman, however the Bedford Falls Company who made the film brought in Tom Stoppard to help rewrite. Stoppard’s style, wit and clever playfulness are evident throughout the film, and to my mind, that is what makes it so special. It won a whole host of awards, including the Bast Picture Oscar, the Best Film BAFTA, and eight awards for the screenplay.

Shun Li and the Poet (2012 – Andrea Segre)

After working in a textile sweat-shop in Rome for many years to pay off her debt to human traffickers in order to bring her son to Italy, Chinese immigrant Shun Li (Zhao Tao) is suddenly transferred to Chioggia, a small fishing town near Venice. Here she works as a bartender in a small bar, owned by her Chinese ‘creditors’ but frequented by local fisherman, most of whom have been regulars for years. One of these customers is Bepi (Rade Šerbedžija), a fisherman of Slavic origin, nicknamed “the Poet”. Shun Li and Bepi embark on a friendship, fuelled by them both feeling lonely and isolated, as aliens in Chioggia. However, this friendship is disturbing for both the Chinese and Chioggian communities, and reluctantly they are forced to part. The film is gently paced, and the friendship between the protagonists builds gently and innocently. I had never come across this film before I googled films about poetry, and I whole-heartedly recommend it.

Window Horses (2016 – Anne Marie Fleming)

This is a Canadian animated film. I am not normally a massive fan of animated films, but this one is different: it is a very moving story, told very simply and very well. It is subtitled The Poetic Persian Epiphany of Rosie Ming. It tells the story of Rosie, a Canadian poet whose maternal grandparents were Chinese and whose father was Persian. She is invited to attend a poetry festival in Iran, where she meets other poets, including cultural ambassador Mehrnaz, Chinese poet Di Di, and German poet Dietmar. Rosie’s father, who had been a refugee from the current Iranian regime, had returned to Iran when Rosie was seven: Rosie has always considered this to be the abandonment of his family. Through Rosie’s interactions with the other poets at the festival, we learn quite a lot about poetry, and about retaining an open mind and not judging other people until you have all the facts. And, of course, we also learn the true story of what happened to her father. A very pleasant way to spend 85 minutes.

And the rest…

So, what else did I watch in compiling my list? The following films were also considered, but ultimately did not make the grade:

• The Blood of a Poet (1930 – John Cocteau)
• Orphee (1950 – John Cocteau)
• The Testament of Orpheus (1960 – John Cocteau)

I dutifully watched all three films in Cocteau’s ‘Orphic Trilogy’, however they were just not for me. I found them rather self-indulgent and unless you are a big Cocteau fan, in which case you will already know these films, I strongly recommend you do not put yourself through this.

• A Chance Encounter (2022 – Alexander Jeffrey) – pedestrian, and ultimately the male character wasn’t very likeable.
• Hurt by Paradise (2019 – Greta Bellamacina) – very pretentious and never credible.
• Maya Dardel (2017 – Zachary Cotler & Magdalena Zyzak) – rather silly and not very credible, but Lena Olin was great in the title role. A fascinating interview technique!
• Satan’s Brew (1976 – Rainer Werner Fassbinder) – as wacky and off the wall as one expects of Fassbinder, but it just didn’t work for me.

I am sure I have missed loads of films on poetry, so if you have anything you think I should watch or that may deserve a place in my ‘Top 3 and a Bit’ please let me know. I will endeavour to find them and watch them.

Having said that, I had intended watching Xavier Giannoli’s 2021 film Lost Illusions, but it just does not seem to be available to rent or buy in the UK. Apologies Xavier – if you are reading this, drop me a message and I will give you an address to send the screener!

Next time it will be more on the biographical side – my Top 3 and a bit films about poets – real ones!