"What am I in the eyes of most people -- a nonentity, an eccentric, or an unpleasant person -- somebody who has no position in society and will never have; in short, the lowest of the low. All right, then -- even if that were absolutely true, then I should one day like to show by my work what such an eccentric, such a nobody, has in his heart."
― Vincent van Gogh
Out on DVD in late April, "Touched with Fire" stars Katie Holmes and Luke Kirby as two poets with bipolar disorder whose art is fueled by their emotional extremes. When they meet in a treatment facility, their chemistry is instant and intense driving each other's mania to new heights. They pursue their passion which breaks outside the bounds of sanity, swinging them from fantastical highs to tormented lows until they ultimately must choose between sanity and love.
Inspired by the film maker's own struggles overcoming bipolar disorder, Paul Dalio wrote, directed, edited and scored his feature film debut which also includes performances by Griffin Dunne, Christine Lahti and Bruce Altman. The film is produced by Jeremy Alter and Kristina Nikolova and executive produced by Spike Lee.
"Starry Nights"
Music, lyrics and vocals by Paul Dalio
There was a time long ago
when tides would rise and winds would blow
when the stars pulsed spirals of fire across the sky
and all the lunatics saw, and all the lunatics knew
that the two eyes of God had aligned in the sky to give us a glimpse into the divine
And though the sane may deny we gazed through God's eyes
and claim it was just some misfiring synapsis flashing through a crack in our minds
we all knew it was true
we all knew we shared a view into something just too beautiful to prove
and they can't take that away from me and you
Even when the seasons change, summer exceeds its stay, the sun creeps away
and fall shadows grab hold of your brain
and you can feel your will within each withering leaf clinging to the trees of the entire forest surrounding you slipping as they fall down on you
and then when Winter rolls around, your soul retreats deep beneath the frozen ground
and it's calling your body down
and it feels like your ashes are fighting gravity
even then, Spring will come again and invite you to rise too high
and it's up for you to decide if you'll repeat those seasonal tides that will lay waste to your lives
But if you choose to live
you may look out at the sky
and reminisce about those times when the Sun and the Moon would align
and each would find its other eye so that God could cry about what was lost and why
But I tell you not to miss those times
for the Sun still shines and the Moon will still rise
and with just enough light from the far off shine of the sun across the sky
it will keep that divine sight forever alive in your eyes