University of Texas Press I'm not There

"This title belongs to the 21st Century Film Essentials list. Famed queer filmmaker Todd Haynes' "biopic" of Bob Dylan, I'm Not There, caused a stir when released in 2007. Not only had Dylan, notoriously resistant to such treatments of his life, given his approval to this one, but the character of Bob Dylan, under different names, was played by six different actors -- Christian Bale, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere, Ben Whishaw, Marcus Carl Franklin (a young Black boy), and perhaps most notably Cate Blanchett(in an Oscar-nominated performance) -- representing different elements of Dylan's persona in different stages of his life. Non-linear and highly referential, I'm Not There also used Dylan's own music as a score, another triumph for Haynes given the troubles he had had in using, or trying to use, the music of the Carpenters (Superstar) and David Bowie (Velvet Goldmine) in the past. Tsika, an expert in queer cinema, explores this understudied film from its beginnings to its reception and afterlife"-- An examination of director Todd Haynes and his Bob Dylan biopic. As the first and only Bob Dylan “biopic,” I’m Not There caused a stir when released in 2007. Offering a surreal retelling of moments from Dylan’s life and career, the film is perhaps best known for its distinctive approach to casting, including Cate Blanchett and Marcus Carl Franklin, a Black child actor, as versions of Dylan though none of the characters bear his name. Greenlit by Bob Dylan himself, the film uses Dylan’s music as a score, a triumph for famed queer filmmaker Todd Haynes after encountering issues with copyright in previous projects. Noah Tsika eloquently characterizes all the ways that Dylan and Haynes harmonize in their methods and sensibilities, interpreting the rule-breaking film as a biography that refuses chronology, disdains factual accuracy, flirts with libel, and cannibalizes Western cinema. Fitting the film’s inspiration, creation, and reception alongside its continuing afterlife, Tsika examines Dylan’s music in the film through the context of intellectual property, raising questions about who owns artistic material and artistic identities and how such material can be reused and repurposed. Tsika’s adventurous analysis touches on gender, race, queerness, celebrity, popular culture, and the law, while offering much to Haynes and Dylan fans alike. An examination of director Todd Haynes and his Bob Dylan biopic. Autorid: Noah Tsika