Author Topic: I'm Not There (the Dylan movie starring Heath)  (Read 20843 times)

Offline MaineWriter

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Re: I'm Not There (the Dylan movie starring Heath)
« Reply #20 on: August 15, 2007, 09:42:45 am »
Another article from USA Today:

Film splits Dylan's personality among six actors

By Anthony Breznican, USA TODAY
How many actors does a movie need before it re-creates Bob Dylan?

The answer isn't blowing in the wind — it's six. That's the unusual approach filmmakers took for I'm Not There.

The movie, opening Nov. 21 in limited release, uses an abstract concept to chronicle the life of Dylan, whose own freewheeling philosophy toward music made him one of his generation's most innovative and mysterious artists.

Though films such as Ray and Walk the Line have rejuvenated the musical-biography genre in recent years, I'm Not There breaks all the rules of reality to craft a more poetic image of its subject.

Director and co-writer Todd Haynes (Velvet Goldmine, Far From Heaven) says he wanted to make "something more than the traditional biopic" by presenting a series of vignettes that differ in tone and style as much as the actors differ from one another: "It's not a literal retelling of Dylan's life. We're accentuating the radical changes in point of view and style and genre and identity."

Dylan is represented as a young boy by Marcus Carl Franklin, who is black. In an eliptical turn, Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain) portrays an actor who plays a Dylan-esque character, and British actor Ben Wishaw (Perfume) portrays Dylan fused with the 19th-century poet Arthur Rimbaud.

Christian Bale (Batman Begins) stars as Dylan in two different sections of the film — Dylan's protest-music period, typified by songs such as The Times They Are a-Changin', and the singer's religious phase exploring gospel music.

Richard Gere plays Dylan in what Haynes describes as a kind of "hippie Western" that incorporates fictional characters from Dylan songs and represents periods of his life when he vanished from public view. "We turned Dylan into his own obsessions and took him a step further than he was in real life," Haynes says. (Dylan wrote music for and co-starred in Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid.)

In Dylan's mid-1960s phase, getting booed by some audiences for shifting from folk to electric rock, I'm Not There features him portrayed by Oscar-winning actress Cate Blanchett. The glossy black-and-white segment echoes the magical realism of Federico Fellini's 8½.

"That film is about the hounded artist, " Haynes says. "And around that time, Dylan was being hounded: Why isn't he protesting? Why is he being so weird, and why are the songs so incomprehensible?"

I'm Not There is a tribute to Dylan's protean personality more than an unmasking, he adds.

"It's partly a desire to figure him out and partly a desire to protect something that will always be enigmatic," Haynes says. "We want to know where the source of his creative energies comes from, but we don't want to destroy it."
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Re: I'm Not There (the Dylan movie starring Heath)
« Reply #21 on: August 16, 2007, 07:36:14 am »
From the Hollywood Reporter:

New York Film Festival sked ends at 'Persepolis'
De Palma 'bombshell' also set
By Gregg Goldstein

Aug 16, 2007


"Persepolis"


NEW YORK -- Sony Pictures Classics' animated coming-of-age film "Persepolis" will close the 45th annual New York Film Festival, which announced Wednesday an eclectic lineup featuring new works from Sidney Lumet, Gus Van Sant and, in his NYFF debut, Brian De Palma.

"There really was an unusually high number of high-quality American films," said Film Society of Lincoln Center program director Richard Pena, who celebrates his 20th year heading the NYFF selection committee. "I've often wondered why directors didn't make a more creative use of genre, and this year they have. It's also been an incredibly strong year for directors who've delivered the best films they've done in a while."

Pena singled out Lumet's ThinkFilm thriller "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" and De Palma's "Redacted," an Iraq War drama from Magnolia Pictures. He said the latter film "will really be a bombshell. People will be upset and offended by (its depiction of) how some U.S. soldiers are treated and what some U.S. soldiers have done."

The committee chose Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud's "Persepolis" -- a French adaptation of Satrapi's autobiographical graphic novels about growing up in Iran -- because the Festival de Cannes winner is "a truly expressive work of art," Pena said. "You feel the writer is baring her soul."

IFC Films has four projects in the lineup, all from its VOD/theatrical simultaneous releasing program IFC First Take. They include two more Cannes winners -- Van Sant's adaptation of Blake Nelson's novel, "Paranoid Park," about a skateboarding teen involved in a murder, and Cristian Mungiu's Romanian abortion drama "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days." Two of its other entries also screened at Cannes: Hou Hsiao-hsien's French family drama "The Flight of the Red Balloon" and Catherine Breillat's adaptation of Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly's "The Last Mistress."

Film geeks will relish the North American premiere of Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner: The Definitive Cut," a 25th anniversary edition of the sci-fi classic with some further tweaks made to the 1992 director's cut.

Festgoers will get a double dose of Bob Dylan with Murray Lerner's docu "The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival, 1963-1965" and Todd Haynes' much-discussed Weinstein Co. pseudo-biopic "I'm Not There." The former contains footage of the infamous "Dylan goes electric" concerts, and the latter features such actors as Heath Ledger, Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett portraying various incarnations of Dylan's persona.

Other notable films include Lee Chang-dong's Cannes-winning Korean drama "Secret Sunshine"; Noah Baumbach's romantic comedy "Margot at the Wedding," for Paramount Vantage; Spanish director Juan Antonio Bayona's feature debut, "The Orphanage," from Picturehouse and producer Guillermo del Toro; Ira Sachs' comedy "Married Life"; Abel Ferrara's Italian-U.S. screwball comedy "Go Go Tales"; John Landis' comic docu "Mr. Warmth, The Don Rickles Project"; and Peter Bogdanovich's 238-minute rockumentary, "Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin' Down a Dream."

The Film Society previously announced Wes Anderson's "The Darjeeling Limited" from Fox Searchlight as its opening-night film and the Coen brothers' "No Country for Old Men" from Miramax Films and Paramount Vantage as its centerpiece -- two of three films (including "Margot at the Wedding") from producer Scott Rudin.

The fest runs Sept. 28-Oct. 14 at the Frederick P. Rose Hall in the Time Warner Center.

A complete list of New York Film Festival films follows:
"4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," directed by Cristian Mungiu, Romania, IFC First Take
"Actresses," Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, France
"Alexandra," Alexander Sokurov, Russia, Rezo Films
"The Axe in the Attic," Ed Pincus and Lucia Small, U.S.
"Before the Devil Knows You're Dead," Sidney Lumet, U.S., ThinkFilm
"Blade Runner: The Definitive Cut," Ridley Scott, U.S., Warner Bros.
"Calle Santa Fe," Carmen Castillo, France
"The Darjeeling Limited," Wes Anderson, U.S., Fox Searchlight
"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly," Julian Schnabel, France/U.S., Miramax Films
"Fados," Carlos Saura, Spain/Portugal
"The Flight of the Red Balloon," Hou Hsiao-hsien, France, IFC First Take
"A Girl Cut in Two," Claude Chabrol, France
"Go Go Tales," Abel Ferrara, Italy/U.S.
"Hamlet," Sven Gade and Heinz Schall, Germany
"I Just Didn't Do It," Masayuki Suo, Japan
"I'm Not There," Todd Haynes, U.S., the Weinstein Co.
"In the City of Sylvia," Jose Luis Guerin, Spain/France
"The Iron Horse," John Ford, U.S., 20th Century Fox
"The Last Mistress," Catherine Breillat, France, IFC First Take
"Leave Her to Heaven," John M. Stahl, U.S.
"The Man From London," Bela Tarr, Hungary/France/Germany
"Margot at the Wedding," Noah Baumbach, U.S., Paramount Vantage
"Married Life," Ira Sachs, U.S.
"Mr. Warmth, The Don Rickles Project," John Landis, U.S.
"No Country for Old Men," Joel and Ethan Coen, U.S. Miramax Films/Paramount Vantage
"The Orphanage," Juan Antonio Bayona, Spain, Picturehouse
"The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan Live at the Newport Folk Festival, 1963-1965," Murray Lerner, U.S.
"Paranoid Park," Gus Van Sant, U.S., IFC First Take
"Persepolis," Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud, France, Sony Pictures Classics
"Redacted," Brian De Palma, U.S., Magnolia Pictures
"The Romance of Astrea and Celadon," Eric Rohmer, France, Rezo Films
"Secret Sunshine," Lee Chang-dong, Korea
"Silent Light," Carlos Reygadas, Mexico
"Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin' Down a Dream," Peter Bogdanovich, U.S.
"Underworld," Josef von Sternberg, U.S.
"Useless," Jia Zhang-ke, Hong Kong

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3ic97cb7dc4d1fa8568782fd00847e143d


On a side note: I have Persepolis here to read. I would also like to see that Tom Petty rockumentary. 238 minutes. Wow!
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Offline Penthesilea

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Re: I'm Not there
« Reply #22 on: August 21, 2007, 04:16:08 am »
I’m Not There trailer (preceded by random commercial, so be patient)

Thanks for posting this darlin  :-*

Ok. I caught four sights of Heath:

- pretty at the beginning; on a stage (?), playing guitar, a woman to his right and both throw their heads back

- a very short glimpse between the b+w Cate Blanchett parts (where she sits on a sofa); he's walking along a row of houses with his arm around a woman (I think the same woman as in the before mentioned scene)

- in a car, shot taken from the right side, in profile and with sunglasses

- towards the end, in front of a window with a lamellae shade; with a fuzzy beard; the screen held in brown/sepia tones; he's looking down as if he was reading something. This one is easy to identify, because it's a full frontal portrait shot.

Anyone see more of Heath? Or disagrees with what I saw?


I liked the trailer. I think it's well-done becaue it fulfills its purpose: it makes me want to see the movie.


Offline MaineWriter

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Re: I'm Not there
« Reply #23 on: August 22, 2007, 07:59:30 am »


Does anyone know which Dylan that Heath will be playing?  It looks to me like the early 60s one. 
This movie should be interesting. 

From the USA Today article, a bit further down on this thread:

In an eliptical turn, Heath Ledger (Brokeback Mountain) portrays an actor who plays a Dylan-esque character, and British actor Ben Wishaw (Perfume) portrays Dylan fused with the 19th-century poet Arthur Rimbaud.


L
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Re: I'm Not There (the Dylan movie starring Heath)
« Reply #24 on: August 22, 2007, 08:19:04 am »
From the New York Times:

August 21, 2007
Dylan Movie to Open Like a Rolling Premiere
By JOHN ANDERSON

Imagine you’re a film distributor, handling an experimental movie by one of the country’s most iconoclastic directors. The subject is an enigmatic occasional recluse who is being portrayed by four actors, an actress and a 13-year-old boy. Where do you open that film?

If you’re very lucky, you get to book it at Film Forum, perhaps the most exclusive art-house cinema in Manhattan.

Now what do you do with a movie that stars Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Christian Bale and Heath Ledger; whose subject is Bob Dylan; and whose director is the Oscar-nominated Todd Haynes?

Same answer. Same film. Which is what’s making the planned Nov. 21 release of “I’m Not There,” Mr. Haynes’s rumination on Mr. Dylan’s lives and times, something of a curiosity.

In addition to Film Forum, the film’s distributor, the Weinstein Company, will be opening the movie in just three other theaters, one more in New York and two in Los Angeles, giving it the kind of debut that might be afforded a Mexican documentary. Even “Velvet Goldmine” — the previous Weinstein-Haynes collaboration, about the British glam-rock scene of the 1970s, which starred an unknown Jonathan Rhys Meyers — began in 85 theaters in 1998.

But Harvey Weinstein, the company’s co-chairman, said the slow rollout was the best way to nurture an unconventional, nonlinear movie like “I’m Not There,” in which the above-mentioned stars play Mr. Dylan at particular stages of his life. Shot in styles that correspond to each Dylan epoch, “I’m Not There” sometimes looks like “A Hard Day’s Night,” elsewhere like “McCabe and Mrs. Miller,” with Mr. Dylan’s life being imbued with mythic American qualities.

“With a movie like this you have to build it,” said Mr. Weinstein, who founded the company with his brother, Bob, two years ago after an acrimonious split from the Walt Disney Company saw them relinquish control of Miramax. “I don’t think you can go out on 500 screens. The reason for Film Forum is you go where the best word of mouth is on the movie. I like the movie; I think it’s adventurous. The audience is going to have to work — work in a good way.”

Mr. Weinstein said that a similar approach had worked for two of Miramax’s biggest successes. “Good Will Hunting” opened in New York and Los Angeles and eventually brought in nearly $140 million at the domestic box office, while “Chicago” began the same way and grossed $170 million. Those films had larger openings, however: “Good Will Hunting” (with the rising stars Ben Affleck and Matt Damon) in 7 theaters, “Chicago” in 77.

“I’m not saying this movie’s going to come anywhere near those,” Mr. Weinstein said, “but I have a tendency to start small and go big. If we threw this movie out wide, I don’t know what it would do. I think we have to start somewhere.”

The “somewhere” means Film Forum, “a real cathedral of cinema” according to Mr. Haynes’s longtime producer, Christine Vachon, which has presented the premieres of work by Ingmar Bergman, Jean-Luc Godard, Hal Hartley, Claude Chabrol, Spike Lee and Lars von Trier, among many others. But rarely does it get star-laden films like “I’m Not There.” And for it to agree to have another theater share a New York premiere is a rare move.

“We did it with ‘Saraband,’ ” said Karen Cooper, Film Forum’s director, referring to Mr. Bergman’s last American release. “Lincoln Plaza opened it the same day, and I don’t think either of us were happy. I thought the same crowd that lined up to see ‘Scenes From a Marriage’ would want to see ‘Scenes From a Divorce.’ I was wrong.”

Ms. Cooper said that she was offered shared openings all the time and regularly turned them down. But she said that she and Mike Maggiore, Film Forum’s programmer and publicist, decided the Haynes film was so remarkable that they would not mind sharing it with Lincoln Plaza. In Los Angeles, “I’m Not There” will open at the Westside Pavilion and ArcLight Cinemas.

Conventional movie-business wisdom says that if a film fails to catch fire at its opening theater, it will not move much farther. But Mr. Weinstein said there was “not a chance” he would not take this film into more theaters and cities, regardless of its fate on the coasts. “I’m going to play every major city in the United States with this movie,” he said. “I’ll play 100 cities, at least.”

He said he also planned to position Ms. Blanchett, who plays Mr. Dylan during his “Blonde on Blonde” phase, for an Oscar. (Mr. Bale corresponds to “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” Mr. Ledger to “John Wesley Harding.”)

“I may be jumping the gun,” Mr. Weinstein said, “but if Cate Blanchett doesn’t get nominated, I’ll shoot myself.”

Films considered Oscar-worthy are released in various ways. Last year, Pedro Almodóvar’s “Volver” and its star, Penélope Cruz, were seen as possible contenders, but Sony Pictures Classics opened the film in only six theaters. (It ultimately grossed close to $13 million.) Another nominee-to-be, “Pan’s Labyrinth,” opened on 17 screens. It has made approximately $37 million. Both those films, however, were in Spanish, and foreign-language films are a hard sell to the American moviegoer.

“I’m Not There,” which will play at film festivals in Venice, Toronto and New York, is Mr. Haynes’s first movie since “Far From Heaven,” his critically acclaimed 2002 homage to the melodramas of Douglas Sirk. The film, which has Mr. Dylan’s blessing, is also, according to Ms. Vachon, his most expensive film, although she declined to divulge the amount. (“Far From Heaven” cost $13.5 million, according to boxofficemojo.com.)

Though Mr. Haynes, who was unavailable for this article, has never had a major commercial success except for “Far From Heaven,” he has never suffered a lack of critical acclaim. His “Poison,” for example, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1991, and “Far From Heaven” received four Academy Award nominations, including one for its star, Julianne Moore. But Mr. Weinstein said the decision to pick up “I’m Not There” was not purely about making money but about an obligation to have important movies distributed.

“That’s the story of my life,” he said. “That’s exactly what I believe in. ‘I’m Not There’ and some of the tougher stuff — it’s not going to be ‘The Nanny Diaries,’ you know. But I’ve been very fortunate that what I’ve believed in has worked, and even when it doesn’t work, we make money in other areas to cover that. It is my responsibility and, more importantly, it’s my passion.”
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Offline Penthesilea

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Re: I'm Not there
« Reply #25 on: August 22, 2007, 09:17:48 am »
Good eye.  I also spotted him. . .

*  in the "portrait"/flash shots at the beginning.  He's wearing sunglasses. 
*  towards the middle, hugging the children in the doorway while a woman stands there holding presents/packages (wearing sunglasses again). 
*  kissing the girl, shown in profile. 


Even better eye  :).

I watched it again multiple times, always trying to stop it at THE exact split second. I think all three spottings you mentioned are correct.
I thought it was Heath in the kissing sequence, too, but then wasn't sure about it yesterday. Now I managed to stop the trailer at the right moment, and this nose is unmistakable  ;D.

We're a bunch of loonies, dissecting movie trailers only to count glimpses of an actor  ::)  ;). But it's fun to be a loony among like-minded folks  ;D.


Quote
This movie should be interesting. 

Agreed.

Offline Ellemeno

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Re: I'm Not There (the Dylan movie starring Heath)
« Reply #26 on: August 23, 2007, 12:41:14 am »

We're a bunch of loonies, dissecting movie trailers only to count glimpses of an actor  ::)  ;). But it's fun to be a loony among like-minded folks  ;D.


Loony Elle reporting for loony duty!  I posted my Heath-trailer-views in the Heath Heath Heath thread WITH images.  :)  http://bettermost.net/forum/index.php/topic,1179.msg241332.html#msg241332

Offline Ellemeno

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Re: I'm Not There (the Dylan movie starring Heath)
« Reply #27 on: August 23, 2007, 12:44:38 am »
I had a thought earlier that stoked the day for me:  Maybe in this movie, it will be Heath playing the harmonica!

Offline MaineWriter

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Re: I'm Not There (the Dylan movie starring Heath)
« Reply #28 on: August 23, 2007, 07:56:48 pm »
From Entertainment Tonight:

CATE BLANCHETT is known for disappearing into her roles, but it's safe to say that none of her physical transformations have been anywhere near as drastic as her turn in the upcoming BOB DYLAN biopic 'I'm Not There.'

A far cry from her dazzling red carpet attire, the stunning Australian beauty -- dressed in a black leather jacket, jeans, sunglasses and a short, curly wig -- is surprisingly transformed into the legendary music man with convincing accuracy to capture his distinctive '60s look.

Cate is among a number of actors, including HEATH LEDGER, who will play Dylan at various stages of his life in 'I'm Not There.' The film follows several distinct characters, each depicting a different stage in Dylan's life, embodying a different aspect of his life story and music. The film is the first biographical feature project to secure his approval.

Last year, Dylan scored his first number one album in three decades, while Cate enjoyed recent success with her film 'Babel' co-starring BRAD PITT.

'I'm Not There' is scheduled for limited release on November 21.
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Offline Ellemeno

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Re: I'm Not There (the Dylan movie starring Heath)
« Reply #29 on: August 24, 2007, 01:42:13 am »
A NY Post article, "Tangled Up in Bob," discusses the 6 faces of Bob Dylan in the movie and what phase of his life each is symbolizing.  To see the whole article, go here: http://www.nypost.com/seven/08232007/entertainment/movies/tangled_up_in_bob.htm?page=0

Here's Heath's portion:

ALL ALONG THE WATCHTOWER
Era: Biblical Bob, 1968
Character: Bob Dylan
Actor: Heath Ledger
Telling details: At this point, Bob’s already crashed his motorcycle, has taken to reading the Bible and has spawned four kids with wife Sara (Charlotte Gainsbourg). That may just be future Wallflowers leader Jakob in the papoose. Ledger sports the same facial hair and short haircut that Dylan wore at the Isle of Wight Festival in 1969, after releasing “John Wesley Harding” and “Nashville Skyline.”


I Googled for images of Bob Dylan at Isle of Wight Festival in 1969, and got these:

From http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/iow69-dylan.html