| 5th September 2007 08:50 AM |
|
|
| Gazza |
In a daring new film, the singer-songwriter is played by seven actors. Remarkably, says David Gritten, one of them is Cate Blanchett
I'm Not There, director Todd Haynes's bold, experimental film about Bob Dylan, shown for the first time in Venice this week, is emphatically not for the literal-minded. It's closer to a work of abstract art or a symbolist poem than to a conventional film biography.
I'm Not There: Cate Blanchett
For 40 years, Dylan has insisted he is not a spokesman for a generation or a cause.
He has never sought to reduce his work to simple explanations; doing so is like trying to nail mercury to a wall. To his credit, Haynes doesn't even try.
At a press conference in Venice yesterday, he said: "This is the first dramatic film about Dylan's life that he has given permission for. It was because of the script's open structure that keeps expanding his life and who he is, rather than reducing it. The tendency of conventional biographical films is to reduce a life to one note."
Haynes, remarkably, employs seven different actors to play versions of Dylan. These choices are hardly predictable: the first "Dylan" is a boy of 11 named Woody (Marcus Carl Franklin), a black folk singer who criss-crosses America by jumping aboard railroad boxcars, a guitar slung over his back. Tellingly, Woody is elusive about his background and earlier life.
Haynes uses this distancing device to allude to strands in Dylan's life and work. Ben Whishaw is Dylan as the poet Rimbaud. Christian Bale plays him as Jack, a protest singer, then later as preacher Pastor John, a reference to Dylan's "born-again" period. Dylan the celebrity is embodied by Heath Ledger as Robbie, a New York film actor with a wayward romantic life. Haynes also imagines Dylan as Billy the Kid (Richard Gere) in a nod to his fascination with American roots music.
Still, the film's tour de force is Cate Blanchett as Jude, playing Dylan in the mid-'60s, when he toured Britain and switched abruptly and controversially to electric music. She is astonishing: with the help of trademark shades, wild corkscrew curls and killer cheekbones, she perfectly captures his jittery, amphetamine-fuelled body language and his defiant attitude.
Haynes has researched his sources thoroughly, from D A Pennebaker's famed documentary Don't Look Back, news footage, and Dylan's autobiography Chronicles Vol 1. He dispenses with mere chronology (Dylan's motorcycle accident in the '60s occurs late in the film), yet this treatment feels authentic.
The songs are astutely chosen. Familiar hits such as Blowin' in the Wind or Just Like a Woman are absent. Instead, lesser-known but key songs - Idiot Wind, Ballad of a Thin Man, Visions of Johanna - illuminate the story.
The title phrase, I'm Not There, an unreleased, almost unknown Dylan song, perfectly defines his elusiveness.
The film is not faultless. The Billy the Kid sequences seem a trifle forced, and following the story depends on a working knowledge of facts and myths about the singer.
Still, for those of us who love Dylan from afar (easily the best vantage point) this is a wild, joyous, exhilarating roller-coaster ride of a movie. It ties up no loose ends, but lets him stand as a brilliant, evasive enigma. I cannot say I understand Dylan one bit better - and there's no higher praise for the film than that.
-Daily Telegraph
[Edited by Gazza] |
| 5th September 2007 08:51 AM |
|
|
| Gazza |
Just like a woman: Blanchett's take on Dylan has critics raving
· Surreal biopic wins praise at Venice film festival
· Gere among five other actors portraying singer
Rachel Williams
Wednesday September 5, 2007
The Guardian
With hair teased into the familiar bird's nest of frizz, cigarette dangling from lips or fingers and impenetrably dark shades fixed in place, Cate Blanchett's portrayal of Bob Dylan is already being tipped for Oscar success. Yet as Todd Haynes's surreal biopic I'm Not There was premiered at the Venice film festival yesterday, the director revealed that the Australian actor's decision to take on the role had been far from instant.
The prospect of tackling the legendary singer had, in fact, terrified her.
Critics in Venice have been astonished by Blanchett's performance. She is one of six actors playing characters meant to represent Dylan at different points in his career, and hers is not the only unorthodox casting: a black actor in his early teens, Marcus Carl Franklin, plays the musician as he arrives as an unknown in New York at the age of 20, while 57-year-old Richard Gere represents him at the age of 32. Heath Ledger and British actors Christian Bale and Ben Whishaw take on other periods.
Dylan, 66, has given his blessing to the project. It will initially open in just four cinemas in America.
Yesterday Haynes said "Jude", the representation of Dylan in the mid-60s when he was becoming an international star and shocked folk followers by going electric, was always meant to be played by a woman. "I felt it was the only way to resurrect the true strangeness of Dylan's physical being in 1966, which I felt had lost its historical shock value over the years," he told reporters.
He added: "Cate was scared; she told me many times that this was a very scary challenge for her. It took her a long time to commit to it ... I told her it's good to be terrified, that you're taking a risk and sometimes that's really when the surprises happen. I guess it at least convinced her to give it a shot."
Dylan's approval was perhaps down to the film's open-ended nature, he said. "There have been documentaries but this is the first dramatic film about his life which he has ever given his consent to," Haynes said. "He has a tremendous sense of humour about the way he has been characterised. I think that's a really healthy attitude and he saw something similar in this film."
Gere described the script as "bizarre" but said he jumped at the chance to be involved. "I think Dylan is probably the only artist in our time who will still be considered 200 or 300 years from now. It's not Picasso, it's Bob Dylan," he said. "No one has had more effect on the world of art."
The film, backed by the Weinstein Company, mixes black-and-white footage with colour sequences and real news footage of American protests in the 1960s and scenes from the Vietnam war.
Haynes said of its unusual structure: "The way we look back on our own lives is in fragments. Music is a way that we do time travel, that unlocks moments in our past. The best and most enjoyable way to watch the film is to let it wash over you like a dream."
|
| 5th September 2007 09:07 AM |
|
|
| Ade |
thanks Gazza- should be interesting,if of limited appeal to the standard cinema goer. |
| 5th September 2007 09:15 AM |
|
|
| PartyDoll MEG |
quote:
Ade wrote:
thanks Gazza- should be interesting,if of limited appeal to the standard cinema goer.
Oh I am sure you will go see it. As well, as moi! |
| 5th September 2007 09:17 AM |
|
|
| Ade |
yes, certainly will
looking forward to the start of TTRH Season 2, as well! |
| 5th September 2007 09:32 AM |
|
|
| GotToRollMe |
I like the sound (and look) of this. |
| 5th September 2007 11:29 PM |
|
|
| stonedinaustralia |
Cate is the (wo)Man!! |
| 6th September 2007 04:25 AM |
|
|
| Ade |
TTRH Season 2, to debut on Sept. 19th
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2007-09-05-dylan-inside_N.htm
themes to include:-
"Young & Old,"
"California,"
"Dreams,"
"Fruit,"
"Something,"
"Nothing,"
"Streets,"
"Parties"
and "Mail,"
with guests to include Luke Wilson, Amy Sedaris, Jack White and John Cusack. The satellite radio program draws nearly 2 million listeners weekly. |
| 6th September 2007 04:41 AM |
|
|
| Ade |
"Hello" is the theme, for the first show, of Season 2 |
| 6th September 2007 01:41 PM |
|
|
| Martha |
I've been trying ot find the start date for season 2 and have not had a bit of luck. THANK you for posting it here. I LIVE for Bob's TTRH. I particularly love the marathon XMX run each week airing 3 episodes for 24 hours straight. Tom's Buried Treasure is also a gem of a show that airs for the next 24 hours.
Farm Aid will air live on XM40 this Sunday also.
xxoo,
Martha |
| 6th September 2007 02:37 PM |
|
|
| Ade |
you are very welcome Martha.
hopefully they're be as good as Season 1
- how can they not be? |
| 6th September 2007 02:40 PM |
|
|
| glencar |
From the article:
Gere described the script as "bizarre" but said he jumped at the chance to be involved. "I think Dylan is probably the only artist in our time who will still be considered 200 or 300 years from now. It's not Picasso, it's Bob Dylan," he said. "No one has had more effect on the world of art."
Gere is the twit who wanted us to telepathically send our support to the long-suffering Tibetans? That worked out swell. Looks like he's as stupid as ever.
Anyway, this film looks compelling & I shall check it out. |
|
