Howl – Das Geheul (2010)

Howl – Das Geheul: Directed by Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman. With James Franco, Todd Rotondi, Jon Prescott, Aaron Tveit. As Allen Ginsberg talks about his life and art, his most famous poem is illustrated in animation while the obscenity trial of the work is dramatized.

“In admiration of James Franco and his portraying a literary person is why I wanted to see this film. Since Iu0026#39;d never read the poem u0026quot;Howlu0026quot; by Allen Ginsberg (u0026amp; I knew of Ginsberg in his later years as he was fairly renown as almost an elder poet statesman), I actually dug up a copy of u0026quot;Howlu0026quot; and read it before I viewed the movie. It turns out that it wasnu0026#39;t necessary to have read u0026quot;Howlu0026quot; — the film sufficiently presents the poem and its complete text so that the viewer gets a good understanding just from the movie itself (at least I thought so…). This occurs in not only Francou0026#39;s public reading of u0026quot;Howl,u0026quot; it is brought out in the animation aspect of the film — for me the animation was unexpected yet not intrusive. What is the filmu0026#39;s major strength is James Francou0026#39;s portrayal of Ginsberg. Francou0026#39;s actual physical resemblance to the younger Ginsberg adds to his portrayal and his public reading of u0026quot;Howlu0026quot; is also quite good. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eWhat is additionally satisfying in my mind is the evoking of a time and place (mid 1950s America) when a group of writers and quasi-vagabonds lived their lives on their own terms (u0026amp; not in accordance to what was then considered the status quo) and wrote about it. This is brought out in depictions of Ginsbergu0026#39;s relationships and also in the court room obscenity battle about u0026quot;Howl.u0026quot;”