Heath Ledger in ‘ I’m Not There’. Trailer included
To view the trailer, please click here
HEATH LEDGER, CHRISTIAN BALE, CATE BLANCHETT, RICHARD GERE, JULIANNE MOORE, MICHELLE WILLIAMS
All in a film inspired by the life & works of BOB DYLAN.
Need there be any more reasons to watch a movie?
“I’m Not There“ which releases at PVR Cinemas in Mumbai this Friday has six actors portray Dylan as a series of shifting personae—from the public to the private to the fantastical—weaving together a rich and colorful
portrait of this ever-elusive American icon.
Cate Blanchett portrays the man during his Don’t Look Back era incarnation; Heath Ledger plays a fictional Dylan in a movie within the movie; Christian Bale, who plays the Dylan beginning to chafe at being associated so strongly with political causes; Richard Gere, who plays Dylan of the post-motorcycle accident period and Marcus Carl Franklin plays the young Dylan who passed himself off as the second coming of Woody Guthrie.
Poet, prophet, outlaw, fake, star of electricity, rock and roll martyr, born again Christian—seven identities braided together, seven organs pumping through one life story, as dense and vibrant as the era it inspired.
The movie was nominated at the Academy Awards for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role (Cate Blanchett) and at the BAFTA Awards in the same category.
Below is an interview with the director – Todd Haynes…
What does Dylan mean to you? Do you feel the film will open up new interest in Dylan and his works for a younger audience?
Dylan’s artistic achievements don’t really require any endorsement from me. There are those who think he’s the greatest songwriter of all time and those who don’t care for him at all. But as a leading influence in popular music and post-war culture Dylan is inescapable, whether you like him or not. He along with the Beatles pretty much conducted the 1960’s, at least for its massive generation of young people. So for young people today, who may associate him more with their parent’s generation, I do hope I’m Not There offers a fresh jolt into that time, and an exciting new take on his music.
How did you begin preparations for the film, its obvious that you’ve often watched Don’t Look Back, the Newport film, live clips and read his autobiography – Chronicles. Did you speak to any of Dylan’s close friends from previous eras like Joan Baez & Suze Rotolo?
In preparing I’m Not There I spent as much time studying Dylan’s creative history as his literal one, and by creative history I mean his songs, his writing, his interviews, his films, as well as the music, writing, films and history that inspired him. This was never going to be a straight biopic, so I chose instead to focus on the places where his creative life and real life intersected or mirrored one another. I did read all his biographies—in fact most of the books published about him—but didn’t really conduct interviews. I suppose I felt that biographers in search of the “real Dylan” or “true Dylan” always failed, and that one can never really convey truth except through a kind of fiction. I did speak to Suze Rotolo, though, who had actually contacted me. She had heard I was doing a film about Dylan and was concerned that I would get her wrong in it, as all the biographers had done. I asked her what she meant, since I thought she always came off so wonderfully in the biographies. What was it they left out? “The fun”, she said.
What was the inspiration for casting each part of Dylan with different person. How did you come to write the screenplay with Oren ? Where did these separate narrative strings come from?
I first discovered Dylan in high school, but sort of stopped listening for a while. Then in late 1999, at a certain turning point in my life, I found myself craving him again. I think I needed to return to that sense of adolescent energy—and possibility—that he had once nourished. I was leaving New York where I had lived for fifteen years, just to get away and write a script in Portland, Oregon, where my sister lived. What I didn’t know at the time was that I would never return. Something was happening and I didn’t know what it was. I just kept getting deeper and deeper into Dylan, discovering
all the unreleased material and reading anything I could get my hands on. And the more I read the more I discovered how change —radical personal, artistic change had defined his life. And the only way to convey that fact would be to dramatize it, to literally distill his life and work into a series of separate selves and stories. The six characters that ultimately emerged seemed to encompass the dominant themes and instincts that informed his life and canon of work, though most had their roots in the sixties.
So while writing the script for my last film, Far From Heaven, the basic concept and earliest drafts of I’m Not There were also taking shape. And by the end of that first year in Portland, we’d secured the rights from Dylan to proceed. But the serious research and writing of the script didn’t really begin until 2002, when Far From Heaven was over. It was a massive endeavor, producing massive early drafts of a script. And that’s where Oren came in. A great writer and someone I really trusted, Oren flew to Portland and together we started whipping it down to a conceivable size and shape. It was a tough process but much more fun than doing it alone. And together we had a finished draft by the end of 2004.
Dylan’s life is already very well documented, with I’M NOT THERE what do you hope you can add to the understanding of this artist? How do you hope his fans will perceive this radical reworking?
Basically I hope to explode any preconceived notion about Dylan into a thousand shimmering pieces—to see him both from the inside out and from the outside in, as both a creative person at a specific time and place and a true embodiment of the American multitude: its conflicts, rebellions and traditions.
Hardcore Dylan fans are a serious bunch. I suspect the film will send them into a state of frenzied debate, evoking both euphoria and outrage.
In light of your previous works on the subject of music i.e. SUPERSTAR & VELVET GOLDMINE and your work with Sonic Youth why choose Dylan?
I would be compelled to make a film about Dylan even if I didn’t like his music. He’s just too important and fascinating a figure to post-war culture to not eventually take on as a dramatic subject.
To read the entire interview, please click here. [Trailer]
blogged by Shamath Mazumdar, NDTV Lumière
Tags: cate blanchett, Christian Bale, heath ledger, RICHARD GERE
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Thanks a LOT for this bro!!!!! This is one of my favourite movies of all time,have seen it around 4 times already,am a big fan of Bob Dylan,and when you add Heath Ledger and Christian Bale playing different versions of the same man along with even Cate Blanchett,you get a fantastic movie :D
Awesome. have always wanted to see this one on the big screen.
Heath Ledger has such an un-noticeable role in this film. This movie belongs to Cate Blanchett and no one else.
Shamath … Are you guys trying to negotiate with Tata Sky for carrying your channel as an option ???
Please … Cant wait to see the channel !!!
we are in talks with all the leading DTH players to carry the channel…. will keep you posted on the developments…
cheers!
superb…this is one sexy film! MUST WATCH!