Arts & Entertainment
Photos courtesy Jonathan Wenk/TWC 2007
The faces of Dylan:
1. Cate Blanchett as Jude
2. Richard Gere as Billy
3. Christian Bale as Jack
4. Marcus Carl Franklin as Woody
5. Heath Ledger as Robbie
6. Ben Whishaw as Arthur
Filmmaker's
I'm Not There
is a terrific piece
of music criticism
on an enigmatic
20th-century icon.
George Robinson
Special to the Jewish News
B
ob Dylan's Jewish identity has long been a source of
conflict and controversy among his fans and observers.
His short-lived conversion to born-again Christianity
dismayed many, heartened a few and confused all.
But at least two commentators are certain that Jewishness and
Judaism are the core of the former Robert Zimmerman's beliefs
and music.
Todd Haynes and Oren Moverman, the director-writer and
co-writer of the new Dylan biopic I'm Not There, which opened
Wednesday, Nov. 21, at the Main Art Theatre in Royal Oak, are
convinced after living with their project for many years that Bob
Dylan remains a Jew.
I'm Not There is part of a mini-floodlet of new Dylan film
material that is hitting theaters and DVD stores this month. Also
being shown for the first time is Murray Lerner's compendium
of concert footage from Dylan's folkie days, The Other Side of the
Mirror: Bob Dylan, Newport, 1963-1965, and an hour long collec-
-
tion of outtakes from D.A. Pennebaker's seminal Don't Look Back,
called 65 Revisited.
But I'm Not There is stirring the most controversy. As practical-
ly everyone seems to know by now, Haynes' film divides Dylan's
life into six personae, each represented by a different actor.
We see Dylan progress in fragments from a 12-year-old
African-American boy (the wonderfully serious Marcus Carl
Franklin) through a soft-spoken poet (Ben Wishaw), an earnest
folkie who eventually is reborn as a Christian preacher (Christian
Bale), a troubled actor, father and husband (Heath Ledger), a
snarky pop star (Cate Blanchett) and a mellowed outlaw (Richard
Gere).
For each of these aspects of Dylan, Haynes devises a different
visual style, ranging from the black-and-white faux-cinema-ver-
ite-cum-Fellini of the Blanchett sequences to the amber twilight
of the Gere passages.
By all rights, this should feel and be gimmicky, even foolish.
But Haynes invests each of his "Dylans" with a powerful interior-
Dissecting Dylan on page C12
November 22 • 2007
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