Reviewed by Jayne Fenton Keane In the middle of the DVD blurb on the back cover of RANT and RAVE glows a question, 'have we created some magic?' After watching them I have to say, in the words of Meg Ryan 'yes, yes, oh yes...' Although in the vein of similar treatments of poetry, aka 'The United States of Poetry,' there is something undeniably special about these two productions. Adopting an unusual approach, Director D J Kadagian creates collages from archival film footage of great cinematographers, as poems from Pablo Neruda, Jalal ad-Din Rumi and Langston Hughes (to name a just a few favourites), demonstrate the power of poetry to cross times, spaces and circumstances, to resonate with fresh clarity. That the words of pre-industrial Rumi could speak so profoundly about life in the industrial slums of the early 20th century, is absolutely expected by lovers of poetry, and perhaps a bit shocking to its detractors. Who cares what the detractors of poetry think when Rumi (13th century) says in his poem 'The City of Saba:' ... richness is a subtle disease Those who have it are blind to what’s wrong and deaf to anyone who points it out. The city of Saba cannot be understood from within itself: But there is a cure, an individual medicine, not a social remedy: sit quietly, and listen for a voice within that will say, Be more silent. (Coleman Barks' translation) Ironically, RANT and RAVE do anything but rant and rave. They are subtle, playful, gorgeous and rich, and represent a great fusion of visual poetics, powerful readings, and texts that make your heart burst with the beauty of it all. My only criticism is that not enough of the world is invited into the frame. Apart from an Argentinean Tango Bar, which is most likely a Hollywood construction of the 1920s anyway, it all seems a bit sentimentally American. What the world needs now is less patriotism and more poetry. I would like to see more of Rumi's philosophies expressed within the vision of the project: My place is placeless, a trace of the traceless. Neither body or soul. I belong to the beloved, have seen the two worlds as one and that one call to and know, first, last, outer, inner, only that breath breathing human being. Thank you to the team of 4 Seasons productions for providing this marvelous poetic journey.