Bob Dylan in film

This article is a list of films associated with Bob Dylan

Dont Look back

Dont Look Back is a 1967 documentary film by D.A. Pennebaker that principally covers Bob Dylan's 1965 concert tour of the United Kingdom. The film features Joan Baez, Donovan and Alan Price (who had just left The Animals), Dylan's manager Albert Grossman and his road manager Bob Neuwirth; Marianne Faithfull, John Mayall and Ginger Baker may also be glimpsed in the background. The film shows a young Dylan: confident if not arrogant, confrontational and contrary, but also charismatic and charming. Dylan's romance with Baez had pretty much run its course by the time of the tour, and the film candidly captures what essentially amounts to their breakup.

The opening scene of the film also served as a kind of music video for Dylan's song "Subterranean Homesick Blues", in which the singer displays and discards a series of cue cards bearing selected words and phrases from the lyrics (including intentional misspellings and puns). Allen Ginsberg makes a cameo appearance during this episode.

The film was first shown publicly May 17, 1967, at the Presidio Theater in San Francisco, and opened that September at the 34th Street East Theater in New York.

Dont Look Back has been available on DVD for several years. It was digitally-remastered and re-released on DVD February 27, 2007. The two-disc edition contained the remastered film, five additional audio tracks, commentary by filmmaker D.A. Pennebaker and Tour Road Manager Bob Neuwirth, an alternate version on the video for "Subterranean Homesick Blues", the original companion book edited by D.A. Pennebaker to coincide with the film's release in 1968, a flip-book for a section of the "Subterranean Homesick Blues" video, and a brand new documentary by D.A. Pennebaker and edited by Walker Lamond called 65 Revisited. The DVD packaging was also given new artwork.

A transcript of the film, with photographs, was published in 1968 by Ballantine Books.

Eat the doument

Eat the Document is a rarely exhibited documentary of Dylan's 1966 tour of the United Kingdom with the Hawks. It was shot under Dylan's direction by D. A. Pennebaker, whose groundbreaking documentary Dont Look Back [sic] chronicled Dylan's 1965 British tour. The film was originally commissioned for the ABC television series Stage '66. According to Howard Sounes's biography, "Down the Highway: The Life of Bob Dylan", after his motorbike accident in July 1966, Dylan viewed a cut of the material edited by Pennebaker and Bob Neuwirth and thought it was too similar to Dont Look Back. Dylan decided to re-edit the film himself, assisted by longtime associate Howard Alk. Dylan however, was no film maker. Pennebaker stated: "It's not something you learn parking cars in a garage. You gotta know some of the rules and he didn't know any of the rules." Dylan and Alk hacked up the footage to produce a rough cut. Their cut was eventually shown to ABC television, who promptly rejected it as incomprehensible to a mainstream audience

Pat Garrett and billy the kid

Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid is a 1973 Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah and starring James Coburn and Kris Kristofferson. Dylan, who co-starred in the film, composed multiple songs for the movie's score and the album Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid was released the same year. The film was noted for behind-the-scenes battles between Peckinpah and the production company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Soon after completion, the film was taken away from the director and substantially re-edited, resulting in a truncated version released to the theaters and largely disowned by cast and crew members. Peckinpah's director's cut was released on video in 1988, leading to a reevaluation, with many critics hailing it as a mistreated classic and one of the era's best films.

Renaldo and Clara

A surrealist movie, directed by and starring Bob Dylan. Filmed in 1975, during Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour, it was released in 1978. In its original form, it is nearly four hours long.

The movie was written by Dylan and stars him as Renaldo; his then-wife Sara Dylan appears as Clara, his ex-lover Joan Baez plays "The Woman in White", and Ronnie Hawkins plays 'Bob Dylan'. Dylan hired Allen Ginsberg and Sam Shepard to create scenes for the film; how many of their contributions survive can only be guessed, but the writing credit in any event belongs to Dylan.

The famous French film Les Enfants du Paradis had a heavy influence on the style, structure and thematic elements of Renaldo and Clara. There are many similarities between these two films. They include Dylan in whiteface, the recurring flower, "The Woman in White", the on-stage and backstage scenes, and the dialogue of the both films' climactic scenes. Also evident is the Cubist approach of the two films, allowing us to see the main characters from the different perspectives of various lovers. Running time is also relatively similar.

Many of the artists performing with the Rolling Thunder Revue are featured in the movie, which also includes clips of concert performances and footage of Rubin Carter, the subject of Dylan's song "Hurricane".

The movie was generally poorly reviewed, often scathingly received, and its initial theatrical run was short. After opening in New York City and Los Angeles, the only other cities where the original form ran were reportedly Minneapolis, Boston, Kansas City and Pittsfield, Maine (a sold-out one week run).

Later in 1978, Dylan allowed a two-hour edit of the film to be distributed. The shortened version focused more on the concert footage and omitted many of the dramatic scenes. It had a longer, low-profile run in wider distribution, but was not seen as commercially successful.

After a small number of showings (perhaps only a single airing) of the original version on European television, Dylan withdrew the film from distribution. Copies, made from recordings of the television broadcast, circulate among collectors, but the only parts of the movie to be released for consumers are the excerpts found on the "bonus" DVD accompanying the initial release of Dylan's The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue. Footage from the film also appeared in the music video of Dylan's 1991 song Series of Dreams.

Hearts of fire

Hearts of Fire was a 1987 film starring Dylan, Fiona Flanagan (billed only as "Fiona") and Rupert Everett. The film was essentially a vehicle for Dylan based off his success as a rock musician. It received poor reviews, a limited theatrical release and was later written off by Dylan himself as something he was involved in only "for the money."

Masked and anonymous

Masked and Anonymous was given very poor reviews upon release, maintaining an extremely low 25% Fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes and a 32% rating at Metacritic. Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert gave the film a 1/2 star (out of a possible four) rating, and deemed it "a vanity production beyond all reason." [4] A number of reviewers commented on Dylan's acting, with one critic writing that he appeared "near-catatonic" and another that he stared "in mute incomprehension", "never speaking more than one line at a time" and only making remarks that "evoke the language and philosophy of Chinese fortune cookies." The film was also panned by Rolling Stone, Entertainment Weekly, The Village Voice and at least about twenty other noteworthy periodicals.

Amongst the positive reviewers was The Philadelphia Enquirer, which wrote, "Dylan and his band do a half-dozen songs that crackle with energy." The Washington Post agreed, stating that the film is a "fascinating, vexing, indulgent, visionary, pretentious, mesmerizing pop culture curio.

No Direction Home

No Direction Home is a documentary film by Martin Scorsese that traces the life of Bob Dylan, and his impact on 20th century American popular music and culture. The film does not cover Dylan's entire career; it concentrates on the period between Dylan's arrival in New York in January 1961 and his "retirement" from touring, following his motorcycle accident in July 1966. This period encapsulates Dylan's rise to fame as a folk singer and songwriter, and the controversy surrounding his switch to a rock style of music. The film was first shown on television in both the United States (as part of the PBS American Masters series) and the United Kingdom (as part of the BBC Two Arena series) on September 26–27 2005. A DVD version of the film and accompanying soundtrack album (The Bootleg Series Vol. 7: No Direction Home: The Soundtrack) were released that same month.

The project eventually titled as No Direction Home began to take shape in 1995 when Dylan's manager, Jeff Rosen, began scheduling interviews with Dylan's friends and associates. Among those interviewed were poet Allen Ginsberg and folk musician Dave Van Ronk, both of whom died before the film was completed. Dylan's old girlfriend Suze Rotolo also granted a rare interview, and she later told Rolling Stone Magazine that she was very pleased with the project's results. Dylan himself also sat for ten hours in a relaxed and open conversation with Rosen in 2000.

According to Rolling Stone magazine, an unnamed source close to the project claimed that Dylan himself had no involvement with the project apart from the interview, saying that " [Dylan] has no interest in this . . . Bob truly does not look back." However, work on the first installment of Dylan's autobiography, Chronicles, Vol. 1, did overlap production of the project, though it's unclear how much, if any, influence Chronicles may have had on No Direction Home.

Other side of the mirror

The Other Side of the Mirror: Bob Dylan at the Newport Folk Festival is a 2007 documentary film about Bob Dylan's appearances at the Newport Folk Festival in three successive years: 1963, 1964, and 1965, directed by Murray Lerner.

The film adds to the footage previously seen in Lerner's Festival! (1967), with full-length song performances. It includes Dylan's controversial electric set from 1965.

This film features previously unseen footage, chronicling the changes in Dylan’s style when he appeared at Newport in three successive years. This film was broadcast by BBC Four on October 14, 2007. Director Murray Lerner commented: “Over the course of three Newport gigs, Dylan becomes more conscious of his power. His charisma is startling. With electricity and radio, he did what Yeats, Lorca, T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound never achieved. He reached a mass audience with poetry.

Im Not there

A 2007 biographical film directed by Todd Haynes and is inspired by the life of iconic singer-songwriter Bob Dylan. It depicts six distinct stages of Dylan's life and public persona portrayed by an ensemble cast of actors: Marcus Carl Franklin, Ben Whishaw, Heath Ledger, Christian Bale, Richard Gere, and Cate Blanchett, who play characters based on Dylan but with different names.

The film tells its story using non-traditional techniques, similar to the poetic narrative style of Dylan's songwriting. It takes its name from the 1967 Dylan outtake "I'm Not There", a song never officially released until its appearance on the film's official soundtrack album. Critically acclaimed, I'm Not There made many top ten film lists for 2007, topping the lists for The Village Voice, Entertainment Weekly, Salon and The Boston Globe.