bob dylan Tagged Articles at Cinematical

Todd Haynes is one of the most intelligent filmmakers our country has to offer. The question remains, however, whether his intelligence allows for any emotion to come through in his films. I think it does, but it's not an obvious, worn-on-your-sleeve type of emotion; it's the type that takes a little self-analysis to discover. For example, his great film Safe (1995), which was voted the best film of the decade in the Village Voice poll of 1999, left me feeling queasy and unpleasant, and my initial reaction was to blame the film for it. But those were precisely the types of emotions I was supposed to be feeling after seeing a story about a sick woman. Haynes deliberately designed the film with a kind of emptiness -- and refused to answer the question as to whether or not his heroine was actually sick, and when the lead character joins the "cult" in the film's final stretch, Haynes does not invite us to go with her, so we're left in the lurch, so to speak.

Jean-Luc Godard, another intelligent filmmaker, once said that the best way to critique films was to make one. Haynes did precisely this with Far from Heaven (2002), which more or less used a Douglas Sirk framework to discuss Sirk's films as well as a more modern look at racism and homophobia. (The critics' group I am a member of, the San Francisco Film Critics Circle, gave our 2002 Best Director award to Haynes.) Now Haynes does it again with his exceptional new I'm Not There, a deconstruction of the biopic as well as a fascinating look at the cult of celebrity, and, on a deeper level, the celebrity as a godlike being with answers to all our questions. Whereas most biopics are made solely for the purpose of providing a rich centerpiece role (and, hopefully, an Oscar) for an ambitious actor, Haynes deliberately subverts this by casting seven different actors -- of all different ages, races and even sexes -- to play Bob Dylan.

It's Wednesday, and you know what that means -- time for The Write Stuff! This week Cinematical spoke with screenwriter Captain Mauzner. Mauzner has an interesting perspective on screenwriting because he's written two major films based on true events and actual people. He co-wrote 2003's Wonderland -- the story of the infamous "Wonderland Murders," which starred Val Kilmer as legendary porn star John Holmes. And he wrote last year's Factory Girl, the tale of Edie Sedgwick (played by Sienna Miller), Andy Warhol (Guy Pearce), and a Dylanesque "Musician" played by Hayden Christensen. We spoke about Mauzner's scripts, process, and the trickiness of writing scripts based on fact.

Cinematical: Are you working on anything right now?

Captain Mauzner: I am working on something right now, yeah. I'm adapting a book. It's a small book, it's called The Food Chain, by Geoff Nicholson. A friend of mine runs a small company and I'm adapting it with the hopes of directing it. It's kind of about food, sex, and cannibalism. Revenge, food, sex, and cannibalism.

Cinematical: Well, alright!

CM: It's a little dark comedy. It's fun. And what was nice about it was -- I've written so many things and a lot of them are true life stories, and they all seem to be about kind of deplorable human beings. And I think that my comfort zone is really kind of in the dark side -- the drug addicts, the deviants. And I think that as I've kind of gotten older and left that world myself, I guess you could say I've become less and less interested in it. You see these movies like Wonderland and Factory Girl and you could say "oh, they're like an argument against doing drugs." But I know for myself, there's always a glamorizing element to it. And as much as you want to say this is the downfall of these people, which it is -- and obviously there's nothing glamorous about the drug lifestyle, or the party lifestyle because it does lead to bad things. But just the act of writing about it or making these the main characters or trying to explain these people, I feel like that somewhat glamorizes it, or at least in my mind it was very glamorous. I had a very romantic notion, at like 14-years-old I discovered Bukowski and I was kind of off to the races. So I think that as I get older I'm ready to move on to maybe something light and happy. My family's always like "Why can't you write something that we can take Grandma to?"

Cinematical: So do you find when you're writing about drugs and debauchery, that you're not looking to condemn it and point a finger, you're just looking to present it and let the audience decide?

CM: Absolutely. I'm not looking to condemn it at all. I'm not looking to be moral about it. I believe in experimentation. I believe in doing kind of what you want and not having anybody else tell you what to do. I think that my fascination with it is always the "why." Why do people do this? I think that's kind of the fun of being able to do those kind of things is that you can live kind of vicariously through these people, and try to figure out the "why" without being judgmental.

The first poster for that Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There has apparently leaked online. I say 'leaked' because I don't believe it's been officially released, and the pics we do have aren't very clear. However, the poster offers us enough of a look at (I think) Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale and Heath Ledger as Bob Dylan. I'm not sure who that first guy is (Richard Gere?), but following him are, what appear to be, Blanchett, Bale and a very Buddy Holly-looking Ledger. Ben Whishaw and Marcus Carl Franklin are also playing Dylan in the film; in total, there will be six Bob Dylans. Confused? Good.

Directed (and co-written) by Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven), pic "follows seven characters, each embodying a different aspect of Dylan's life story and music," according to the description on IMDb. It's also the first biographical feature project that Dylan has ever approved of. Also starring Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams and David Cross, the film is set to arrive in theaters on September 21. I kind of dig the poster so far; it has a real trippy vibe to it -- one I'm sure will be present throughout the film. Heck, you have six people representing Bob Dylan (at different times in his life) through other characters.If that's not a head trip, I don't know what is. The Weinstein Co. will distribute, which is pretty funny seeing as they also sent Factory Girl into theaters; a film in which Hayden Christensen obviously portrayed Dylan (without the performer's permission) and subsequently pissed the guy off. So far, Dylan hasn't had any problems with I'm Not There; then again, we still have a few months before the film makes its grand entrance.

I wouldn't be surprised if a Hollywood sign is spotted floating down one of Venice's many canals, as one third of the Italian fest's lineup "is probably going to be American," so says fest chief Marco Muller. What's being touted as one of the "strongest editions ever," this year's Venice Film Festival will most likely host the world premieres for films like Robert Zemeckis' 3-D Beowulf, Todd Haynes' Bob Dylan biopic I'm Not There (remember, that's the one that has six different actors and actresses playing the legendary performer), Ang Lee's Lust, Caution and one of my most anticipated flicks of 2007, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood. The full 60-pic lineup will be announced on July 26, with the actual fest taking place from August 29 through September 8.

Essentially his most ambitious film to date, There Will Be Blood marks PTA's triumphant return to the big screen following his 2002 love-it-or-hate-it romantic dramedy Punch Drunk Love. Pic, which stars Daniel Day-Lewis, is a turn-of-the-century drama that revolves around a Texan family during the early days of the oil business. Not only is it Anderson's first film based on existing material (in this case it's an Upton Sinclair novel), but it's also the first that doesn't feature his usual cast of regulars (most notably Luis Guzmán and Philip Seymour Hoffman). As it stands right now, both There Will Be Blood and the Coen Bros.' No Country for Old Men are set to hit theaters on November 21, with the former arriving in limited release. Could they make it any more difficult for me to choose which one to see first? For more info on the Venice Film Festival, be sure to hit up their official website.

• Bruce Bennett (1906-2007) - Olympic medalist-turned-actor (pictured) who played Tarzan in an Edgar Rice Burroughs-produced serial in the '30s, during which time he went by his real name Herman Brix. After changing his name he co-starred in Sahara, Mildred Pierce, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, Sudden Fear and Love Me Tender. He died of complications from a broken hip February 24, in Santa Monica, California. (Independent)
• Walker Edmiston (1926-2007) - Actor and voice artist who appears in The Green Berets, The Beach Girls and the Monster and the 1966 remake of Stagecoach. He provided his voice for Bullitt, Start the Revolution Without Me, Wholly Moses!, Dick Tracy and The Andromeda Strain, as well as for the animated films The Down and Dirty Duck and The Great Mouse Detective. He died of cancer February 15, in Woodland Hills, California. (Variety)
• Dennis Marks (c.1935-2007) - Gaffer for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. He died of a brain tumor February 24, in Techachapi, California. (Variety)
• John O'Banion (1947-2007) - Singer and actor who appears in Borderline and The Judas Project. He died after a long battle with frontotemporal dementia February 14, in Los Angeles. (Variety)
• Meryl O'Loughlin (c.1935-2007) - Casting director for He's My Girl, Frozen Assets and Tremors II: Aftershocks. She died of complications from ovarian cancer February 27, in Santa Monica, California. (Variety)
• Arthur Schlesinger Jr. (1917-2007) - Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning historian who appears as himself in Garbo Talks, The Venice Project and the documentary Huey Long. He was a member of the jury at Cannes in 1964. He died of a heart attack February 27, in New York City. (NY Times)
• Mark Spoelstra (c.1940-2007) - Folk musician who appears in Martin Scorsese's documentary No Direction Home: Bob Dylan. He died of pancreatic cancer February 25. (Recordnet.com)
• Henry Troyat (1911-2007) - French author who wrote the source novel for Dmytryk's The Mountain and who co-wrote the scripts to The Sheep Has Five Legs, for which he received an Oscar nomination, and Gangster Boss. He died March 2, in Paris. (AP)
• Al Viola (1919-2007) - Musician who played mandolin on the score for The Godfather and who can also be heard on the soundtracks to Blazing Saddles and West Side Story. He died of cancer February 21, in Studio City, California. (NY Times)
• Sam Williams (?-2007) - Actor who appears in Shaka Zulu, Victor/Victoria and King Solomon's Mines. He died February 28. (Mail & Guardian)
• Darlene Wilson (c.1962-2007) - Actress and dancer who appears in The Guru and who choreographed Exit. She died March 2. (Playbill)

Sometimes damage control can be as much as buying the distribution rights to a film. This almost seems the case with The Weinstein Co.'s picking up of Todd Haynes' arty Bob Dylan biopic, I'm Not There. But could it actually make Bob Dylan more upset?

The singer-songwriter is already portrayed in one upcoming movie distributed by the Weinsteins -- whether or not anybody involved with Factory Girl admits that Hayden Christensen plays Dylan, the consensus is that it is obviously him. Now, he's going to be portrayed by six more people, including Cate Blanchett and Heath Ledger. This second film, which has Dylan's approval, will be released by The Weinstein Co. sometime later this year.

Dylan is currently unhappy with the Weinsteins because of Factory Girl, which he has only heard may be defamatory to his character. It doesn't seem likely that he could reverse his feelings now that I'm Not There is in the enemy's clutches. Do Bob and Harvey think the deal will please Dylan, or do they mean to use it as leeway in any legal issue brought on by Dylan? Or could this be totally unrelated to the Factory Girl controversy?