“I’m Not There” promotional vehicle The Playlist (but can we even score an interview? barely, maybe…) has spotted 4 clips from director Todd Haynes audacious and fragmented Bob Dylan quasi-opic over at IESB.net. [ed. we’ve seen this thing twice now, are we going to post a review anytime this century?]. Click on the titles or images to get the corresponding clip.
Clip 1. Times Are Changing
Christian Bale as Jack Rollins sings the early Dylan injustice song “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” and then appears on a TV show – which is a direct homage to Dylan’s first 1964 appearance on the Steve Allen show (the backdrop and setting are exactly the same). Then a quick second of ‘The Times Are A Changin'” is played. Both these covers are sung by Mason Jennings and lip-synched by Bale (though Todd Haynes has lauded Bale’s attempt at recording these songs. We’d love to hear those outtakes). PS don’t forget about the 5 I’m Not There OST bonus tracks you can find on Itunes and Rhapsody.
Clip 2. Sincere
A direct Fellini “8 1/2” homage. Instead of film director Marcello Mastroianni being followed by a gaggle of intrusive reporters demanding to know the meaning of his abstract films, we have Jude Quinn (Cate Blanchett), being hounded in a similar courtyard about the meaning of his/her songs and other random questions (Reporter: “Jude, two words on Shakespeare!” Quinn: “Raving queen, cosmic amphetamine brain. I dig Shakespeare.”) Then Quinn confronted with his bête noire, the reporter Keenan Jones (Bruce Greenwood) – the composite reporter character that Dylan sang about in his journalist screed “Ballad Of A Thin Man.” As he does throughout the film, Mr. Jones questions Quinn’s motivations and sincerity. Quinn answers of course are elusive and combative.
Clip 3. Poets
This part of ‘INT’ is rather meta-meta. Heath Ledger plays Robbie Clark, a James Dean-esque actor who portrayed Dylan in his youth (the Christian Bale-era above in clip 1) in a fictional film. Haynes uses this section of the film to imagine Dylan as chauvinist pig and in the scene Ledger tells his wife Claire (played by Charlotte Gainsbourg) and their friends that women can’t be poets because they can’t “access the same kind of pain” offending everyone at the table and further estranging his ailing marriage. All the while he is being photographed by an intrusive paparazzi that won’t leave the star and his family alone. Haynes has said this section of the film is mostly his invention and one can imagine since Gainsbourg sings the maligned “Just Like A Woman” on the soundtrack, that this part of the story is based off of critics who have complained over the years that Dylan’s work has been frequently misogynistic.
Clip 4. Feelings
The clips you’ve already seen, or at least have if you’ve read our street-team site closely. The scene is basically the same one that Yahoo released at the beginning of September. Our synop: Quinn (Blanchett) is angered by the questions posed to him by the journalist who asks whether he really cares what he is singing about. “How can I answer that if you have the nerve to ask?” Blanchett/Dylan asks indignantly – a famous line ripped straight from the documentary “Dont Look Back.” The original clip where Dylan goes off on a Time magazine journalist (who is very likely one of, if not, the Mr. Jones aimed at in “Ballad Of A Thin Man”) can be seen here and you can compare and contrast some of the exact dialogue. The only real difference between this clip and the Yahoo one, is that it plays a little longer and Mr. Jones hits a nerve by calling Dylan out on his insecurities.
The film comes out next week in 50 markets (though it was originally only planned to hit on 4 screens). Get your tickets now.