Somehow, I managed to miss the opportunity to see ‘I’m Not There‘, the film that Todd Haynes made about Bob Dylan, when it was released on screens in 2007. It’s been 14 years since this very unusual film was made. Songs, albums, concerts, and a Nobel Prize which probably surprised the singer as much as many others were added to Dylan’s career and biography, but I believe that the mystery surrounding his personality has only amplified. A multilateral personality, eccentric and uncomfortable with his style of being, cultivating an aura of mystery around his person and public image, Dylan escapes categorisations both when it comes to biography as well as when it comes to his music. Approaching this project, Todd Haynes decided from the start that it would be trivial and useless to make a conventional biopic about such a non-conventional personality. Looking for the right artistic tools, director and co-writer (along with Oren Moverman) Todd Haynes chose an artistic style (collage) specific to the DADA literary movement of the early 20th century and elements from the dream cinema of the surrealists who inherited Dadaists. The result is an original cinematic collage biography, but not a very comfortable for many viewers, especially for those who are not very familiar with Dylan’s biography and music. But the great chance of the film is the music, mostly original, included in the soundtrack with Dylan’s consent.
‘I’m Not There‘ follows in parallel the biography of six characters who could be facets of his person: a black boy named Woodie Guthrie, a folk singer, another singer abandoning folk for electric pop, an actor, Arthur Rimbaud, Billie the Kid. Each of the characters is played by another actor. Details of Dylan’s real biography are interleaved with imaginary episodes, some dreamlike, quotes from interviews or statements made in different contexts are mixed with lines written in the spirit of the singer’s thoughts and actions. Everyone who knows and loves Dylan will find episodes he knows and texts that will resonate with him. But I think that for each of the fans there will be details or characters that represent less their own Dylan. For me, for example, the character of Billie the Kid did not tell me anything that has to do with my image of Dylan, and the scenes with the child with the guitar seemed forced, even if we consider them dreams and even if the boy is named Woodie Guthrie.
‘I’m Not There‘ is interesting as an experimental film – it has an original idea, it wins and keeps the viewers’ attention through the diversity of plans and the alternation of characters, it includes a mosaic of references about the culture of the ’60s and’ 70s and contains many moments and ideas of smart cinema. As a docudrama, however, the film failed to educate me or present me with new perspectives on Dylan. Those who know more details about Dylan’s biography will probably find more connection points, but I think that precisely this constant search for biographical details in fictional spaces (where did he say that ?, when did he sing like that ?, etc.) to which the viewer is permanently challenged, eliminates opportunities for genuine emotion. Some of the actors who play Dylan succeed great performances – of course, the first to be mentioned is Cate Blanchett in a very special role of her amazing career, then Heath Ledger in one of his last roles, and Christian Bale. I can’t say anything about Richard Gere, I confess that his embodiment of Dylan as Billie the Kid is the one that I understand the least. Watching Charlotte Gainsbourg is always a treat, and no, she’s not playing Dylan. All in all, ‘I’m Not There‘ is an intriguing and interesting film about Bob Dylan with a lot of music by Bob Dylan, but I haven’t learned much new about him. The mystery surrounding Dylan remained intact.