American Cinematographer - November 2007 - (Page 39)

music were the images.” Haynes’ idea was to approach Dylan by way of a series of self-sufficient, dramatically distinct worlds that would each have an entirely different look, feel and cinematic language. “Every biopic has the same story,” the director maintains. “The personal side suffers from a public life — not really that unique.” Dylan, he elaborates, constantly pushed himself artistically, shedding a persona when it found acceptance and replacing it with one that was often met initially with rejection. After shooting to national prominence as a folk singer, he famously plugged in an electric guitar. Once accepted as a rocker, he made forays into country music and later sang about his conversion to Christianity. As he moved on, he would repudiate his previous incarnation and its fans. Haynes wanted I’m Not There to challenge viewers in the same way. “The only true and honest way to approach Dylan’s story for contemporary viewers who seem to know most of the key events in his life was to reproduce that sense of shock,” he says. “That’s why we have different actors and different characters all representing Dylan.” None of the characters is actually named Bob Dylan, but various aspects of his biography and carefully crafted personae are represented by six people: Woody (Marcus Carl Franklin), an 11-year-old AfricanAmerican boy; Jude (Cate Blanchett), a besieged celebrity; Jack (Christian Bale), a celebrity singer who becomes a born-again preacher; Robby (Heath Ledger), a hip Seventies movie star whose marriage is dissolving; Billy the Kid (Richard Gere), an Old West outlaw trying in vain to find refuge from a corrupt world; and, finally, the muse of the piece, Arthur Rimbaud (Ben Whishaw), a 19th-century poet who became an icon of transgression for Sixties artists. In creating the different worlds occupied by these characters, the filmmakers assimilated a range of cinematic influences from European and American genres of the Sixties and Seventies. Key inspirations included the early New Wave works of Jean-Luc Godard and the stylized visions of Federico Fellini, who broke away from postwar Italian Opposite: Cate Blanchett, as Jude, captures one aspect of Bob Dylan’s enigmatic personality. This page, top: In a re-creation of a pivotal moment from Dylan’s career, Jude outrages folkmusic fans by unexpectedly converting from acoustic guitar to electric. Director Todd Haynes offers, “[Dylan’s] electric-guitar music was met with historic opposition from fans, and that fueled him further in the direction punk rockers later took: taunting the audience and trying to generate friction rather than adoration.” Below: Cinematographer Ed Lachman, ASC lines up a shot from a boxcar. Photos and frame grabs courtesy of The Weinstein Co. American Cinematographer 39

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of American Cinematographer - November 2007

American Cinematographer - November 2007 Contents Editor’s Note Global Village DVD Playback Production Slate Deconstructing Bob Dylan Honoring a Lost Friend Night Terrors Losing Control TV’s Top-Rated Short Takes Post Focus New Products & Services Points East International Marketplace Classified Ads Ad Index Clubhouse News ASC Close-Up

American Cinematographer - November 2007

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