No Direction Home: Bob Dylan's Recent Activity

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Title: No Direction Home: Bob Dylan
Year: 2005
Director: Martin Scorsese
Plot: Renowned director Martin Scorsese's documentary No Direction Home: Bob Dylan chronicles the career of the singer and songwriter during the tumultuous years between 1961 and 1966. Dylan allowed Scorsese to have access to hours of footage that had never before been made public, including a number of live performances, and footage of Dylan in the recording studio creating some of his landmark albums from the period. Dylan sits for an extensive interview, as does a variety of people who worked with him during this time period, including Joan Baez and fellow songwriter Pete Seeger. The film debuted on PBS stations around the country on September 26, 2005. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Times Tagged: 1
Number of Lists: 12
Number of blog posts: 4
SpoutRating: 4
]]>Mon, 03 Aug 2009 18:38:36 GMTNo Direction Home: Bob Dylan2005Martin ScorseseRenowned director <a href="/players/P___110533/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Martin Scorsese</a>'s documentary No Direction Home: Bob Dylan chronicles the career of the singer and songwriter during the tumultuous years between 1961 and 1966. Dylan allowed Scorsese to have access to hours of footage that had never before been made public, including a number of live performances, and footage of Dylan in the recording studio creating some of his landmark albums from the period. Dylan sits for an extensive interview, as does a variety of people who worked with him during this time period, including <a href="/players/P_____3229/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Joan Baez</a> and fellow songwriter Pete Seeger. The film debuted on PBS stations around the country on September 26, 2005. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide1Slightly Tagged (1-5)1244http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/t65770utv6t.jpghttp://www.spout.com/films/No_Direction_Home_Bob_Dylan/265401/default.aspxFilm Spout Post: It's Bob's Party, But Don't Invite Him http://www.spout.com/blogs/tenenbaums/archive/2007/12/2/22451.aspx

Post By: Tenenbaums
Post To: Tenenbaums Blog
Post Date: 12/2/2007 1:27:40 AM
Body: Bob Dylan has led an eventful life. He’s redefined the protest song, influenced the Beatles, found God, and won an Oscar. The nation’s reigning poet laureate continues to make great music and tour nearly 50 years after his rise to the top of the folk scene. His story is legendary and inspiring. But is it cinematic?The real-life Dylan is. D.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back and Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home are towering documentaries chronicling the 1965 British tour and Dylan’s life up until his motorcycle wreck, respectively. That Dylan is charming, mysterious, and inspiring. He is as close to a musical superhero as anyone has come, including Elvis.But what about the fictional Dylan? Being a natural storyteller, Dylan seemed fit as any to explore himself on a deeper level. For someone who has successfully dodged the press’ attempts to explain his entire being, surely the man himself could provide the best insight.Unfortunately, existing evidence suggests that he cannot. The role-playing portion of his Renaldo and Clara is widely considered a failure. Then there is the shameful vanity project, Masked and Anonymous. Co-written with director Larry Charles, under the not-so-clever pseudonym Sergei Petrov, Dylan plays a version of himself called Jack Fate. Set against a war-torn future America that resembles Havana meshed with the Bronx, the all-star casts speaks incoherent “poetry” while Dylan poker faces through and endless series of meaningless scenes.The film is intended to play out like one of Dylan’s more complex songs, such as “Gates of Eden” or “Desolation Row.” Instead, it is reminiscent of a Dylan version of a Bad Hemingway contest, except it’s written by Dylan.Dylan told Charles not to worry about initial response to the film but to wait for the long-term appreciation. Unless there is a second film decodable with 3-D glasses and playing the audio backwards, that day will never come. Only the most insane Dylan disciples, bereft with multiple mental illnesses, will be able to find value in the effort. The only sliver of redemption is Dylan’s cover of “Dixie,” and it can thankfully be viewed on YouTube, far from the rest of the failure.Only when Dylan himself isn’t involved in the abstraction does the end result work. I’m Not There, the new film from Todd Haynes, is “inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan” and works hard to combine the fantastic and the real. Haynes breaks Dylan’s life into six vignettes played by six different people. The concept is ambitious, but entirely sensible as each distinct chapter is true to its respective Dylan reinvention.There’s a 10-year-old black boy full of tall tales who thinks he’s Woody Guthrie (Marcus Carl Franklin); a young 20something Greenwich Village folk music phenomenon named Jack Rollins (Christian Bale); a poet calling himself Arthur Rimbaud who is under some sort of government subcommittee interrogation (Ben Whishaw); a famous actor who portrayed Rollins in a corny biopic, now witnessing his marriage fall apart (Heath Ledger, whose character Robbie Clark’s personality may have split from or become bonded to the folk hero’s during filming); Jude Quinn, a former folk star, fresh off bewildering his listeners by going electric, on a media-frenzied tour of England (Cate Blanchett); and a middle-aged Billy the Kid, who evaded death and now lives in careful seclusion (Richard Gere). None of them are Dylan, yet they could be no one else.In many moments, the film drags and ventures into Lynchian depths of artistic drudgery. But when it soars, it reaches seemingly unparalleled heights, thanks to the music and personal connections with Dylan lore. Similar to previous experimental Dylan explorations, it is an immense help to know the legend. Fortunately, for the undefined audience of Haynes’ film, the tidbits here are much more accessible: visits to a dying Woody Guthrie in his New Jersey hospital room; Newport Folk Festival lore coming alive as a Pete Seeger stand-in attempts to slice the electric guitars’ power source with an axe; disillusioned festival onlookers precisely quoting Don’t Look Back‘s equally mystified British youth; Quinn passing along his uppers and downers to the Beatles; and the Rolling Thunder Revue inspired landscape of the Gere scenes and his Basement Tapes era Billy.By being aware of the scattered facts we can be in on the joke, and yet it is our supposed knowledge that is being toyed with throughout the film. We don’t know Dylan. We’ve never really known him and that’s how things should be. The same message should also be applied to each viewer: Do we want all of our moves to be scrutinized by the public? How silly can “celebrity” be? How can every man find peace and happiness in the face of constant scrutiny? In the end, the music is the star. Let the man be.Fellini’s self-reflexivity and personal criticism of 8 1/2 is constant throughout the film and receives an exclamation point with a balloon-like Quinn threatening to fly away if not for a rope around his ankle. But it’s Haynes, not Dylan, who makes these private pronouncements on behalf of the artist, adding another curious level to I’m Not There’s mystery. The writer-director has immersed himself in Dylanology, but combines the knowledge with his film-smarts to make the piece work. It takes a real filmmaker like Haynes to do it right and Dylan’s necessary absence lends deeper meaning to the project’s title and success.And yet he is there, if only in spirit and recorded sound. But what a strong, strange presence it is! As a result, the known Dylans connect quickest. Franklin’s Woody encompasses the unbelievable stories Dylan told after his arrival in New York City; Bale’s Rollins perfectly mimes the young Dylan, slowly bouncing with sincerity while singing for justice and equality for all; Whishaw’s quasi-narrator streams familiar quips in defense of himself and his art; and Blanchett plays “Ballad of a Thin Man” with the identical head nods and floppy piano wrists from the famous ’65 footage while confounding reporters to our delight in other scenes.The unknown Dylans (beginning chronologically with Ledger) are the most difficult to follow, yet they encompass his most painful elements. These fractions are a man picking up the pieces from the press’ strangulation and a horrific motorcycle wreck. Temporary hermitage may have helped, but the problems are too large to easily repair. One potential path to healing is religion, and Bale’s reborn Pastor John perfectly hyperbolizes the evangelical Dylan, one of the artist’s most confusing and complex periods. When he sings “Pressing On” to a small rec-room congregation, the pain is all but absent and his faith and joy resonate.Then there are the Gere scenes, the film’s most cryptic, though also deserving of more time. The Rolling Thunder Revue period is a fascinating Dylan tangent of circus, troubadours, whiteface, and collaboration. The setting is there, complete with giraffes and sideshow attractions, but the experiences are not. The closest we get is Jim James, the My Morning Jacket lead singer, dressed in RTR Dylan garb and singing “Goin’ to Acapulco” for a funeral wake. The reclusive Dylan clearly chose to hide here, but the excursion was far too brief and mysterious. Perhaps that’s how it should be. Only Dylan knows, but Haynes convinces us that he too is privy to that knowledge.I’m Not There is a wandering, magical meditation on the most influential musician of our time and will require multiple views to process its plentiful messages. It may be the most intelligent musical ever made and the layered ambiguity in which it is presented finally accomplishes what Dylan himself has yet to do.
]]>Sun, 02 Dec 2007 06:27:40 GMTTenenbaumsTenenbaums Blog12/2/2007 1:27:40 AMBob Dylan has led an eventful life. He’s redefined the protest song, influenced the Beatles, found God, and won an Oscar. The nation’s reigning poet laureate continues to make great music and tour nearly 50 years after his rise to the top of the folk scene. His story is legendary and inspiring. But is it cinematic?The real-life Dylan is. D.A. Pennebaker’s Don’t Look Back and Martin Scorsese’s No Direction Home are towering documentaries chronicling the 1965 British tour and Dylan’s life up until his motorcycle wreck, respectively. That Dylan is charming, mysterious, and inspiring. He is as close to a musical superhero as anyone has come, including Elvis.But what about the fictional Dylan? Being a natural storyteller, Dylan seemed fit as any to explore himself on a deeper level. For someone who has successfully dodged the press’ attempts to explain his entire being, surely the man himself could provide the best insight.Unfortunately, existing evidence suggests that he cannot. The role-playing portion of his Renaldo and Clara is widely considered a failure. Then there is the shameful vanity project, Masked and Anonymous. Co-written with director Larry Charles, under the not-so-clever pseudonym Sergei Petrov, Dylan plays a version of himself called Jack Fate. Set against a war-torn future America that resembles Havana meshed with the Bronx, the all-star casts speaks incoherent “poetry” while Dylan poker faces through and endless series of meaningless scenes.The film is intended to play out like one of Dylan’s more complex songs, such as “Gates of Eden” or “Desolation Row.” Instead, it is reminiscent of a Dylan version of a Bad Hemingway contest, except it’s written by Dylan.Dylan told Charles not to worry about initial response to the film but to wait for the long-term appreciation. Unless there is a second film decodable with 3-D glasses and playing the audio backwards, that day will never come. Only the most insane Dylan disciples, bereft with multiple mental illnesses, will be able to find value in the effort. The only sliver of redemption is Dylan’s cover of “Dixie,” and it can thankfully be viewed on YouTube, far from the rest of the failure.Only when Dylan himself isn’t involved in the abstraction does the end result work. I’m Not There, the new film from Todd Haynes, is “inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan” and works hard to combine the fantastic and the real. Haynes breaks Dylan’s life into six vignettes played by six different people. The concept is ambitious, but entirely sensible as each distinct chapter is true to its respective Dylan reinvention.There’s a 10-year-old black boy full of tall tales who thinks he’s Woody Guthrie (Marcus Carl Franklin); a young 20something Greenwich Village folk music phenomenon named Jack Rollins (Christian Bale); a poet calling himself Arthur Rimbaud who is under some sort of government subcommittee interrogation (Ben Whishaw); a famous actor who portrayed Rollins in a corny biopic, now witnessing his marriage fall apart (Heath Ledger, whose character Robbie Clark’s personality may have split from or become bonded to the folk hero’s during filming); Jude Quinn, a former folk star, fresh off bewildering his listeners by going electric, on a media-frenzied tour of England (Cate Blanchett); and a middle-aged Billy the Kid, who evaded death and now lives in careful seclusion (Richard Gere). None of them are Dylan, yet they could be no one else.In many moments, the film drags and ventures into Lynchian depths of artistic drudgery. But when it soars, it reaches seemingly unparalleled heights, thanks to the music and personal connections with Dylan lore. Similar to previous experimental Dylan explorations, it is an immense help to know the legend. Fortunately, for the undefined audience of Haynes’ film, the tidbits here are much more accessible: visits to a dying Woody Guthrie in his New Jersey hospital room; Newport Folk Festival lore coming alive as a Pete Seeger stand-in attempts to slice the electric guitars’ power source with an axe; disillusioned festival onlookers precisely quoting Don’t Look Back‘s equally mystified British youth; Quinn passing along his uppers and downers to the Beatles; and the Rolling Thunder Revue inspired landscape of the Gere scenes and his Basement Tapes era Billy.By being aware of the scattered facts we can be in on the joke, and yet it is our supposed knowledge that is being toyed with throughout the film. We don’t know Dylan. We’ve never really known him and that’s how things should be. The same message should also be applied to each viewer: Do we want all of our moves to be scrutinized by the public? How silly can “celebrity” be? How can every man find peace and happiness in the face of constant scrutiny? In the end, the music is the star. Let the man be.Fellini’s self-reflexivity and personal criticism of 8 1/2 is constant throughout the film and receives an exclamation point with a balloon-like Quinn threatening to fly away if not for a rope around his ankle. But it’s Haynes, not Dylan, who makes these private pronouncements on behalf of the artist, adding another curious level to I’m Not There’s mystery. The writer-director has immersed himself in Dylanology, but combines the knowledge with his film-smarts to make the piece work. It takes a real filmmaker like Haynes to do it right and Dylan’s necessary absence lends deeper meaning to the project’s title and success.And yet he is there, if only in spirit and recorded sound. But what a strong, strange presence it is! As a result, the known Dylans connect quickest. Franklin’s Woody encompasses the unbelievable stories Dylan told after his arrival in New York City; Bale’s Rollins perfectly mimes the young Dylan, slowly bouncing with sincerity while singing for justice and equality for all; Whishaw’s quasi-narrator streams familiar quips in defense of himself and his art; and Blanchett plays “Ballad of a Thin Man” with the identical head nods and floppy piano wrists from the famous ’65 footage while confounding reporters to our delight in other scenes.The unknown Dylans (beginning chronologically with Ledger) are the most difficult to follow, yet they encompass his most painful elements. These fractions are a man picking up the pieces from the press’ strangulation and a horrific motorcycle wreck. Temporary hermitage may have helped, but the problems are too large to easily repair. One potential path to healing is religion, and Bale’s reborn Pastor John perfectly hyperbolizes the evangelical Dylan, one of the artist’s most confusing and complex periods. When he sings “Pressing On” to a small rec-room congregation, the pain is all but absent and his faith and joy resonate.Then there are the Gere scenes, the film’s most cryptic, though also deserving of more time. The Rolling Thunder Revue period is a fascinating Dylan tangent of circus, troubadours, whiteface, and collaboration. The setting is there, complete with giraffes and sideshow attractions, but the experiences are not. The closest we get is Jim James, the My Morning Jacket lead singer, dressed in RTR Dylan garb and singing “Goin’ to Acapulco” for a funeral wake. The reclusive Dylan clearly chose to hide here, but the excursion was far too brief and mysterious. Perhaps that’s how it should be. Only Dylan knows, but Haynes convinces us that he too is privy to that knowledge.I’m Not There is a wandering, magical meditation on the most influential musician of our time and will require multiple views to process its plentiful messages. It may be the most intelligent musical ever made and the layered ambiguity in which it is presented finally accomplishes what Dylan himself has yet to do. Spout Post: I Was There - Notes from Todd Haynes' "I'm Not There" At 45th New York Film Festival http://www.spout.com/blogs/thefilmpanelnotetaker/archive/2007/10/24/21148.aspx

Post By: thefilmpanelnotetaker
Post To: thefilmpanelnotetaker Blog
Post Date: 10/24/2007 4:01:12 PM
Body: 45th New York Film FestivalI???m Not ThereOctober 4, 2007Cate Blanchett as Jude in I'm Not There. Directed by Todd Haynes, US, 2007; 136m. Photo Credit: Jonathan Wenk/TWC 2007 I'm Not There opens in limited release at Film Forum in New York on Nov. 21.Last night at the New York Film Festival, I saw Todd Haynes??? extraordinary narrative/mockumentary/experimental/biopic I???m Not There. The film beautifully and strangely yet effectively, weaves the tales of six different versions of legendary folk/rock singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, each played by different actors of varying ages (and gender ala Cate Blanchett???s terrific performance) at various stages or incarnations or dreamlike moments of Dylan???s life. I???m Not There was the most challenging, engaging and artistic film I have seen so far this year. There are definitely elements of Haynes??? earlier works here, which I???ve always been intrigued by, yet he presents us with fresh and new ideas, that to some may seem a bit jarring, but well worth the experience.Richard Pe??a, Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, introduced the film along with its director Todd Haynes. Haynes told the audience that it meant a tremendous amount to him to have his film there. ???This is a city Dylan so loved,??? he said. He also mentioned how difficult it was to get the project financed and gave a big thanks to Harvey Weinstein (who was in attendance) for being someone who stepped in. ???He is a courageous guy,??? Haynes said.Haynes then went on to introduce a lot of people from the film who all got up on stage. They included: Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Marcus Carl Franklin, Michelle Williams, co-screenwriter Oren Moverman, producers Christine Vachon (Killer Films), John Sloss and Jim Stern, executive producers John Wells and Wendy Japhet, music supervisors Randy Poster and Jim Dunbar, casting director Laura Rosenthal, production designer Judy Becker, titlist Marlene McCarty, assistant Tonya Smith, and last but not least, director of photography Ed Lachman. Also in the cast, but not present to my awareness was Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, and Ben Wishaw, all who round out the rest of the Dylan avatars in the film.After the screening, Richard Pena (RP) moderated a Q&A with Haynes (TH), Blanchett (CB), Marcus Carl Franklin (MCF), and Michelle Williams (MW).(RP) Can you tell us about the structure of the film?(TH) The script tried to suggest the ways the stories would be intercut, told in a linear order. I created a dialogue with my subject???s lives. The only way the film could work was that the stories had to fill each other in. One fills in the past of the other. The characters were dreaming each other???s stories. The motifs and ideas came from Dylan???s songs.(RP) How did you all prepare for your roles?(CB) By talking to Todd. The script was like a logarithm or algebra. Todd put together a song for each character. I had also read Bob Dylan???s Playboy interview.(MCF) I???m not as experienced as these actors are. I listened to Dylan???s music. Basically, I did my homework.Audience QuestionsQ: How did it feel interpreting Bob Dylan as a woman?(CB) I didn???t really think about it too much. It was incredibly genius to cast a woman.Q: Why did the six Bob Dylan characters in the film have different names other than Bob Dylan?(TH) To really play out the idea of him occupying different psychic places in his life, it would have been too difficult to make him one character. Most biopics blend fact and fiction. Dylan gave himself different names over the years.Q: How do you deal with the people who would rather see a more direct version of Dylan???s life?(TH) People don???t have to like the film. Dylan was received by an incredibly popular audience in the 1960s. This was my subject. I didn???t want to dumb it down. I tried to be true to the story.Q: Has Bob Dylan seen the film yet?(TH) We don???t know yet. He hasn???t come to any public screenings. We gave his son Jesse the DVD. Heard that Dylan saw Martin Scorsese???s documentary, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, on TV when he was traveling in Spain.Q: Were all the performances in the film song by Dylan? Did any of the actors do their own singing?(CB) I had guitar lessons, but Todd wanted my character to have a male voice come out of my mouth during the singing scenes.(TH) There was one actor who???s here today who did do his own singing. (Haynes is referring to young Marcus Carl Franklin. The audience applauds.)Q: What was your relationship with the editor in terms of choices you made to tell the story?(TH) This was my first time working with Jay Rabinowitz? We started out very closely following the script. It???s a long, big film. It was a challenge to make it work. For example, Richard Gere???s character comes last in the story, but we put little pieces of him earlier in the film.Q: The film encompasses stages of Dylan???s life up until the late 1970s. Why doesn???t it go further into the present?(TH) I was paralleling a lot of different events that took place in the film. For example, when Dylan had his motorcycle accident, he eventually goes to the Woodstock in 1969, but he was as far away from the psychedelics of that movement. He went into the past with his music. He never fully returned.(RP) The turning point was the motorcycle accident. Could you talk more about that?(TH) I didn???t want to make this film just for Dylan fanatics. Didn???t want to overplay the motorcycle accident, but wanted to make it clear enough. It kind of book ends the films.Q: What inspired you to make this film?(TH) I got into Dylan???s music in my late 30s and read a lot of his biographies. I was looking for excitement of change in my life. I associated Dylan with adolescence and the excitement of the future and the unknown. The idea of changing was something I was confronting. These are huge changes and they cause huge repercussions. I dramatized that.Q: The core of Dylan is identity. Is there a huge question for you about human identity in your thinking?(TH) The single thing I see in my films is about identity. Dylan found expectations of identity stifling. I found this to be a beautiful model.Q: Did you have the actors in mind when writing the script?(TH) I don???t usually think of actors in my mind. Only one actor came to mind, that being the wife character played in the film by Charlotte Gainsbourg. I was so indelibly blessed with these actors. They don???t have to risk everything for a movie like this. Originally posted on:The Film Panel Notetaker - Miss a panel discussion? Don't worry! We took notes for you.
]]>Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:01:12 GMTthefilmpanelnotetakerthefilmpanelnotetaker Blog10/24/2007 4:01:12 PM45th New York Film FestivalI???m Not ThereOctober 4, 2007Cate Blanchett as Jude in I'm Not There. Directed by Todd Haynes, US, 2007; 136m. Photo Credit: Jonathan Wenk/TWC 2007 I'm Not There opens in limited release at Film Forum in New York on Nov. 21.Last night at the New York Film Festival, I saw Todd Haynes??? extraordinary narrative/mockumentary/experimental/biopic I???m Not There. The film beautifully and strangely yet effectively, weaves the tales of six different versions of legendary folk/rock singer/songwriter Bob Dylan, each played by different actors of varying ages (and gender ala Cate Blanchett???s terrific performance) at various stages or incarnations or dreamlike moments of Dylan???s life. I???m Not There was the most challenging, engaging and artistic film I have seen so far this year. There are definitely elements of Haynes??? earlier works here, which I???ve always been intrigued by, yet he presents us with fresh and new ideas, that to some may seem a bit jarring, but well worth the experience.Richard Pe??a, Program Director of the Film Society of Lincoln Center, introduced the film along with its director Todd Haynes. Haynes told the audience that it meant a tremendous amount to him to have his film there. ???This is a city Dylan so loved,??? he said. He also mentioned how difficult it was to get the project financed and gave a big thanks to Harvey Weinstein (who was in attendance) for being someone who stepped in. ???He is a courageous guy,??? Haynes said.Haynes then went on to introduce a lot of people from the film who all got up on stage. They included: Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Marcus Carl Franklin, Michelle Williams, co-screenwriter Oren Moverman, producers Christine Vachon (Killer Films), John Sloss and Jim Stern, executive producers John Wells and Wendy Japhet, music supervisors Randy Poster and Jim Dunbar, casting director Laura Rosenthal, production designer Judy Becker, titlist Marlene McCarty, assistant Tonya Smith, and last but not least, director of photography Ed Lachman. Also in the cast, but not present to my awareness was Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, and Ben Wishaw, all who round out the rest of the Dylan avatars in the film.After the screening, Richard Pena (RP) moderated a Q&A with Haynes (TH), Blanchett (CB), Marcus Carl Franklin (MCF), and Michelle Williams (MW).(RP) Can you tell us about the structure of the film?(TH) The script tried to suggest the ways the stories would be intercut, told in a linear order. I created a dialogue with my subject???s lives. The only way the film could work was that the stories had to fill each other in. One fills in the past of the other. The characters were dreaming each other???s stories. The motifs and ideas came from Dylan???s songs.(RP) How did you all prepare for your roles?(CB) By talking to Todd. The script was like a logarithm or algebra. Todd put together a song for each character. I had also read Bob Dylan???s Playboy interview.(MCF) I???m not as experienced as these actors are. I listened to Dylan???s music. Basically, I did my homework.Audience QuestionsQ: How did it feel interpreting Bob Dylan as a woman?(CB) I didn???t really think about it too much. It was incredibly genius to cast a woman.Q: Why did the six Bob Dylan characters in the film have different names other than Bob Dylan?(TH) To really play out the idea of him occupying different psychic places in his life, it would have been too difficult to make him one character. Most biopics blend fact and fiction. Dylan gave himself different names over the years.Q: How do you deal with the people who would rather see a more direct version of Dylan???s life?(TH) People don???t have to like the film. Dylan was received by an incredibly popular audience in the 1960s. This was my subject. I didn???t want to dumb it down. I tried to be true to the story.Q: Has Bob Dylan seen the film yet?(TH) We don???t know yet. He hasn???t come to any public screenings. We gave his son Jesse the DVD. Heard that Dylan saw Martin Scorsese???s documentary, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan, on TV when he was traveling in Spain.Q: Were all the performances in the film song by Dylan? Did any of the actors do their own singing?(CB) I had guitar lessons, but Todd wanted my character to have a male voice come out of my mouth during the singing scenes.(TH) There was one actor who???s here today who did do his own singing. (Haynes is referring to young Marcus Carl Franklin. The audience applauds.)Q: What was your relationship with the editor in terms of choices you made to tell the story?(TH) This was my first time working with Jay Rabinowitz? We started out very closely following the script. It???s a long, big film. It was a challenge to make it work. For example, Richard Gere???s character comes last in the story, but we put little pieces of him earlier in the film.Q: The film encompasses stages of Dylan???s life up until the late 1970s. Why doesn???t it go further into the present?(TH) I was paralleling a lot of different events that took place in the film. For example, when Dylan had his motorcycle accident, he eventually goes to the Woodstock in 1969, but he was as far away from the psychedelics of that movement. He went into the past with his music. He never fully returned.(RP) The turning point was the motorcycle accident. Could you talk more about that?(TH) I didn???t want to make this film just for Dylan fanatics. Didn???t want to overplay the motorcycle accident, but wanted to make it clear enough. It kind of book ends the films.Q: What inspired you to make this film?(TH) I got into Dylan???s music in my late 30s and read a lot of his biographies. I was looking for excitement of change in my life. I associated Dylan with adolescence and the excitement of the future and the unknown. The idea of changing was something I was confronting. These are huge changes and they cause huge repercussions. I dramatized that.Q: The core of Dylan is identity. Is there a huge question for you about human identity in your thinking?(TH) The single thing I see in my films is about identity. Dylan found expectations of identity stifling. I found this to be a beautiful model.Q: Did you have the actors in mind when writing the script?(TH) I don???t usually think of actors in my mind. Only one actor came to mind, that being the wife character played in the film by Charlotte Gainsbourg. I was so indelibly blessed with these actors. They don???t have to risk everything for a movie like this. Originally posted on:The Film Panel Notetaker - Miss a panel discussion? Don't worry! We took notes for you. Spout Post: NYFF- HBO Directors Dialogue: Todd Haynes - October 6, 2007 http://www.spout.com/blogs/thefilmpanelnotetaker/archive/2007/10/24/21147.aspx

Post By: thefilmpanelnotetaker
Post To: thefilmpanelnotetaker Blog
Post Date: 10/24/2007 4:01:12 PM
Body: 45th New York Film FestivalHBO Directors Dialogue: Todd HaynesOctober 6, 2007Todd Haynes in New York Film Fesival's Green Room for I'm Not There. Photo Credit: C.J.ContinoSaturday at the New York Film Festival, Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman conducted an HBO Directors Dialogues with filmmaker Todd Haynes whose new film, I???m Not There, premiered at the festival a few days earlier. I was at the premiere and took notes at the Q&A, and thought it would be a good complement to take additional notes at the Directors Dialogue to get further insights from Haynes on his directing styles and choices for I???m Not There and his other bodies of work. What follows are highlights of the discussion and questions and answers from the audience.Hoberman opened by saying ???the greatest pleasure a film journalist can have is to come across a movie you never heard of from someone unknown and to have the privilege to write about it first 20 years ago.??? The film refers to was Haynes??? 1987 super 8mm movie Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story. Hoberman called it a completely brilliant and original movie. He then went through the laundry list of Haynes??? other film including Poison (1991), Safe (1995), Velvet Goldmine (1998), Far From Heaven (2002), and finally I???m Not There (2007). Hoberman pointed out that most of these films have multiple stories and address certain pop culture text. In each case, there is a certainty of irony. He asks Haynes if these films were made with love, and what he???s a fan of.Haynes responded that he???s an intense, wild fan of movies, music, and even of Hoberman???s work, referring back to Hoberman???s original review of Superstar, a film that would never have been shown commercially. This review launched Haynes??? career. Many theatrical venues wanted to show the film.Hoberman moves the discussion over to Haynes interest in Bob Dylan.Haynes recollected his high school days. He attended Oakwood, an artsy school in Los Angeles that had a radical, mythical history founded by progressive actors in the 1950s. It was in this environment, he first encountered Dylan???s music. After graduating in 1979, he moved to the East Coast for college at Brown University, where he studied semiotics, and became interested in glam and punk rock. It was not till the end of his 30s (he had begun his film career already) when he got back into Dylan. He finished making Velvet Goldmine and took a few years off. Most of his friends were starting their lives already, having families. He didn???t have any of those things in his life. Something was missing. He wanted to enrich himself. Since he was a creative person, he had the opportunity to externalize his troubles, and was very grateful for it. At the time, he was interested in 1950s melodramas (ala Douglas Sirk) and wanted to work again with Julianne Moore (who he worked previously with on Safe).At the end of the 1990s, Haynes drove across country to Portland, Oregon, to live with his sister. He listened to tapes of Dylan in the car. Half way there, he bought some more folk music to listen to . When he got to Portland, he read a bunch of Dylan biographies. It became inevitable that his obsession would result in making something creative.Hoberman mentions that Haynes started writing the screenplay for I???m Not There in 2000. During this time, Dylan published an anthology, ???s documentary, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan came out, and Twyla Tharp???s ballet based on Dylan???s songs, The Times They Are A-Changin???, played on Broadway. But Haynes focuses most of the film on Dylan???s life in the 1960s up until the 70s, the end of the Vietnam War.Haynes said he couldn???t commit to Dylan???s entire life. He wanted to focus on the core elements and roots of his origins in the 60s era. That was enough. Dylan ultimately created his own escape at the end of the 60s until he had his motorcycle accident in 1966. Then he went to Woodstock and raised a family. In many ways, he never really came back. Dylan???s access and visibility have been under his own terms ever since. That???s what the whole last story with Richard Gere???s Dylan character, Billy, is all about. Billy is the most metaphorical character.Given how protective Dylan is, Hoberman asked Haynes how he got permission to use Dylan???s music in the film and what Dylan thought of the film.Haynes said he???s not sure Dylan has seen it yet. He sent the DVD to Dylan???s son Jesse, because he knew that Dylan didn???t want to come to any public screenings. Before even making the film, Haynes called up producer Christine Vachon. He was very bashful about it, because he knew it would be hard to get Dylan???s permission to use the songs. There was no way he could make the movie without the music. Prior to making the film, Haynes met with Jesse, who is also a filmmaker, in Los Angeles. It???s so hard to be the kid of a famous person. One thing Dylan has been able to do all along is keep his family protected.At that point in the script (which was then titled I???m Not There: Suppositions On a Film Concerning Dylan), Haynes had seven Dylan characters, one of which eventually got absorbed into the Woody character, making the final amount six. Dylan had been opposed to every dramatic version of his life before, until that moment. If there was ever something Dylan wanted done about his life, it would have to be something this open and unconventional.Audience Q&AQ: Do you see parallels between I???m Not There and Velvet Goldmine? Did you get David Bowie???s blessing for Velvet Goldmine?TH: Artists are always changing themselves. The first person you might think of is David Bowie. I wanted the rights to Bowie???s songs, but he wasn???t interested in having his story on film. Bowie???s version of self-transformation was about dressing up and applying make up. Androgyny. I???m Not There and Velvet Goldmine are very different films. Different music genres and traditions. Velvet Goldmine is a British story, whereas I???m Not There is American story.Q: Why do you choose Cate Blanchett for the role of Jude in I???m Not There?TH: I was obsessed about different actresses in their age range. I looked at pictures of actresses and put them in Dylan???s hair. Saw Cate on stage in Heda Gabler in Brooklyn. Saw her scale and proportions. She???s beautiful. On a physical level, I was stunned by her proportions.Q: How do you work with such a large body of music?TH: It was an embarrassment of riches. The selection of cinematic references started in the script stage. Music would be telling the story, built into the film???s concept. For example, the song ???Ballad of a Thin Man??? had such an important historical meaning. It expressed the inside/outside dichotomy. Another song, ???Goin??? to Acapulco,??? was a personal favorite. It???s absurdly melodramatic.Q: You started the script in 2000 with seven Dylan characters. What are other changes were made?TH: I did stop everything on the script when going into production on Far From Heaven in 2001, which occupied me completely till about 2003, but at that point, I had gotten the rights from Dylan to use the music. Then started researching and starting over from scratch. The process of being a pure fan was changed. The missing seventh character was called Charlie, a Chaplin-esque figure.Q: Did you study of semiotics at Brown influence your filmmaking?TH: It has. The semiotics courses are now part of the modern culture and media departments. Semiotics studies post-culturalism. It???s a post-humanist look at pop culture and media. Originally posted on:The Film Panel Notetaker - Miss a panel discussion? Don't worry! We took notes for you.
]]>Wed, 24 Oct 2007 20:01:12 GMTthefilmpanelnotetakerthefilmpanelnotetaker Blog10/24/2007 4:01:12 PM45th New York Film FestivalHBO Directors Dialogue: Todd HaynesOctober 6, 2007Todd Haynes in New York Film Fesival's Green Room for I'm Not There. Photo Credit: C.J.ContinoSaturday at the New York Film Festival, Village Voice film critic J. Hoberman conducted an HBO Directors Dialogues with filmmaker Todd Haynes whose new film, I???m Not There, premiered at the festival a few days earlier. I was at the premiere and took notes at the Q&A, and thought it would be a good complement to take additional notes at the Directors Dialogue to get further insights from Haynes on his directing styles and choices for I???m Not There and his other bodies of work. What follows are highlights of the discussion and questions and answers from the audience.Hoberman opened by saying ???the greatest pleasure a film journalist can have is to come across a movie you never heard of from someone unknown and to have the privilege to write about it first 20 years ago.??? The film refers to was Haynes??? 1987 super 8mm movie Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story. Hoberman called it a completely brilliant and original movie. He then went through the laundry list of Haynes??? other film including Poison (1991), Safe (1995), Velvet Goldmine (1998), Far From Heaven (2002), and finally I???m Not There (2007). Hoberman pointed out that most of these films have multiple stories and address certain pop culture text. In each case, there is a certainty of irony. He asks Haynes if these films were made with love, and what he???s a fan of.Haynes responded that he???s an intense, wild fan of movies, music, and even of Hoberman???s work, referring back to Hoberman???s original review of Superstar, a film that would never have been shown commercially. This review launched Haynes??? career. Many theatrical venues wanted to show the film.Hoberman moves the discussion over to Haynes interest in Bob Dylan.Haynes recollected his high school days. He attended Oakwood, an artsy school in Los Angeles that had a radical, mythical history founded by progressive actors in the 1950s. It was in this environment, he first encountered Dylan???s music. After graduating in 1979, he moved to the East Coast for college at Brown University, where he studied semiotics, and became interested in glam and punk rock. It was not till the end of his 30s (he had begun his film career already) when he got back into Dylan. He finished making Velvet Goldmine and took a few years off. Most of his friends were starting their lives already, having families. He didn???t have any of those things in his life. Something was missing. He wanted to enrich himself. Since he was a creative person, he had the opportunity to externalize his troubles, and was very grateful for it. At the time, he was interested in 1950s melodramas (ala Douglas Sirk) and wanted to work again with Julianne Moore (who he worked previously with on Safe).At the end of the 1990s, Haynes drove across country to Portland, Oregon, to live with his sister. He listened to tapes of Dylan in the car. Half way there, he bought some more folk music to listen to . When he got to Portland, he read a bunch of Dylan biographies. It became inevitable that his obsession would result in making something creative.Hoberman mentions that Haynes started writing the screenplay for I???m Not There in 2000. During this time, Dylan published an anthology, ???s documentary, No Direction Home: Bob Dylan came out, and Twyla Tharp???s ballet based on Dylan???s songs, The Times They Are A-Changin???, played on Broadway. But Haynes focuses most of the film on Dylan???s life in the 1960s up until the 70s, the end of the Vietnam War.Haynes said he couldn???t commit to Dylan???s entire life. He wanted to focus on the core elements and roots of his origins in the 60s era. That was enough. Dylan ultimately created his own escape at the end of the 60s until he had his motorcycle accident in 1966. Then he went to Woodstock and raised a family. In many ways, he never really came back. Dylan???s access and visibility have been under his own terms ever since. That???s what the whole last story with Richard Gere???s Dylan character, Billy, is all about. Billy is the most metaphorical character.Given how protective Dylan is, Hoberman asked Haynes how he got permission to use Dylan???s music in the film and what Dylan thought of the film.Haynes said he???s not sure Dylan has seen it yet. He sent the DVD to Dylan???s son Jesse, because he knew that Dylan didn???t want to come to any public screenings. Before even making the film, Haynes called up producer Christine Vachon. He was very bashful about it, because he knew it would be hard to get Dylan???s permission to use the songs. There was no way he could make the movie without the music. Prior to making the film, Haynes met with Jesse, who is also a filmmaker, in Los Angeles. It???s so hard to be the kid of a famous person. One thing Dylan has been able to do all along is keep his family protected.At that point in the script (which was then titled I???m Not There: Suppositions On a Film Concerning Dylan), Haynes had seven Dylan characters, one of which eventually got absorbed into the Woody character, making the final amount six. Dylan had been opposed to every dramatic version of his life before, until that moment. If there was ever something Dylan wanted done about his life, it would have to be something this open and unconventional.Audience Q&AQ: Do you see parallels between I???m Not There and Velvet Goldmine? Did you get David Bowie???s blessing for Velvet Goldmine?TH: Artists are always changing themselves. The first person you might think of is David Bowie. I wanted the rights to Bowie???s songs, but he wasn???t interested in having his story on film. Bowie???s version of self-transformation was about dressing up and applying make up. Androgyny. I???m Not There and Velvet Goldmine are very different films. Different music genres and traditions. Velvet Goldmine is a British story, whereas I???m Not There is American story.Q: Why do you choose Cate Blanchett for the role of Jude in I???m Not There?TH: I was obsessed about different actresses in their age range. I looked at pictures of actresses and put them in Dylan???s hair. Saw Cate on stage in Heda Gabler in Brooklyn. Saw her scale and proportions. She???s beautiful. On a physical level, I was stunned by her proportions.Q: How do you work with such a large body of music?TH: It was an embarrassment of riches. The selection of cinematic references started in the script stage. Music would be telling the story, built into the film???s concept. For example, the song ???Ballad of a Thin Man??? had such an important historical meaning. It expressed the inside/outside dichotomy. Another song, ???Goin??? to Acapulco,??? was a personal favorite. It???s absurdly melodramatic.Q: You started the script in 2000 with seven Dylan characters. What are other changes were made?TH: I did stop everything on the script when going into production on Far From Heaven in 2001, which occupied me completely till about 2003, but at that point, I had gotten the rights from Dylan to use the music. Then started researching and starting over from scratch. The process of being a pure fan was changed. The missing seventh character was called Charlie, a Chaplin-esque figure.Q: Did you study of semiotics at Brown influence your filmmaking?TH: It has. The semiotics courses are now part of the modern culture and media departments. Semiotics studies post-culturalism. It???s a post-humanist look at pop culture and media. Originally posted on:The Film Panel Notetaker - Miss a panel discussion? Don't worry! We took notes for you. Spout Post: No Direction Home: Bob Dylan http://www.spout.com/blogs/jimbell/archive/2007/3/3/5950.aspx

Post By: JimBell
Post To: JimBell Blog
Post Date: 3/3/2007 3:55:00 AM
Body: No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005) is a two-disc documentary by Martin Scorsese which covers Dylan’s career to 1966. You will not like this film if you insist on singing in tune, harmonica playing with a sense of musicality, or guitar playing with finesse. But if you are interested in the 60s music scene or if you are simply a Dylan fan, you’ll like this portrait. The strength of the documentary is that it is “loose,” meaning that it spends time creating the milieu in which Dylan thrived (it is 3 ½ hours long). The other strength is that the film does not have strident points of view that it is pushing, but it does have aspects of Dylan’s life and career that it brings to the fore. Here are some. Bob was really lost and alienated when he come out of Minnesota as a young man, and his fascination with crazy people was understandable. Although Dylan may have wanted for musical talent, he was very smart. As he said, “I had an agile mind.” Woody Guthrie’s music was, as oft reported, a huge influence because, as the current Dylan explains, it had the sound, it was radical, and it said something. The arts scene in Greenwich Village was fluid, and Dylan was markedly influenced by the poets. Once Dylan started writing his own songs, he was obsessive. He sat at the typewriter pounding out poems, songs, stories, anything. When Dylan went electric and moved away from overt protest songs, the audience hostility was amazing. Dylan’s “back up” band was the Butterfield Blues Band, and Al Kooper (organ) finally quit because he was afraid. Dylan compliments The Band for having the courage to become his new band. Dylan fundamentally objected to the stupidity of stardom, so, for example, we see him refusing to give autographs (“If you needed my autograph, I would give it to you.”) and turning reporters’ bone-head questions back on them. Sometimes this turns into bull-headed stupidity on Dylan’s part. The touring visibly took its toll. After 1966, Dylan did not tour for 8 years. I knew a trememdous amount of this material before watching the documentary, and this reduced the chances of the film having a big impact on me. One of the best things to come out of the film came about when a record producer saw Maria Mulduar talking about Dylan, phoned her up and asked if she’d like to record a Dylan song, and got the response that she’d like to record an entire CD of Dylan’s love songs. Thus we have the superb “Heart of Mine” (2006), which tells me as much about Dylan as the documentary did. Jim Bell
]]>Sat, 03 Mar 2007 08:55:00 GMTJimBellJimBell Blog3/3/2007 3:55:00 AM No Direction Home: Bob Dylan (2005) is a two-disc documentary by Martin Scorsese which covers Dylan’s career to 1966. You will not like this film if you insist on singing in tune, harmonica playing with a sense of musicality, or guitar playing with finesse. But if you are interested in the 60s music scene or if you are simply a Dylan fan, you’ll like this portrait. The strength of the documentary is that it is “loose,” meaning that it spends time creating the milieu in which Dylan thrived (it is 3 ½ hours long). The other strength is that the film does not have strident points of view that it is pushing, but it does have aspects of Dylan’s life and career that it brings to the fore. Here are some. Bob was really lost and alienated when he come out of Minnesota as a young man, and his fascination with crazy people was understandable. Although Dylan may have wanted for musical talent, he was very smart. As he said, “I had an agile mind.” Woody Guthrie’s music was, as oft reported, a huge influence because, as the current Dylan explains, it had the sound, it was radical, and it said something. The arts scene in Greenwich Village was fluid, and Dylan was markedly influenced by the poets. Once Dylan started writing his own songs, he was obsessive. He sat at the typewriter pounding out poems, songs, stories, anything. When Dylan went electric and moved away from overt protest songs, the audience hostility was amazing. Dylan’s “back up” band was the Butterfield Blues Band, and Al Kooper (organ) finally quit because he was afraid. Dylan compliments The Band for having the courage to become his new band. Dylan fundamentally objected to the stupidity of stardom, so, for example, we see him refusing to give autographs (“If you needed my autograph, I would give it to you.”) and turning reporters’ bone-head questions back on them. Sometimes this turns into bull-headed stupidity on Dylan’s part. The touring visibly took its toll. After 1966, Dylan did not tour for 8 years. I knew a trememdous amount of this material before watching the documentary, and this reduced the chances of the film having a big impact on me. One of the best things to come out of the film came about when a record producer saw Maria Mulduar talking about Dylan, phoned her up and asked if she’d like to record a Dylan song, and got the response that she’d like to record an entire CD of Dylan’s love songs. Thus we have the superb “Heart of Mine” (2006), which tells me as much about Dylan as the documentary did. Jim Bell Spout Tag:interesting http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/interesting/MemberTagFilms.aspxinteresting
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]]>Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:17:04 GMT574667Tag Spout Tag:musician http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/musician/MemberTagFilms.aspxmusician
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]]>Fri, 13 Nov 2009 18:31:33 GMT9971530Tag Spout Tag:interview http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/interview/MemberTagFilms.aspxinterview
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]]>Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:04:19 GMT14771121Tag Spout Tag:songwriter http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/songwriter/MemberTagFilms.aspxsongwriter
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]]>Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:04:09 GMT59511Tag Spout Tag:careerretrospective http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/careerretrospective/MemberTagFilms.aspxcareerretrospective
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]]>Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:01:49 GMT104300Tag Spout Tag:folkrock http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/folkrock/MemberTagFilms.aspxfolkrock
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]]>Wed, 27 Aug 2008 13:02:38 GMT10000Tag Spout Tag:legend--famous-person http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/legend--famous-person/MemberTagFilms.aspxlegend--famous-person
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