I'm Not There (Todd Haynes, 2007)

[David Ehrenstein]

Yep.

[chaddoli]

TWC is releasing Anton Corbijn's Control at Film Forum as well, on October 10th.

[flyonthewall2983]

From that picture, Julianne has a really striking resemblance to Joan you don't see too often in bio-pics. I have to say though, the only two actors of the six that come close to resembling Dylan are Blanchett and Whishaw (whom I never heard of, btw). Bale looks like Harrison Ford in American Graffiti and Gere looks like a hobo.

[Kudzu]

Gere looks like a hobo.

The more I look at the picture, I think Kris Kristofferson.

A picture about him would be interesting taken with left-field techniques(a semiotic reframing of Blade!).

[Hrossa]

According to the credits listed on IMDB Julianne Moore is playing "Alice".

[David Ehrenstein]

"Alice" is the name Todd has given to the Joan Baez character.

[Jeff]

From that picture, Julianne has a really striking resemblance to Joan you don't see too often in bio-pics. I have to say though, the only two actors of the six that come close to resembling Dylan are Blanchett and Whishaw (whom I never heard of, btw). Bale looks like Harrison Ford in American Graffiti and Gere looks like a hobo.

It's not really a biopic in any traditional sense, with the actors not necessarily playing Dylan, but playing aspects of his personality. I don't think that a physical resemblance is at all necessary for what Haynes is trying to do, but it remains to be seen whether or not it will work.

If you're not familiar with Ben Wishaw, you'll want to check out Tom Tykwer's Perfume: The Story of a Murderer. Wishaw is the lead, and carries the film admirably.

[flyonthewall2983]

I tend not to mind if an actor in a bio-pic has little resemblance to the person he or she is playing, as long as the performance carries it through. Val Kilmer looked nothing like Jim Morrison when he played him, but he seemed to definitely channel (at least in part) the frenetic energy he had when he was on the stage.

[David Ehrenstein]

"Val Kilmer looked nothing like Jim Morrison when he played him, but he seemed to definitely channel (at least in part) the frenetic energy he had when he was on the stage."

Todd's trying for something else. This isn't about Dylan "himself" so much as it is about the worlds he travelled though. Todd told me the film will be "The secret history of the 60's."

He was born in 1961 -- yet he got the late 50's perfectly in Far From Heaven. I have little doubt that he will repeat that performance with this era.

[Sanjuro]

Gere represents the travelling hobo tradition of folks like Woodie Guthrie and so on who Bob loved to imitate in the early years. Hence the reason he looks like a hobo I guess...

[chaddoli]

I do think though the black young man, Marcus Carl Franklin, is playing Dylan's "Woody" phase. For some reason I got the impression Gere was playing his late 70s "White Face" period centered around the time "Hard Rain" was released. I thought I saw a still with Gere in clown make-up.

Speaking in general though, has there been much speculation as to what each character name means? My only source is IMDB, but Christian Bale playing Bob Dylan/John/Jack is probably referring to the Kennedys, so early 60s? Cate as Bob Dylan/Jude, probably meaning Judas, when he "sold out" to rock and roll in the mid-60s. And of course Franklin, a child, playing Dylan/Woody, as he first absorbed his influence and learned how to play? I have no guesses about Authur, Billy or Ledger's characters.

[chaddoli]

Trailer

[Antoine Doinel]

Wow.

I'm not even that much of a Dylan fan, but that trailer just made this one of my most anticipated movies this fall. Looks unbelievably great. Cate Blanchett looks like she's going to knock this one out of the park.

[Jeff]

That looks absolutely fantastic. Blanchett is so versatile. I'm convinced she could pull a Linda Hunt and play Dylan by herself in a traditional biopic.

[souvenir]

Interesting article about the film's theatrical roll out in today's NY Times:

[quote]Dylan Movie to Open Like a Rolling Premiere

By JOHN ANDERSON
Published: August 21, 2007

Imagine you're a film distributor, handling an experimental movie by one of the country's most iconoclastic directors. The subject is an enigmatic occasional recluse who is being portrayed by four actors, an actress and a 13-year-old boy. Where do you open that film?

Cate Blanchett as Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes's “I'm Not There.â€

[Andre Jurieu]

[quote="NY Times"]“I may be jumping the gun,â€

[Jeff]

In New York it's being released at Film Forum, of all places, which means it's basically being dumped.

Harvey Weinstein and Barmy's archenemies at The New York Times have stepped in to refute his silliness.

Mr. Weinstein said there was “not a chanceâ€

[fred]

Harvey Weinstein and Barmy's archenemies at The New York Times have stepped in to refute his silliness.

Far be it from me to agree with Barmy about anything, but I'd have to think long and hard about who I trust less in this situation: Harvey Weinstein or the New York Times. This looks like a classic bit of PR smoke and mirrors. I think it's notable that the director was unavailable to promote his own movie and that the article's main source was Harvey Scissorhands. Does anyone else think that the quote from Karen Cooper is a little odd? "We tried this once before and it didn't work."

[Jeff]

Far be it from me to agree with Barmy about anything, but I'd have to think long and hard about who I trust less in this situation: Harvey Weinstein or the New York Times. This looks like a classic bit of PR smoke and mirrors. I think it's notable that the director was unavailable to promote his own movie and that the article's main source was Harvey Scissorhands.

I have no doubt that Weinstein is very concerned about how he is going to market this decidedly odd film, and maybe they haven't figured out who the audience is yet (it's me). When Weinstein publicly declares, however, that the film will play in "100 cities, at least" and that he intends to push Blanchett for an Academy Award it does something to refute the notion that they're "dumping it."

[Antoine Doinel]

I have no doubt that Weinstein is very concerned about how he is going to market this decidedly odd film, and maybe they haven't figured out who the audience is yet (it's me). When Weinstein publicly declares, however, that the film will play in "100 cities, at least" and that he intends to push Blanchett for an Academy Award it does something to refute the notion that they're "dumping it."

Moreover, there is no way the Weinsteins aren't going to try and milk the lucractive "musical biopic" angle for as many awards as possible, no matter how unconventional.

And they would be stupid not to eventually launch the film as wide as possible, especially when Dylan himself is going on a high profile tour this fall with Elvis Costello, not to mention A-list cast and the unbelievable soundtrack lineup.

Damn, the film practically markets itself.

[flyonthewall2983]

Not to mention that Columbia is releasing a 3-CD set of material, and his show on XM.

[David Ehrenstein]

"I do think though the black young man, Marcus Carl Franklin, is playing Dylan's "Woody" phase."

None of the actors is playing a literal version of Dylan. They're signposts to aspects of the 60's reflected in his life and work.

This will no more be a "biopic" than Far From Heaven was a "woman's picture." Todd's films evoke genres but have nothing to do with them in and of themselves. What he's doing isn't a "modernist" varaiation like Godard, or "post-modern" intellectual hackery like Questin Tarantino.

The filmmaker closest to Todd is Franju.

[dadaistnun]

Italian poster and new stills.

[Jeff]

Excerpted reactions from bloggers at Telluride:

It's late out here at Telluride, and no real time for a full considered review of what is sure to be one of the year's most remarkable movies. Not to be all David Poland about things, but what Haynes has accomplished here is so ingenious, intelligent, unique, and wholly entertaining that it's unfair to other filmmakers. I left the theatre shaking and stammering, wanting to make out with everyone involved (sans Harvey) and if I'd been offered the opportunity, I would have walked right back in and seen it again.

Expect a lot more on I'm Not There from Reverse Shot in the weeks to come.

I saw three movies today at the Telluride Film Festival and without a doubt the one to write home about is Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There." A portrait with aspects of Haynes' "Superstar" and "Velvet Goldmine", the film is a downright cinematic spectacle that may leave many people surprised (and even a few a bit confused). The festival calls the enthralling film, which Haynes dedicated to his longtime editor Jim Lyons, an "essay-poem on Bob Dylan." But "I'm Not There" defies adequate description, often densley evoking 1960s cinema through stunning photography and an exceptional, eclectic soundtrack. I started to take notes during the screening, but about one-third of the way in I ended up simply writing in my notebook, "Just see it."

Surprisingly, the words "Bob Dylan" are never spoken in the film and one older couple said at the screening tonight, "I thought this was a movie about Bob Dylan." After the screening, I lingered in the lobby and witnessed both Ken Burns (pictured below with Haynes) and Laura Linney each gushing to Todd separately about the movie. And at the "Margot at the Wedding" showing following "I'm Not There", Noah Baumbach (while introducing his own movie on stage) mentioned how much he liked Haynes' film.

Just see it.

I've never seen a film that manipulated my heart and mind so deftly, often in a single shot or line. I'll be very disappointed if Cate Blanchett doesn't pick up an Oscar for this, and I'm rooting for Todd Haynes for both the best screenplay and best director prizes. Is that an objective opinion? Of course not. I have an irrational crush on this movie.

I'm Not There is a chase movie, and it plays like the lovechild of Cameron Crowe (the music worshipper) and David Lynch (master of splintering the psyche).

No one in the movie plays a character named Bob Dylan, but they all play physical and/or emotional representations of Dylan. Christian Bale plays a folk music hero, Heath Ledger plays the actor who plays the folk music hero in a film, Cate Blanchett plays a folk music hero who goes "electric" and alienates his fan base. Richard Gere plays Billy the Kid. Ben Whishaw plays a "poet" named Arthur Rimbaud who is under interrogation. The overly charismatic preteen Marcus Carl Franklin plays a boy named Woody Guthrie who's trainhopping away from a troubled childhood.

All these characters add up to the essence of Dylan as he changed over his career, and they are all running from something. In this way, I'm Not There is a chase movie. It's about men who are constantly trying to outrun fame, the media, conformity, themselves, their loves, the law and so on. They are trying to excuse themselves from their current reality. Look at the title.

Blanchett arrives late and owns the movie. She and Bale play the pre- and post-electric Dylan, but Blanchett is the axis on which the film spins. She is a joy to watch. She looks and acts like Dylan. There is little artifice. It is fascinating. Why did Todd Haynes want a woman in the part? I don't know. But it works as a ballsy experiment, and Blanchett proves she can pull off absolutely anything.

[dadaistnun]

Italian website with new trailer.