Subject: A Complete Unknown 2024, Dylan & Newport
From:
Desert Dancer
Date: 19 Oct 24 - 04:23 PM
Coming December 25, 2024: "A Complete Unknown" - a movie starring Timothée Chalamet as Bob Dylan, with
(Actor) ... (Character)
Monica Barbaro ... Joan Baez
Elle Fanning ... Sylvie Russo (= Suze Rotolo?)
Scoot McNairy ... Woody Guthrie
Boyd Holbrook ... Johnny Cash
Edward Norton ... Pete Seeger
Norbert Leo Butz ... Alan Lomax
(and many more)
"At the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, a young Bob Dylan shakes up his act on the folk music scene by going electric and siring rock as the voice of a generation - defining one of the most transformative moments in 20th century music."
A teaser and full trailer are at the above IMDb link.
The film is loosely/arguably based on the 2015 book "Dylan Goes Electric", by Elijah Wald, which sets the furor surrounding Dylan's 1965 appearance with an electric band at the Newport Folk Festival in the context of the changes in the .
Today Elijah Wald added to his online "Songobiography" posts with this one featuring "Blowin' in the Wind", where he also comments on what he knows about the movie thus far (which isn't more than any of us), in particular with a note on Suze Rotolo, who is one of the key characters whose name was changed for the movie. He hopes that her important role will not also be lost.
IndieWire reports:
"... Mangold noted during the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast that the film is not a traditional biopic, but rather an ensemble period piece reminiscent of Robert Altman’s work.
“By the way, it’s not really a Bob Dylan biopic,” Mangold said. “The reason Bob has been so supportive of us making it, is it’s about, as in all cases I think of the best true-life movies are never cradle to grave but they’re about a very specific moment. In this case, it might sound Altman-esque, but it’s a kind of ensemble piece about this moment in time, the early ’60s in New York, and this 17-year-old kid with $16 in his pockets hitchhikes his way to New York to meet Woody Guthrie who is in the hospital and is dying of a nerve disease.”
Mangold continued, “And he sings Woody a song that he wrote for him and befriends Pete Seeger, who is like a son to Woody, and Pete sets him up with gigs at local clubs and there you meet Joan Baez and all these other people who are part of this world, and this wanderer who comes in from Minnesota with a fresh name and a fresh outlook on life, becomes a star, signs to the biggest record company in the world within a year, and three years later, has record sales rivaling The Beatles.”
Dylan himself gave notes on the script, which Mangold said he now treasures. “I’ve spent several, wonderfully charming, days in his company, just one-on-one, talking to him,” the “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” director said. “I have a script that’s personally annotated by him and treasured by me. He loves movies. The first time I sat down with Bob, one of the first things he said to me was, ‘I love “Copland.”‘”
---
I imagine that like many here I'm not so interested in the portrayal of Bob Dylan in this movie, but that cultural moment and in particular that cultural moment in American folk and popular music.
Side note: Benedict Cumberbatch was originally to play Pete Seeger, probably mostly for his vague physical resemblance, but he had scheduling conflicts.
~ Becky in Oregon
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sj
