A new Bob Dylan biopic, “A Complete Unknown,” starring Timothée Chalamet, arrives in theaters on Christmas Day. As historian Douglas Brinkley tells us, this is just the latest chapter in a long love affair between Dylan and cinema.
Growing up in the iron-rich mining town of Hibbing, Minnesota, in the 1940s and ’50s, Bob Dylan was not exposed to much nonconformity or social upheaval. Except at the cinema.
It was in local theaters, one of which belonged to his relatives, that he first discovered Brigitte Bardot, his first crush and the muse of some of his first songs.
“Well my phone rang, it wouldn’t stop
It’s President Kennedy calling me
He said, “My friend Bob, what do we need to grow the country?
I said: ‘My friend, John, Brigitte Bardot
Anita Ekberg, Sophia Loren…'”
— “I’ll Be Free” by Bob Dylan
Young Bob wore a leather jacket after seeing Marlon Brando in “The Wild One.” When he saw the juvenile melodrama “Blackboard Jungle,” with its innovative rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack, he reportedly told a friend, “That’s exactly what we’ve been trying to tell people about ourselves “.
Seeing James Dean in “Rebel Without a Cause” inspired him to speak out against the shackles of Cold War conformity in his music.
Once he arrived in Greenwich Village in New York, it was the international arthouse films that caught his attention: “Shoot the Piano Player” by Truffaut… “La dolce vita” by Fellini. This film, about a tabloid journalist seeking in vain to find fulfillment in a hedonistic Rome, was, Dylan later said, “like life in a carnival mirror.”
However, Dylan’s first major film appearance was a cameo in director Sam Peckinpah’s “Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.” The film spawned the classic song “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”, now Nobel Prize winnerthe most listened to song.
His music has enriched numerous film scores, from “The Big Lebowski” to more recently “St. Vincent”.
A film marked Dylan for decades: “The Gunfighter”, with Gregory Peck. When Peck heard his name in Dylan’s epic 1986 ballad “Brownsville Girl,” he called him to thank him. Peck would reiterate his gratitude in 1997, when he presented Dylan with the Kennedy Center Honor.
The new biopic “A Complete Unknown,” starring the astonishing Timothée Chalamet, isn’t the first cinematic portrayal of Dylan. But it’s a reminder of the enduring, symbiotic relationship between Dylan and cinema…and a welcome excuse to revisit the work of this singular American artist.
To watch a trailer for “A Complete Unknown,” click on the video player below:
For more information:
Story produced by Robert Marston. Publisher: Georges Pozderec.
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