While Todd Haynes’ “I’m Not There” will debut at New York’s Film Forum on November 21, no Film Forum page with details exists yet. However, we just got our FF guide in the mail which reveals some interesting details.
The film has an exclusive two week run from November 21 – December 4 on two screens, and then will go wide for the rest of the country. Film Forum’s write up says this (with some parentheticals from us):
“I’m Not There”
Directed by Todd Haynes 135 Min
“Inspired By The Music and Many Lives Of Bob Dylan” reads the opening title. Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger and Richard Gere all take a crack at him; Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams and Charlotte Gainsbourg appear as some of his women. But it is Blanchett as Dylan Circa 1965 (think D.A. Pennebaker‘s “Dont Look Back“) and as the post-acoustic rocker, who captures our imagination and runs with it at breakneck speed. As the emaciated, cigarette-smoking, nasal-voiced enfant terrible, his hair backlit to suggest a depraved angel, he torments, journalists, fans and his girlfriends alike. Appearances by imaginary versions of Allen Ginsberg, Edie Sedgwick, Suze Rotolo (the woman on the cover of The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan), Bobby Neuwirth, Bobby Seal (we think they mean Seale, the Black Panther Party member), Albert Grossman (onetime Dylan manager, Newport Folk Festival founder) and Joan Baez round out Haynes’ fever dream of what it means to be Bob Dylan.
Film Forum’s preview page for “Control,” however is up on their site (it debuts there October 10). They write:
LATE-’70S BRITISH POST-PUNK BAND JOY DIVISION was one of the most influential groups of their time, inspiring U2, Kurt Cobain, The Cure, Interpol, “goth rock” and countless others. Yet their career ended after only one album, when lead singer Ian Curtis committed suicide at age 23. Sam Riley gives an unforgettable performance as the troubled, enigmatic leader of the Manchester band — whose talent for singing intense, darkly infectious pop songs was subverted by mood swings, bouts of epilepsy and a crumbling marriage. Samantha Morton (IN AMERICA, SWEET AND LOWDOWN) plays his wife, upon whose memoir the film is based. The feature debut of acclaimed rock photographer/music video director Anton Corbijn.
Meanwhile, also not online is a small piece in Rolling Stone on “Control.” In the story former JD guitarist Bernard Sumner said the movie brought him right back to “the misery of the Seventies. It’s a very heavy part of our lives. Your best friend killing himself is not something you ever forget.”
The first-time feature director Anton Corbijn said of the film and story, “I didn’t want to make a Hollywood version. It’s a portrayal of England in the 1970s and a person that tries to fulfill their dreams but gets disappointed in them.”
When pressed to criticize the film portrayal of that period, Sumner said, “I think Peter [Hook] smokes in the movie, but he didn’t do that. Everything else was pretty accurate.”
Update: The Film Forum “I’m Not There” page with the aforementioned info is now up. Another update. That Dylan look-alike video casting call? It wasn’t for any single from “I’m Not There.” Instead, it was a video shoot for Mark Ronson, who we could give a flying fuck about.