Customer Reviews

Anais Observed [VHS]

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Anais Observed is an hour-long documentary by Robert Snyder, released in 1973. Most of the filming took place in her beautiful Los Angeles home, which was designed by Lloyd Wright (a relative of Frank Lloyd Wright). It's a stunning image: Ms. Nin sitting near her pool in her backyard, discussing her life, influences, and artistic aspirations. She was 70 at the time of filming, but could easily have passed for a woman in her 50s. Her voice is soothing and delicate, almost angelic with that exotic accent; the letter R is pronounced as W, e.g., Anais believes in the importance of living out one's "dweam." I now understand why so many fell in love with her: she is bewitching, almost otherworldly.

We then see Anais typing up her diaries, preparing the latest volume to be published. Consulting the original manuscripts (there is a brief scene of her in the bank vault in Brooklyn with the 100+ original diaries), Anais says that it was not nostalgia for the past that made her decide to publish her memoirs, but an awareness of the fact that the friends and associates she wrote about in the diaries during the 1930s-50s were, by the 1970s, at the forefront of the international artistic and cultural community. And so the depiction of these friends, associates, and mentors, comes to be the focus of the documentary: D. H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, Antonin Artaud, Isamu Noguchi, Caresse Crosby, Martha Graham, Lawrence Durrell, Otto Rank, and many others are either interviewed or profiled; occasionally archival footage is used. Toward the end of the documentary we see how Anais is fulfilling the circuit, passing on inspiration to the younger generation: a group of students from UCLA gather in her livingroom to discuss literature. How I would have loved to have been among them ... but I would not be born for another three years.

Anais Observed is a wonderful documentary that any fan of Anais Nin will absolutely love. Though I must admit that the version of her life depicted here is entirely subordinate to the stylized persona of the diaries. In other words, this is not exactly a "critical" and rigorous investigation of her life. The "darker" aspects of her life are not discussed. In fact, the entire documentary attains an ethereal energy that could be described as approximating a "dream state," which is appropriate since one of Anais Nin's favorite sayings was Jung's directive that we must "proceed from the dream...." And since it is that stylized persona of the diaries that first attracted us, her fans, to Anais Nin, it is only fitting that this persona is presented in a documentary meant to highlight her unique career.

Anais Observed is an hour-long documentary by Robert Snyder, released in 1973. Most of the filming took place in her beautiful Los Angeles home. She was 70 at the time of filming, but could easily have passed for a woman in her 50s. Her voice is soothing and delicate, almost angelic with that exotic accent; the letter R is pronounced as W, e.g., Anais believes in the importance of living out one's "dweam."

We then see Anais typing up her diaries, preparing the latest volume to be published. Consulting the original manuscripts, Anais says that it was not nostalgia for the past that made her decide to publish her memoirs, but an awareness of the fact that the friends and associates she wrote about in the diaries during the 1930s-50s were, by the 1970s, at the forefront of the international artistic and cultural community. And so the depiction of these friends, associates, and mentors, comes to be the focus of the documentary: D. H. Lawrence, Henry Miller, Antonin Artaud, Isamu Noguchi, Caresse Crosby, Martha Graham, Lawrence Durrell, Otto Rank, and many others are either interviewed or profiled.

Anais Observed is a wonderful documentary that any fan of Anais Nin will absolutely love. Though I must admit that the version of her life depicted here is entirely subordinate to the stylized persona of the diaries. In other words, this is not exactly a "critical" and rigorous investigation of her life.

If a rigorous and critical investigation of the life of Anais Nin is what you're looking for, I recommend getting a copy of "Anais Nin: Spy in the House of Love." This documentary features interviews with Nin widower Rupert Pole, brother Joaquin Nin Culmell, and friends Kenneth Anger, Lila Rosenblum, Cristine Raines, and Renate Druks. Also interviewed: John Ferrone, the editor of the original series of diaries; Peter Owen, the British publisher of the diaries; biographer Deidre Bair. "Anais Nin: Spy in the House of Love," produced for England's Channel 4, is perhaps the anti-thesis of "Anais Observed," which is ironic since the former borrows considerable amounts of footage from the latter. The feel of Anais Observed is ethereal and lovely; the vibe of Anais Nin: Spy in the House of Love is dark, angry, hostile, and almost bitter.

Prime among those who lend a negative vibe to Anais Nin: Spy in the House of Love is none other than Deirdre Bair, author of the much-maligned ANAIS NIN: A BIOGRAPHY. Bair says that the great irony of Anais Nin's life is that it was all based on lies. She created a huge facade and convinced herself that it was reality. Bair comments that during the 1960s and 70s Anais became something of a cult figure for a generation of women who came to be known as the Daughters of Anais Nin, or more comically The Ninnies. Such women looked to Anais Nin for guidance. Bair complains that many women tried to model their lives after the persona of the original diaries, which portrayed Nin as a fully self-supporting and independent woman, hiding the fact that for many years she had the support of a husband, and then eventually the support of two. Anais was a bigamist. Following Nin's dishonest lead set many women up for unrealistic expectations, disappointment, and, claims Bair, loneliness.

I can understand Bair's complaints, as well as the complaints of others expressed in "Anais Nin: Spy in the House of Love"; Lila Rosenblum, for example, says that it makes her angry that Otto Rank and Rene Allendy allowed themselves to be seduced by Anais - the anger is visible in Lila's scowl. But what surprises me is that no one really seems to ask the obvious question: Why? Why did Anais feel she needed to lie about her life? Perhaps they don't ask such a question because there really is no concrete, tangible proof of the true answer; Anais never revealed her reasons. But intuitionally, the answer is quite obvious: Anais Nin was ashamed of herself in many regards. She was a troubled woman with a painful childhood. Actually, I do remember Deirdre Bair making this observation in ANAIS NIN: A BIOGRAPHY. Still, rather than using this insight as a bridge to compassion, Bair often seems to use it as a means of building the case against Anais. The grinding axe becomes obvious.

Perhaps Bair and company should ask themselves another question: Why are they still upset with Anais, a woman who died nearly thirty years ago? For while she most certainly was a dishonest woman in many regards, the anger hurled at Anais is far more ferocious than any commentary I've ever heard on Edger Allen Poe - and he had sex with dead bodies! And what about Hemingway's rampant womanizing? Could it be that people are still angry with Anais Nin because she succeeded at playing games that only men are allowed to play? Heterosexual men with odd and dishonest sexual practices are just being men and having a good time; dishonest women with unusual sexual practices are portrayed as sinning against God. ("No one has ever loved an adventurous woman as they have loved adventurous men," DIARY OF ANAIS NIN: VOLUME ONE.) If Anais Nin is such a repellant figure, then why are we still talking about her? Obviously, it's because she isn't repellant. She's fascinating. And while I am troubled by some of her life choices, I realize that my thoughts on the matter don't, well, matter. She lived her life as she chose, and who really has the right to judge her?

I recommend both "Anais Observed" and "Anais Nin: Spy in the House of Love" to the Anais Nin fan. But prepare yourself for the dramatic difference between the two productions.

This video bring us the opportunity to look face to face, this mistic muse that lives, by her words, in our mind. This french accent, those eyes...You will almost touch her.