Arts & Entertainment

Dissecting Dylan from page C7

ity that is the perfect counterpart to the
music of each period in Dylan's career and
at the same time links all the personae to
a central humanity.
In its own oddball way, I'm Not There is
among the best pieces of music criticism
I've seen or read on the subject of Bob
Dylan. It is a jigsaw puzzle of a film, with
its various pieces scattered around the
table by a deft, if quirky hand. It's a film
that rewards close attention and deserves
repeated viewings.
The film's one significant omission is
the place of Judaism in Dylan's life. Asked
about that gap at the New York Film
Festival, Todd Haynes replied, "That is
the most secret and well-preserved of his
personae. I think Dylan's relationship to
his Jewishness is much more private than
any of the other roles he has played; it's
kept close to his relationship with his fam-
ily life, and I don't think we're supposed to
know more about it than that."
As Moverman said in a recent telephone
interview,"[Judaism] is the one central
thing in his entire biography. Whether it is
overt or not, it is there. Even the Christian
period occurred as a reaction against his
Jewishness; and that lasted only three
years and the next thing you know, Dylan
is doing Chabad telethon appearances."
One could argue, I suppose, that
Moverman and Haynes are biased.
Moverman is an Israeli, now living in
Brooklyn, but someone who says that
"being Jewish and Israeli are a huge part
of my identity:"
Haynes is half-Jewish by his mother,
and when it is pointed out to him during
an interview that halachically he is a Jew,
he sits upright on a sofa and says with a
huge grin, "And I'm damned proud of it."
Haynes acknowledges that he didn't
have a religious upbringing. Raised in the
San Fernando Valley in a largely Jewish
community, he notes, "I never felt like
a member of a minority group. I didn't
understand jokes about Barbra Streisand's
nose; I thought she was glamorous and
sexy"
Although he is not religious, Haynes
feels that he is deeply imbued with a sense
of his own Jewishness.
"I identify it and its manifestations
through an innate sense of the role of the
entertainer and the comic; the origins of
popular theater and the role of humor-
ist are at their heart Jewish phenomena,
and the leftist historical associations, the
commitment to progressiveness that are
the historical associations with Judaism in

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November 22 . 2007

Charlotte Gainsbourg as the fictional Claire (who recalls both Dylan girlfriend Suze Rotolo and first spouse Sara Lownds Dylan)
with director Todd Haynes on the set of I'm Not There

America," he says.
He adds, "I see that in Dylan as well. For
all his desire to efface himself, he is the
natural inheritor of the role of the Jewish
performer. It's there in his wit, his politics
and his performances, the way he throws
himself into them."
The last factor, Haynes admits, is what
separates him the most from the subject
of I'm Not There.
"I don't identify with that aspect of
Dylan;' he says with a wry grin.
"That's the big difference between us.
As a performer, he is insistent on living
in the moment, and a film director's job
is about as far from that as possible. He's
not reflective in nature; I am. The job of a
director of necessity requires all kinds of
planning and preparation."
In fact, Haynes believes that it is his
inclination toward reflectiveness that is
his own most Jewish trait. "The history of
Jewish thinking is analytical and reflec-
tive," he says.
That would certainly describe his
approach to filmmaking.
Moverman suspects that making the
Dylan film "has brought Todd closer to
his Jewish side. I think a lot of the themes
have to do with the fact that Dylan is
Jewish. It doesn't appear directly, but it
hovers over the entire film, especially if
you [the viewer] are also Jewish!'

Newport, 1963-1965
Murray Lerner has been filming great pop
music performances for several decades
now and in recent years has begun to
make the results more widely available for
both theatrical and home video use.
His Dylan film is centered on the singer-
songwriter's appearances at the 1963
and 1965 Newport folk festivals. Each of
those performances represents a pivotal
moment in Dylan's career.
The first is his coronation as the "king
of the protest singers:' a label that Haynes
makes clear Dylan loathed. The second
performance is one of the most famous of
Dylan's career, the moment when he first
played with an electric band, tossing aside
the too-heavy crown of folksong royalty in
exchange for the colorful robes of rock 'n'
roll prophet.
In short, if you wanted to see two early
Dylan performances preserved, these
would be on the short list.
Lerner's method is utter simplicity. He
plants the camera where it can see the
performer, usually just far enough away
that you can see him in the larger physical
context of the stage, cuts to different cam-
era angles sparingly, never imposing his
own rhythmic choices on the music, and
shows us audience reactions only between
numbers. The result is an intense focus on
the artist as creation takes place and, in
this case, the results are compelling.

'65 Revisited
Finally there is 65 Revisited, a frequently
delightful look back to the Dylan who
is on the cusp of plugging in an electric
guitar.
Composed of outtakes from Don't Look
Back, this variegated footage reveals a
more innocent and quite frankly charm-
ing young man — very different from
the occasionally obnoxious one seen in
Pennebacker's original film — and gives
us the gift of a half-dozen excellent solo
performances from Dylan's 1965 England
tour.
He has not yet begun to reinvent him-
self, but this is a last glimpse of the kid
from Hibbing, Minn., about to become a
rock 'n' roll prophet.

I'm Not There, directed by Todd
Haynes, is playing at a Landmark
Theatre; (248) 263-2111. The killer
soundtrack album, featuring some of
the best Dylan covers ever, is on the
Sony label.
The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob
Dylan, Newport, 1963-1965 is avail-
able on DVD from Sony. 65 Revisited
is available as part of a box set of
the remastered Don't Look Back
from New Video (www.newvideo.
corn).

