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Anais Nin Observed: From a Film Portrait of a Woman As Artist
Stills from the film accompany memorabilia, facsimiles, and extracts from Anais Nin's diaries, books, and letters to provide a sympathetic, many-sided portrait of the remarkable writer
- GenresBiography
115 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1976
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October 6, 2021
6 October 2021 - Browsing through my books today I came across this one that I read quite a few years ago and decided to reread it. It is quite exquisite.
“Whenever I felt I had to choose between two things,
I always ended up taking it all in.
I never wanted to choose one against the other,
but to harmonize and fuse them into one.
Perhaps this comes close to the Chinese concept of yin and yang
which need each other to complete each other.”
“I like to feel that I have transcended my destiny.”
I was looking for a book by Anaïs Nin this morning at home and unexpectedly came across this one that I had never read. I was amazed in fact; checked on Goodreads and was also pleasantly surprised to see it there.
This is in fact a book based on the (1973) “Film Portrait of a Woman as Artist” by film maker Robert Snyder. “Drawing on both the film and many personal interviews, Snyder has expanded even further the fascinating, many-sided portrait.”
This 114 page book, which I’ve been reading this afternoon, contains not only black and white photographs of Nin but also those of D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell. The photograph of the author sitting at a very antiquated manual typewriter made me smile I must confess. There are also some rather unusual photos of the Nin with a birdcage on her head, whilst with other people.
This is an intimate portrait of this rather mesmerizing author who discusses her life as a writer, psychoanalysis with Otto Rank, her experience with LSD and her remarkable journals:
“The diary didn’t begin as a diary: it began as a letter to my father . So I was very careful to note every detail of life on board the ship – at the time it took thirteen days to come from Spain – and every detail of the arrival.
As far back as I can remember I began what became a lifelong practice of daily recording the real in a journal, as sketches for writing the unreal. Some of the early entries are religious. I was very much into the Catholic mysteries as a child. I dreamed of Saint Joan; I hoped to become Saint Anaïs.”
And I wonder if she is now Saint Anaïs in that “other world”?
And the comment made by the New York Times on June 28, 1974 indeed expresses the remarkable qualities of this, I believe, much-under-rated author:
“…She emerges as a remarkable candid, graceful, intelligent woman … always ahead of her time. And this film, hopefully, will give a wider audience an opportunity to catch up with Anaïs Nin.
I couldn’t agree more.
For those of you who have not read the author’s journals, this is an ideal taster and entry into Anaïs Nin's own secret and spiritual world.
“Whenever I felt I had to choose between two things,
I always ended up taking it all in.
I never wanted to choose one against the other,
but to harmonize and fuse them into one.
Perhaps this comes close to the Chinese concept of yin and yang
which need each other to complete each other.”
“I like to feel that I have transcended my destiny.”
I was looking for a book by Anaïs Nin this morning at home and unexpectedly came across this one that I had never read. I was amazed in fact; checked on Goodreads and was also pleasantly surprised to see it there.
This is in fact a book based on the (1973) “Film Portrait of a Woman as Artist” by film maker Robert Snyder. “Drawing on both the film and many personal interviews, Snyder has expanded even further the fascinating, many-sided portrait.”
This 114 page book, which I’ve been reading this afternoon, contains not only black and white photographs of Nin but also those of D.H. Lawrence, Henry Miller and Lawrence Durrell. The photograph of the author sitting at a very antiquated manual typewriter made me smile I must confess. There are also some rather unusual photos of the Nin with a birdcage on her head, whilst with other people.
This is an intimate portrait of this rather mesmerizing author who discusses her life as a writer, psychoanalysis with Otto Rank, her experience with LSD and her remarkable journals:
“The diary didn’t begin as a diary: it began as a letter to my father . So I was very careful to note every detail of life on board the ship – at the time it took thirteen days to come from Spain – and every detail of the arrival.
As far back as I can remember I began what became a lifelong practice of daily recording the real in a journal, as sketches for writing the unreal. Some of the early entries are religious. I was very much into the Catholic mysteries as a child. I dreamed of Saint Joan; I hoped to become Saint Anaïs.”
And I wonder if she is now Saint Anaïs in that “other world”?
And the comment made by the New York Times on June 28, 1974 indeed expresses the remarkable qualities of this, I believe, much-under-rated author:
“…She emerges as a remarkable candid, graceful, intelligent woman … always ahead of her time. And this film, hopefully, will give a wider audience an opportunity to catch up with Anaïs Nin.
I couldn’t agree more.
For those of you who have not read the author’s journals, this is an ideal taster and entry into Anaïs Nin's own secret and spiritual world.
January 8, 2022
Pārsteidzoša Sieviete. Rakstniece. Brīva savās izpausmēs. Drosmīga un neatlaidīga.
Esmu sa'iedvesmojusies ... tik ļoti gribas sēsties pie galda un rakstīt. Grāmatu. Dienasgrāmatu. Dzīvi.
šo Anaïs Nin citātu, es varētu sev uztetovēt:
“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”
Esmu sa'iedvesmojusies ... tik ļoti gribas sēsties pie galda un rakstīt. Grāmatu. Dienasgrāmatu. Dzīvi.
šo Anaïs Nin citātu, es varētu sev uztetovēt:
“We write to taste life twice, in the moment and in retrospect.”
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews