I'm Not There [2007]

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Primary Contributor : Cate Blanchett
Primary Contributor : Ben Whishaw

Product Details

Actor : Cate Blanchett, Ben Whishaw, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, Marcus Carl Franklin
Format : PAL
Binding : DVD
EAN : 5014437953339
Product Group : DVD
Region Code : 2
Release Date : 2008-07-14
Running Time : 130minutes
Studio : Paramount Home Entertainment

ASIN : B00147AJ8G

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review

Unapologetically audacious, I'm Not There is more post-modern puzzle than by-the-numbers biopic. A title card sets the scene: "Inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan." Yet the film features no figure by that name. Instead, writer/director Todd Haynes presents six characters, each incarnating different stages in the artist's career. Perfume's Ben Whishaw, a black-clad poet, serves as a slippery sort of narrator. The action begins with the wanderings of an 11-year-old black runaway named "Woody Guthrie" (Marcus Carl Franklin)--his raucous duet with Richie Havens on "Tombstone Blues" is a highlight--and ends with a silver-haired Billy the Kid (Richard Gere) watching the Old West die before his eyes. In the interim, there's the folk singer-turned-preacher (Christian Bale), the actor (Heath Ledger), and the rock star (Cate Blanchett, who has Don't Look Back Dylan down to a science). The chronology is purposefully non-linear, and editor Jay ! Rabinowitz cuts rapidly, Jean-Luc Godard-style, between cinéma vérité black-and-white and saturated colour, Richard Lester-like slapstick and Fellini-inspired surrealism (Ed Lachman served as cinematographer).

What makes the picture fun for Dylan fans--and potentially frustrating for neophytes--is that every album and movie bears an alternate title. Ledger's Robbie, for instance, stars in "Grain of Sand," actually a reference to the Pete Seeger song. As in Haynes' glam rock reverie Velvet Goldmine, the trickery involves the entire cast. While Julianne Moore plays former lover Alice, a dead ringer for Joan Baez, Michelle Williams embodies elusive scenester Coco, i.e. Edie Sedgwick. If I'm Not There is less affecting than Control, the year's other big music film, it rewards repeat viewings like few biographical features. The soundtrack mixes originals with covers, like Jim James's heartfelt "Goin' to Acapulco." --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Special Features

- A conversation with Todd Haynes

- The making of the soundtrack

- A tribute to Heath Ledger

Synopsis

Todd Haynes (Velvet Goldmine, Far from Heaven) delivers this dazzling, experimental take on the life of popular music's most revered and enigmatic artist: Bob Dylan. In keeping with the impossible-to-pin-down nature of Dylan himself, Haynes chose to cast six different actors to portray several incarnations of the groundbreaking troubadour. The result is a challenging, sprawling work that spans several decades and genres. Woody (Marcus Carl Franklin) is a young black child with a folk music obsession; Jack Rollins (Christian Bale) is an upstart folksinger whose protest songs have ignited an entire generation; Arthur (Ben Wishaw) is a Rimbaud-esque figure who has begun to embrace a new form of lyrical poetry; Robbie (Heath Ledger) is a well-known actor whose marriage to the lovely Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) crumbles under the weight of his lifestyle; Billy (Richard Gere) is a slippery frontiersman who echoes Dylan's infatuation with the Old West and American folklore; and, finally, there is the substance-abusing, confrontational Jude (Cate Blanchett), who represents Dylan in the turbulent mid-1960s.

Much in the same way that Dylan appropriated a vast array of musical styles to create his own vernacular, Haynes does the same thing with I'm Not There, using his expansive knowledge of movie history to pay homage to a variety of movements and genres (Godard, Fellini, Lester, etc.). The typically extraordinary cinematographer Edward Lachman outdoes even himself this time around, incorporating so many different visual styles that it's impossible to decide which is the most beautiful. While the cast all fare well in their roles, it is Cate Blanchett who runs away with the picture, proving once again that she is one of the finest actors the movies have ever seen.

From The Studio

I'm Not There is an unconventional journey into the life and times of Bob Dylan. Six actors portray Dylan as a series of shifting personae - from the public to the private to the fantastical - weaving together a rich and colourful portrait of this ever-elusive icon.

Customer Reviews

Pretentious Tosh (2008-08-05)

Complete pretentious twaddle. Fell asleep after ten minutes. Dont watch this film you will never get the time back. I only gave it one star because Amazon won't let me give it zero.

Almost amazing. (2008-07-19)

I love Dylan and when I heard that a movie of his life was going to be made I was caught between excitement and anxiety. Anxiety becasue biopics are usually so naff they undermine the artists they try to portray. But Haynes nearly - nearly - succeeds where so many have failed. Firstly the multiple Dylans is a stroke genius. Blanchette and Ledger stand out and make the film worth watching by themselves. However, its biggest strength is its biggest weakness. It's not long before you become lost in the stories and the various narratives. It becomes very difficult to seperate the different strands and Richard Gere's portrayal is just baffeling while Bale's is cheesey in the extreme(but perhaps that's the point? Hmm, I wonder.) Nevertheless it's beautifully shot, funny, intense, tragic and oh so many more adjectives that I can't think of right now. For Hollywood this is a remarkably inventive movie that is a must for Bob fans...though others may not get it.

Very challenging !! (2008-07-16)

This film has been described as challenging and sprawling, although, interminable, disjointed and pretentious could also be applied. It's the first movie I've ever walked out of after what seemed like several gruelling hours. Cate Blanchett's acting is brilliant and is the only 'accessable' thing in the whole film. You'll watch it if you're a Dylan fan, but probably only once.

Extraordinary and Unique (2008-06-03)

Saw this last night and I was spellbound. It won't be everyone's cup of tea but I adored it. Cate Blanchet, Ben Whishaw, Christian Bale, and the very young Marcus Carl Franklin (superb) were all outstanding. The impressionistic film portrayed the times and Dylan's world beautifully. What can I say - keep an open mind and try to see this on a large screen with good sound. Otherwise you may not "be there".

the old, weird america (2008-05-26)

I'd really just like to say a word or two to those who persist in describing the Richard Gere segment of this film as its weakest point: please go back and listen to The Basement Tapes, pay attention to the sleevenotes, and if you've got the time and intellectual energy, read Greil Marcus's Invisible Republic. You will recognise all the strange characters who populate that eerie place that seems to hover between this world and some other (Marcus's Invisible Republic, or The Old, Weird America), and you will see why Gere's character is so crucial to this kaleidoscopic view of Dylan's art. I found this part of Haynes's admirably ambitious movie to be the most thrilling, and Jim James's otherworldly rendition of Goin' To Acapulco the most stunning piece of music (outside Dylan's own, naturally). Much of Dylan's best work seems always to be just beyond our grasp, which is partly why it is so compelling, but there are gateways to a deeper understanding available to us if we can be bothered to look for them. Like all gateways they can let us in or they can keep us out. Our choice.

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