Says Ian Grant, quoted in "What Do Dylanologists Think of ‘A Complete Unknown’? The writer Lucy Sante and the podcast host Ian Grant, both Bob Dylan experts, dissect the director James Mangold’s biopic starring Timothée Chalamet" (NYT).
And Lucy Sante responds that in the film "all about him hunching his shoulders and ignoring everybody to the left and to the right. That kind of works.... [but] you don’t get Dylan’s wit. The kind of conversation he was capable of having... you don’t get much of the sense of that mind."
Here's the "Dont Look Back" scene with the interrogation about the glass (and I'm just noticing for the first time that the movie title doesn't have an apostrophe):
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33 comments:
“Dylan experts”… lol.
I watched "Don't Look Back" last night for the first time. I disagree that he's an asshole in that movie. He got upset that someone through a glass from the window on the street, understandably so, since he's responsible for the behavior of his guests in his hotel suite. He was a bit confrontational with reporters, but I can understand that. They aren't to be trusted. By rock star standards, though, he was far from an asshole.
That should be "threw" not "through" a glass from a window.
The Boston album was better.
JSM
“I'm just noticing for the first time that the movie title doesn't have an apostrophe.”
The 1967 Dylan documentary with the same title didn’t have one either.
The only Dylan expert I want to read discussing this movie is our own Ann Althouse. I'm going tonight.
I absolutely can't disagree that he was an asshole in that movie. But you needed to see it to understand what really makes him tick. He is a genius whose mind is racing 100x faster than everyone else around him, and to be honest the fact that he messed with people so little was an admirable show of discipline. If I was Donovan and he followed up my cute little amateur song with "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue" I'd likely walk out of the room and kill myself.
It was in every way like kicking a puppy. I think Dylan works nonstop every waking hour not to kick the puppy, but sometimes he fails, and in Dont Look Back all those failures are in the film
I found A Complete Unknown to be meh. Timothee Chalamet does a good job being Dylan for 2 hours, but there's not enough story for me. I boil it down to: people want to tell Dylan what to do. Dylan doesn't want to be told. And a thing that really annoyed me is that the streets of Greenwich Village are played by the streets of Jersey City. It's a New York movie--shoot it in New York for chrissakes!
He was a consummate troll, decades before the concept of "troll" existed. I feel like it was a never-ending struggle not to troll everyone, all the time, and at least put on the façade of relating to those around him as humans
And yet, Bob doesn't object to the portrayal, so is "asshole" really the best diagnosis? Not that he's not an asshole in the movie or in real life, but it's not a very deep analysis, is it? Is narcissism or Aspergers' or the autism spectrum a better explanation -- or just genius?
I'm kind of at a loss here. The guy wrote some pretty good songs, which usually sounded better with someone else singing them. Does that somehow make a bunch of drunks shouting in a hotel room interesting?
Oh wow, it wasn't even filmed in the Village? Every building on 4th St is instantly recognizable to anyone who has been there for any significant length of time. They are not substitutable. I don't want to see the film now
It's a very meticulously put together film, masquerading as an ad hoc film that is just recording with no agenda. The narrative it ends up creating is both illuminating and brutal. If you watch the whole film the significance makes a lot more sense. Though I would say this is one of the least pronounced examples of what the author is talking about in the film, so I'm not sure why it was chosen to be highlighted
I rewatched it recently and I would say he was an asshole. Not about the glass - it was tedious watching two drunks arguing, but he was right to be upset about it. And most of the time he is decent. But there are a few episodes where he really fucks with people. The real asshole in that movie is Bob Neuwirth, who comes across as Dylan's sadistic toady, cackling with glee every time Dylan tries to make someone miserable, and contributing shitty comments of his own.
I haven't seen Don't Look Back, nor do I intend to. I watched "A Complete Unknown" on New Year's Eve and thought it was a pretty good movie. It did remind me just how sickly and treacly--and phony--the folk music scene was in the early 1960s--my college years. I don't give a dang how many partridges there are in a pear tree, or how often the willow weeps. I was impressed that actors Norton, Barbaro and Chalamet learned to do a fair imitation in singing and instrument playing of the characters they portrayed.
Today I went on Spotify and listened to Dylan's first album "Free Wheelin Dylan". It reminded me of two things. His singing voice was awful. Some of the lyrics of those early songs on the album were downright stupid. But hey he was writing for a "folk music" audience. Which explains some of it.
And yet Dylan produced a tremendous body of work, and many of the songs he wrote were covered by much better singers. Blowing In The Wind and Don't Think Twice, It's Alright are the two gems on the album.
If you're going to post a comment about Dylan, it's probably important to know that Freewheelin' is his second album. And that the "he can''t sing" comments are tiresome.
2 hours of that? Not my cup of tea.
That Dylan took it upon himself to keep everyone in that group in line was admirable. He was disarmingly self deprecating, polite to the hotel guy and concerned about people outside of his circle.
There are numerous revealing moments of assholery in Don’t Look Back, including when Dylan becomes disputatious with a good-natured science student (Terry Ellis) and when Dylan and hanger-on friend Bob Neuwirth engage in junior-high-level torment of Joan Baez. Like Frank Sinatra, Bob Dylan proves artistic genius and personal pettiness can coexist comfortably
in the same body.
I agree.
Ooh, a lot of people want to be around the genius phenomenon, or as Joan Baez called him, the "unwashed phenomenon," so they can tell their friends and their grandchildren, then complain that sometimes it's too much for him? Fuck everybody, I don't care. Do what you have to do to keep the space to make those beautiful albums while the spark was with you, for me to listen to. I don't want to hang out with you Bob, just to listen to your music.
He really can sing. The comments say more about the people who say he can't sing, than they do about Dylan. Sure there were some great covers of his songs, there were great covers of Beatles songs too.
You’ve probably seen it, but if not, Christopher Guest’s “A Mighty Wind” is the film for you.
I would totally hang out with Bob Dylan and I’d make him laugh his ass off.
Would you demand to hang out with him in the line, millions long, of people who want to hang out with him? I say that the best thing to do is leave him alone and let him work.
Certified Proust scholar.
If that 3 minutes is AT ALL representative of the flick... hard pass.
I don't care who did it man. I just wanna know who did it.
Not exactly, "Mr. Tambourine Man."
I think Dylan is amused by those who attempt to define or explain him; especially those who believe, "He's one of us!".
Whatever is going on with comments here ("peek-a-boo"!)?
My 2 cents re his singing voice: Comparing him to Baez on "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right," her voice is infinitely prettier than Dylan, but has none of the inflections or irony that the song needs. Dylan songs need Dylan's voice.
This is an interesting article that argues that Dylan was an anti-Commie, and his fight with Seegar was about removing political red shirts from the house of music. Cool if true.
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