Anaïs Nin

Birth : 1903-02-21, Neuilly-sur-Seine, Seine [now Hauts-de-Seine], France

Death : 1977-01-14

History

Anaïs Nin (Spanish pronunciation: [anaˈiz ˈnin]; born Angela Anaïs Juana Antolina Rosa Edelmira Nin y Culmell, February 21, 1903 – January 14, 1977) was a French-Cuban author, based at first in France and later in the United States, who published her journals, which span more than 60 years, beginning when she was 11 years old and ending shortly before her death, her erotic literature, and short stories. A great deal of her work, including Delta of Venus and Little Birds, was published posthumously.

Profile

Movies

Anaïs Nin, vivre sans entraves

Self (archive footage)

The B-Side: Elsa Dorfman's Portrait Photography

Self (archival footage)

Portrait photographer Elsa Dorfman found her medium in 1980: the larger-than-life Polaroid Land 20x24 camera. For the next thirty-five years, she captured the “surfaces” of those who visited her studio: families, Beat poets, rock stars, and Harvard notables. As pictures begin to fade and her retirement looms, Dorfman gives Errol Morris an inside tour of her backyard archive.

Henry Miller: Prophet of Desire

Self - Writer (archive footage)

The US writer Henry Miller (1891-1980), scandalous and nonconformist creator, hated by the most recalcitrant puritans, was a vilified genius, considered a threat, accused of being a sexist, of consciously pursuing the destruction of every civic principle; but he was also someone venerated as a saint, as a sex guru; and today as one of the most important characters of the twentieth century.

Delta of Venus

Novel

A struggling American writer and a fellow American expatriate begin a sordid affair among the chaos and discord of 1940 Paris, France on the brink of World War II.

Henry & June

Novel

While traveling in Paris, author Henry Miller and his wife, June, meet Anais Nin, and sexual sparks fly as Nin starts an affair with the openly bisexual June. When June is forced to return to the U.S., she gives Nin her blessing to sleep with her husband. Then, when June returns to France, an unexpected, and sometimes contentious, threesome forms.

The Room of Words

Book

An unauthorized / uncredited / unofficial adaptation "based on the diaries of Anaïs Nin," this was made to compete with the same year's big budget and critically acclaimed Henry & June.

Anaïs Nin Observed

Self

In this documentary Anais Nin is shown at work, at home, and talking with and about her influences: D.H. Lawrence, Otto Rank, Henry Miller, Lawrence Durrell, Martha Graham, Noguchi, Kenneth Anger, Maya Daren, Edmund Wilson, Lou Andreas-Salome and others.

The Inauguration of the Pleasure Dome

Astarte

Lord Shiva wakes. A convocation of magicians in the guise of figures from mythology; a masquerade party at which Pan is the prize. The wine of Hecate is poured: Pan's cup is poisoned by Shiva. Kali blesses the assembly as a bacchic rite ensues.

Jazz of Lights

Self

A pulsating city symphony of light, movement, and electronic music, transforming Times Square in the 1950s into what Hugo’s wife, the writer Anaïs Nin, called "an ephemeral flow of sensations.”

Bells of Atlantis

Naked woman in hammock

A perfect fusion of poetry and film, with dense layered imagery and music from electro pioneers Louise and Bebe Barron. The writer Anaïs Nin provides dialogue from her novella “House of Incest” and appears adrift in the undersea realm of Atlantis before ascending to dry land.

Ritual in Transfigured Time

Haughty woman

A social event choreographed in the manner of a dance, illuminated by concepts drawn from Greek legend; one of filmmaker Maya Deren’s most intriguing works.