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| Cate Blanchett with a lit cigarette and a Bob Dylan-curled, disorderly hairdo strikes a pensive pose on this sparse poster for Todd Haynes' I'm Not There |
I'm Not There is an atypical biopic of a great creative champ of our time, Bob Dylan: 6 different actors portray different aspects of the mysterious folk and rock music hero's life and long career.
I'm Not There is written by Oren Moverman (Face (2002)) and Californian master co-writer/director Todd Haynes (Velvet Goldmine (1998)).
I will admit that I didn't really understand this film. To think that this is supposedly Dylan, or 'the many Dylans'... Maybe I don't know Dylan well enough to truly get it, or maybe I'm Not There really is narratively in search of a structure as well as visually confusing.
I didn't get why Christian Bale (Heart of the Country (1987), miniseries) is cast as one of the actors portraying Dylan; the two seem so very different.
The reason that I still give Haynes' intangible and somewhat elitist concoction 3 hearts is for its poetic values, the music (many great Dylan songs are featured), and for Marcus Carl Franklin (But Not for Me (2015)), the black kid who plays another iteration of Dylan, and Bruce Greenwood (Cell 213 (2011)) who is also good in the film. Franklin sings, acts and speaks like something of an angel here.
I'm Not There surely was a lot of work to make. Watching it feels like an odd recess.
Related posts:
Todd Haynes: 2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
Top 10: Best 'box office success' movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
2015 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
Carol (2015) - Haynes' romance adaptation is a triumph
Mildred Pierce (2011, miniseries) - Haynes' spin on the Cain classic is a luxury
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 20 mil. $
Box office: 11.6 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.58 times the cost)
[I'm Not There premiered 3 September (Venice Film Festival, Italy) and runs 135 minutes. The title comes from the song I'm Not There by Dylan in 1967, which wasn't released until this film brought it to light. Haynes' fractured concept impressed Dylan to let him use his music in the film. A 7th character, a Chaplinesque tramp in Greenwich Village, was scrapped before filming began. 9 companies collaborated to make it. Shooting took place in Québec, Canada, and in Los Angeles, California from July 2006 - ?. The film opened #17 to a 730k $ first weekend in 130 theaters in North America, where it peaked #15 and in 149 cinemas (different weeks) and grossed disappointing 4 mil. $ (34.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 1.2 mil. $ (10.3 %) and France with 1 mil. $ (8.6 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to two notches better than this one. It was the last of Heath Ledger's films (he also plays Dylan in the film) to be released before his death by an overdose in January 2008. The film was nominated for 1 Oscar: Best Supporting Actress (Cate Blanchett, who also plays Dylan, the iteration most critics went wild over), lost to Tilda Swinton in Michael Clayton. It won a Golden Globe, was nominated for a BAFTA, won 2/5 Independent Spirit award nominations, 3/4 wins at Venice and many other honors. Haynes returned with Mildred Pierce (2011, miniseries), an episode of Enlightened (2013, TV-series) and theatrically with masterpiece Carol (2015). Franklin returned in Be Kind Rewind (2008). Dylan stated in 2012 that he thought I'm Not There was "all right", that it "looked good" and that the actors were "incredible". I'm Not There is certified fresh at 77 % with a 7/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of I'm Not There?
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