Laurie Anderson Is Telling Stories, Hers and Ours
By Jon Pareles
In “Heart of a Dog,” Ms. Anderson’s voice-over tells a string of converging stories amid images that can be documentary or nearly abstract: cellphone videos; surveillance footage; home movies old and new; skies and seascapes; and Ms. Anderson’s charcoal drawings of the bardo, the Tibetan Buddhist name for the 49-day transition between death and rebirth.
The film revolves around Lolabelle, a rat terrier who was a constant companion to Ms. Anderson and Mr. Reed. “She was just a good, easygoing, sweet dog,” said Elisabeth Weiss, the self-described “life enrichment dog trainer” who worked with the aging Lolabelle as the dog was going blind, and who appears in the film. “She was also used to traveling. She could smell a limo from blocks away when it was hers.”
