I'm Not There is a 2007 musical drama film directed by Todd Haynes, who co-wrote the screenplay with Oren Moverman, based on a story by Haynes. An experimental biographical film, it is inspired by the life and music of American singer-songwriter Bob Dylan, with six actors depicting different facets of Dylan's public personas: Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Richard Gere, Heath Ledger (in his last film to be released during his lifetime), and Ben Whishaw.
A caption at the start of the film declares it to be "inspired by the music and the many lives of Bob Dylan"; this is the only mention of Dylan in the film apart from song credits, and his only appearance in it is concert footage from 1966. The film's title is taken from the 1967 Dylan Basement Tape recording of "I'm Not There", a song that had not been officially released until it appeared on the film's soundtrack album.
I'm Not There premiered at the 64th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2007, and was released in the United States on November 21 and in Germany on February 28, 2008. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with praise for its acting (particularly Blanchett's), directing, and musical score. It underperformed at the box office, grossing $11 million worldwide on the budget of $20 million. I'm Not There appeared on multiple publications' top ten films lists for 2007. Blanchett won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress, and received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.
Plot I'm Not There features a nonlinear narrative, shifting between six characters in separate storylines "inspired by the music and many lives of Bob Dylan". Each character represents a different facet of Dylan's public persona: poet (Arthur Rimbaud), prophet (Jack Rollins/Father John), outlaw (Billy McCarty), fake (Woody Guthrie), "rock and roll martyr" (Jude Quinn), and "star of electricity" (Robbie Clark).
Production notes published by distributor The Weinstein Company explain that the film "dramatizes the life and music of Bob Dylan as a series of shifting personae, each performed by a different actor—poet, prophet, outlaw, fake, star of electricity, rock and roll martyr, born-again Christian—six identities braided together, six organs pumping through one life story."
Arthur Rimbaud 19-year-old Arthur Rimbaud is questioned by interrogators. His cryptic responses are interspersed throughout the film, including remarks on fatalism, the nature of poets, "seven simple rules for life in hiding", and chaos.
Woody Guthrie In 1959, a 12-year-old African-American boy (Marcus Carl Franklin) is riding the rails as a hobo. He meets two older hobos and introduces himself as Woody Guthrie. Carrying a guitar in a case bearing the slogan "this machine kills fascists", he plays blues music and sings about topics such as trade unionism. Part of a conversation on a freight train between Woody and two hobos about his life in a town called "Riddle" is directly lifted from another film, A Face in the Crowd (1957). Taken in briefly by an African American family, the mother advises him to sing about the issues of his own time instead. In another boxcar, Woody wakes to find himself menaced by other hobos and after a fight falls off the train into a river. He nearly drowns, but is rescued by a white couple who take him in. They are impressed with his musical talents, but Woody runs off when they receive a telephone call from a juvenile corrections center in Minnesota telling them he is an escaped fugitive. Upon learning that the real Woody Guthrie is deathly ill, the boy travels to New Jersey to visit Guthrie in the hospital.
Jack Rollins/Father John The career of folk musician Jack Rollins is framed as a documentary film, told by interviewees including folk singer Alice Fabian. Jack becomes a star of the Greenwich Village folk scene in the early 1960s, praised by fans for his protest songs. He signs to Columbia Records, but in 1963, just as the Vietnam War is escalating, he stops singing protest songs and turns away from folk music, believing that neither affects real social or political change. Following the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Jack gets drunk at a ceremony where he is receiving an award from a civil rights organization. Remarking in his acceptance speech that he saw something of himself in Kennedy's assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, he is booed and derided by the audience. He goes into hiding and in 1974 enters a bible study course in Stockton, California. He emerges a born-again Christian, denouncing his past and becoming an ordained minister performing gospel music under the name "Father John."
Robbie Clark Robbie Clark is a 22-year-old actor who plays Jack Rollins in the 1965 biographical film Grain of Sand. During filming in Greenwich Village in January 1964, he falls in love with French artist Claire, and they soon marry. Grain of Sand is a hit and Robbie becomes a star, but their relationship is strained and Claire observes Robbie flirting with other women. She is particularly offended when, during an argument in 1968 over whether the evils of the world can be changed, he opines that women can never be poets. Eventually Robbie moves out of their house, then goes to London for four months to film a thriller and has an affair with his female co-star. Richard Nixon's January 1973 announcement of the Paris Peace Accords inspires Claire to ask for a divorce. She gains custody of their two daughters, but allows Robbie to take them on a boating trip.
Jude Quinn Jude Quinn is a former popular folk singer whose performance with a full electric band at a New England jazz and folk festival is met with outrage from his fans, who scathingly accuse him of selling out. Arriving in London, Jude is interviewed during a press conference where he wittily fields ignorant questions from journalists. At the hotel, Jude is threatened at knifepoint by an angered fan, who is eventually incapacitated after being hit with a glass. When invited personally by journalist Keenan Jones for a private interview, Jude instead frolics with the Beatles and encounters his former lover Coco Rivington, who taunts him in a surreal fashion, culminating in Jude collapsing into a coughing fit. Finally interviewing Jude, Keenan notes how Jude’s songs are being used as recruitment tools for the Black Panther Party. After a brief encounter with Allen Ginsberg, who playfully suggests that Jude “sold out to God,” Keenan opines that Jude refuses to feel deeply about anything while simultaneously being extremely self-conscious. Offended, Jude walks out of the interview. At a concert performing “Ballad of a Thin Man,” Jude is heckled and called a “Judas” by the audience, to which he calmly replies “I don’t believe you.” Keenan reveals on television that, despite Jude’s claims of a rough-and-tumble vagabond past, Jude is actually Aaron Jacob Edelstein, the suburban, middle-class, educated son of a wealthy department store owner in Brookline, Massachusetts. At the concert’s afterparty, Jude is informed by his manager Norman that he was signed up for an 83-show string of tour dates without his knowledge, much to Jude’s dismay. Spiraling into drug usage, Jude humiliates Coco at the party and berates her new lover in an inebriated manner, ending with Jude vomiting on him and being ushered out of the party. Not long after, Jude is apparently killed in a motorcycle accident, his autopsy and funeral having been shown in the beginning of the film. A final interview scene shows a solemn Jude admitting to feeling lonesome on account of the fame, muttering “everyone knows I’m not a folk singer,” before turning to the camera and softly smiling.
Billy McCarty The outlaw Billy the Kid, believed to have been killed by Pat Garrett, lives in hiding and solitude as "Billy McCarty" in a shack outside the rural town of Riddle, Missouri. Searching for his lost dog, he has a premonition of the Vietnam War. Learning that Commissioner Garrett plans to demolish the town to build a highway, which has caused several townspeople to commit suicide, Billy rides into the centre of town and confronts Garrett, who is attempting to mollify the townsfolk. Garrett recognizes Billy but can't place him as the outlaw he supposedly killed. When the townsfolk threaten to riot, Billy is arrested by police driving modern cars and is thrown in jail for being a troublemaker. He is broken out by his friend Homer and hops a passing train. He finds Woody's guitar in the boxcar and plays it as he rides away, musing on the nature of freedom and identity.
The film concludes with footage of Dylan playing a harmonica solo during a live performance in 1966.Audio commentary by Todd Haynes, I'm Not There DVD, Two-Disc Collector's Edition, 2007, VIP Medienfonds 4 Gmbh & Co. Distributed by Genius Products, LLC.
Cast
Main cast These six characters represent different aspects of Dylan's life and music. Some of these share names with real historical figures or artists, some are wholly fictional characters. Christian Bale as Jack Rollins / Pastor John Cate Blanchett as Jude Quinn Marcus Carl Franklin as Woody Guthrie Richard Gere as Billy the Kid Heath Ledger as Robbie Clark, an actor who portrays Jack Rollins in a biographical film and becomes as famous as the person he portrays Ben Whishaw as Arthur Rimbaud
Supporting cast Charlotte Gainsbourg as Claire Clark, wife of Robbie Clark David Cross as Allen Ginsberg Eugene Brotto as Peter Orlovsky Bruce Greenwood as Keenan Jones, a fictional reporter who investigates Jude Quinn, and Pat Garrett, nemesis of Billy the Kid. Julianne Moore as Alice Fabian, a singer Michelle Williams as Coco Rivington Mark Camacho as Norman, the manager of Jude Quinn Benz Antoine as Bobby Seale, the Black Panther leader, and Rabbit Brown Craig Thomas as Huey Newton, the Black Panther leader Richie Havens as Old Man Arvin Kim Roberts as Mrs. Arvin Kris Kristofferson as The Narrator Don Francks as Hobo Joe Vito DeFilippo and Susan Glover as Mr. and Mrs. Peacock, a middle-class couple who take "Woody Guthrie" in after a near-drowning incident Paul Spence as Homer, Billy the Kid's friend
Production
Development Todd Haynes and his producer, Christine Vachon, approached Dylan's manager, Jeff Rosen, to obtain permission to use Dylan's music and to fictionalize elements of Dylan's life. Rosen suggested that Haynes should send a one-page synopsis of his film for submission to Dylan. Rosen advised Haynes not to use the word "genius" or "voice of a generation". The page Haynes submitted began with a quote from Arthur Rimbaud: "I is someone else", and then continued:
Dylan gave Haynes permission to proceed with his project. Haynes developed his screenplay with writer Oren Moverman. In the course of writing, Haynes has acknowledged that he became uncertain whether he could successfully carry off a film which deliberately confused biography with fantasy in such an extreme way. According to the account of the film that Robert Sullivan published in the New York Times: "Haynes called Jeff Rosen, Dylan's right hand, who was watching the deal-making but staying out of the scriptwriting. Rosen, he said, told him not to worry, that it was just his own crazy version of what Dylan is."
In a comment on why six actors were employed to portray different facets of Dylan's personality, Haynes wrote:
A further Dylan-based character named Charlie, based on Charlie Chaplin, was dropped before filming began. Haynes described him as "a little tramp, coming to Greenwich Village and performing feats of magic and being an arbiter of peace between the beats and the folkies". Actors including Adrien Brody and Colin Farrell were attached to play characters representing Dylan early in development; Heath Ledger replaced the latter, who dropped out for undisclosed reasons, as Robbie Clark.
Grain of Sand