Cinematic Poets
This weekend, I rented The Last Word.
Wes Bentley stars as a poet, who makes a living by writing suicide notes for people who would like their final goodbyes to be memorable. He develops a relationship with the sister of one of his clients (Winona Ryder), but doesn't want to admit how he knows her deceased brother.
It was a straight to DVD movie, but it certainly deserved some sort of theatrical run. I enjoyed every minute of it.
First, I forgot how gorgeous Winona Ryder was and still is.
Second, it had me thinking of other depictions of poets in film.
A few that came to my mind:
Blood Of A Poet
French Poet Jean Cocteau's surrealist classic is where I got my cool little icon.
I Heart Huckabees
The pretentious poet in the opening scene cracked me up.
Tom & Viv:
I thought Willem Dafoe made a good TS Eliot.
Il Postino
The lonely postman befriends the exiled Pablo Neruda, but there is nothing more poetic than the actor/writer who starred in the film, postponing heart surgery to complete the movie and suffering a fatal heart attack, the day after filming ended.
What good or bad examples come to your mind?