I saw a screening of the Dylan "biopic" (I guess that's loosely what you'd call it) I'm Not There last night. Very well done. A bit muddled and it tried my patience in a few spots, but I really liked it. I saw it with a couple ardent Dylan fans (one of whom actually purchased his childhood home) which aided in some explanation after the film ended, but even as somebody with barely a baseline knowledge of Dylan's music, I appreciated how Haynes approached the material. Cate Blanchett was stunning, and Heath Ledger was good as well. Christian Bale - whose work on film I normally admire - was off in this one. His mannerisms were too affected and didn't work for me. Overall, it was powerful and engaging. The storytelling style takes some getting used to, but worth if for fans of both film and music. It's neither linear nor truly accurate in its factual presentation of his life, but true to his music and artistic style. That much is hard to explain.

Nonetheless, I've been put off by his voice for so long but intrigued enough by his lyrics that I now want to explore his music some. I was recommended these albums as a starting point:


Blood on the Tracks (1975)


Love and Theft (2001)


Modern Times (2006)

I know its early into its release but I'm interested to hear what other Dylan fans think of the film, its premise, how the music is represented, etc.
[Edited 11/8/07 11:31am]

So, yeah...seriously. No Dylan fans? He's like a for-real legend and shit. So famous even Olivia Newton-John covered one of his tunes.

http://www.youtube.com/wa...wTYhnQgJjA

...
[Edited 11/9/07 16:10pm]

You really need some 60s Dylan as well - anything up until Blonde on Blonde is pretty darn great. There's gotta be something in that Minnesota water!

RipHer2Shreds said:

I recently got into him. My parents wanted to see him live and right before the concert, he (well, probably Sony) relased the "Dylan" sets. I bought the no thrills 3 disc one and I'm digging it. It's just a journey to listen to him from the early sixties until now (still making good records...more bluesy). I'd like to see this movie.

I wanna see it

I am DYING to see this movie, being both a Christine Vachon (producer) fan and a big Bob Dylan fan. Maybe I'll see it tomorrow. I saw the trailer and was like

Can't wait! I'll check back in with my review.

heartbeatocean said:

Christine Vachon was there in person to intro the film and take questions afterwards. She's done a few of my favorite films, notably Far From Heaven and Boys Don't Cry.

Modern Times is okay, but you'd be better off checking out Time Out Of Mind, The Bootleg Series Vol 1-3 (a triple album), and Volume 5: The Rolling Thunder Revue. As for the film it sounds like pretentious crap. I doubt if I'll bother with it. Still, Dylan is the greatest recording artist of the twentieth century. There are jaw dropping songs scattered throughout his catalogue.

RipHer2Shreds said:

As for listening suggestions, i'm more a fan of 60s era Dylan...




...which shows the transition from his Folk beginnings to (controversial at the time) Folk/Rock.


I'm also going to throw in...



...Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits because it includes the great Positively Fourth Street.

At the time, the song was only released as a non-LP single.
One of my Top 5 Bob Dylan songs.


tA

Tribal Disorder

http://www.soundclick.com...dID=182431

theAudience said:

Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' bout!
[Edited 11/10/07 12:00pm]

midnightmover said:

I would also recommend Time Out of Mind over both "Love And Theft" and Modern Times. The flick looks like pretentious nonsense to me, too (although, in the clip I saw, Cate Blanchett's early-'60s Dylan impersonation is uncanny).

The recommendations I got weren't a "best of," more of a "see what you like out of these and go from there."

RipHer2Shreds said:

Awesome. Fuck, I probably missed her SF visit if there was one. Talk about an amazing filmography!

1991: Poison (Todd Haynes)
1992: Swoon (Tom Kalin)
1994: (as executive producer) Go Fish (Rose Troche)
1995: Stonewall (Nigel Finch)
1995: Safe (Todd Haynes)
1995: Kids (Larry Clark)
1996: I Shot Andy Warhol (Mary Harron)
1998: Happiness (Todd Solondz)
1998: Velvet Goldmine (Todd Haynes)
1999: Boys Don't Cry (Kimberly Peirce)
2001: Hedwig and the Angry Inch (John Cameron Mitchell)
2001: 'Series 7: The Contenders (Daniel Minaham)
2001: Storytelling (Todd Solondz)
2002: One Hour Photo (Mark Romanek)
2002: Far from Heaven (Todd Haynes)
2003: Party Monster (Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato)
2003: Camp (Todd Graff)
2003: The Company (Robert Altman)
2004: A Home at the End of the World (Michael Mayer)
2004: A Dirty Shame (John Waters)
2006: The Notorious Bettie Page (Mary Harron)
2006: Mrs. Harris (Phyllis Nagy)
2006: Infamous (Douglas McGrath)
2007: An American Crime (Tommy O'Haver)
2007: I'm Not There (Todd Haynes)

I love her book Shooting to Kill too. Very inspiring.

I LOVED IT!!!!

Cate Blanchett rocks it!!!

My next favorite portrayals were Ben Whishaw and the little boy, Marcus Carl Franklin. The others didn't hit me too strongly. (For those of you who don't know, the film takes Bob Dylan's life and fractures it into six different characters, played by different actors, each given a different name)

I thought the filmmaking style was stunning! One of my faves this year.

heartbeatocean said:

I haven't seen the flick (and probably won't - looks like pretentious bullshit to me), but - based on the clips I've seen - I'm predicting Blanchett for Best Actress.

I'll definitely see this movie at some point. Dylan deserves every accolade he gets. There is no one that even comes close to the talent he has as a song writer.

Ace said:

Velvet Goldmine is pretty much my favorite movie about rock n' roll ever, so I'm definitely going to catch this one...

I am definately going to see 'I'm Not There', because I'm a fan, but I don't have a good feeling about it with all the celebrities in it. I'm very curious though.


I would recommend as a starting point these 4 albums:

- Another Side Of Bob Dylan ('64 young folk Dylan)

- Highway 61 Revisited ('65 electric Dylan)

- Blood On The Tracks ('75 lyrical perfect Dylan)

- Modern Times ('06 bluesy old Dylan with a raspy, almost broke voice but still great)


Then you'll have his best albums from almost all his different periodes.
Avoid the 80's at first, except Oh Mercy and the song Blind Wille McTell, great stuff.



[Edited 11/28/07 14:05pm]

BT11 said:

I'm not sure what this means. There aren't celebrities in it; there are actors. Good ones at that.

Ace said:

And I think it's pretty pretentious to sum up a movie you've not even seen. Blanchett's very good in it (as she always is), but it's a supporting role. She does an amazing job in the role, a lot funnier than I thought it would have been.

RipHer2Shreds said:

u must b on drugs or something. It's full of celebrities.

Rightly said:

u must b on kool-aid. it's full of good actors who happen to be famous. there's a difference between celebrity and talent; one is not exclusive to the other.

RipHer2Shreds said:

aren't you a blubbering lump of haemorrhoids!?

With that attitude I bet you never get away from your tv set!
And your junk food. Holywodd punta!

Rightly said:

Is there any other kind?

RipHer2Shreds said:

err, hollywood punta is a similar kind.

BT11 said:

I kind of know what you mean, but every film nowadays is chock full of celebrities, not just one of them, but five or six! Honestly I didn't know any of the actors except for Richard Gere (who was much more Richard Gere than Bob Dylan to me ) and Cate Blanchett. But what a fabulous call to have a woman play Bob, how can you beat that?

RipHer2Shreds said:

Yeah, it's a very amiable script. I love the part where she comes out rolling on the grass with the Beatles.

oh, and the woman who plays his wife, whatever her name is...