Sunday, January 06, 2008

In continuation from adv's (Im not there)

Havent heard any of Bob Dylan actually, but just as a film-making exercise, this definitely needs an archive.
When one tries to talk about a personality, you either film your version of him or you document him like an object. This film actually finds a mid-way, almost like it were an ode by the director/reseracher to Dylan. Interesting is the technique of overlaps between the 6 different characters/phases, of his life. It gives enough freedom to either make a film a chronoligical understanding of a life, or use it to show the impulsive frivolity of the mind, (causing a constant back and forth and thus not making a personality type a constant or fixed), or showing actual borrowings of a single life into various other lives' (assuming all 6 were real 'other' characters who would have picked up parts of Dylans personality in making their own.) The beauty of the film for me lies in the way it multi-dimensions the idea of a documentary, standardly an objective view, more or less factual and something that takes ease in linearity, into something that is not singular, making an object real.!. And the way it makes a non-film, out of something that is a tad-bit personal, clearly opinionated, researched and selected to be presented. Connecting varied instances of one life in a more plural light, in turn allowing a personality to seep into being a Cult.
That is as far philosphy goes, other observations:
The innocence is played by a black child. representing freedom of expression the way only they can?, frustration at such root levels?, maturity that comes at that tender age with that fearless expression?
the varied face types used for each character to his personality.
the change in body structure from a lean, punked type to a countryside man to a black child, to a deliberate character of a man played by a woman.
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