NEW YORK The soon to be released Todd Haynes movie I m Not There, with six actors playing different versions of Bob Dylan, is already one of the most controversial films of the year. Adding to the anticipation: A cover story in The New York Times Magazine coming this Sunday titled, of all things, This Is Not a Bob Dylan Movie, by Robert Sullivan. Indeed, Sullivan declares that the Dylan film isn t about Dylan.
That s what s going to be so difficult for people to understand. E P got a look at the massive piece today. I don t know that it does make sense, says one of the six Dylans, Cate Blanchett, adding, I don t think the film even strives to make sense, in a way.
Richard Gere, another star, comments: It's kind of, well, cosmic. Dylan declined to be interviewed for the story. Harvey Weinstein, who is releasing the film (there were once rumors he had major problems with it), says, Nothing s ever been attempted like this before .
I think that in this movie there are scenes and episodes that are amongst the best filmmaking that has taken place in American film .There are other sections that are going to be a little bumpy. He boasts that he will get Blanchett an Oscar nomination or kill himself.
A friend of Haynes, novelist Jon Raymond, tells Sullivan that it is the story of a personality and a nation .It s a movie about Bob Dylan as the president of America. Critics who have seen the fractured movie at film festivals have been split Sullivan suggests that some will find it a kind of gorgeous indulgence, a bizarre experiment -- although many agree that Blanchett may get an Oscar nod for her portrayal of wild-haired electric Dylan.
Other Dylans include Christian Bale, Heath Ledger and Gere. Julianna Moore plays a Joan Baez character. Colin Farrell and Adrien Brody were on, then off, the film.
Blanchett says, I think he was really smart in getting a woman to play Dylan, but Haynes won her over for the role after they talked about hair a lot. Her character in the film is actually named "Jude Quinn." Haynes, who got Oscar attention himself with Far From Heaven, was the first to secure rights to Dylan s life and music for a non-documentary.
He spent several years on the risky project, all detailed in the article. He reveals that he had to write a one-page pitch to secure Dylan s approval at the outset and opened it with a quote from Rimbaud: I is another. The film s title, I m Not There, comes from Dylan s most obscure great song, recorded during his Basement Tapes period in Woodstock, N.
Y. but still available only on bootlegs. Sullivan does not describe the song.
For those who want to seek it out: It has a haunting melody and off-the-cuff lyrics, made up as Dylan sang them, sometimes nonsensical, other times achingly moving. Those who feel the new movie is not really about Dylan might dub it "He's Not There." is editor and a longtime fan of "I'm Not There" -- the song.
He has also visited Big Pink.
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