The sun of Bob Dylan was born in New York in 1961, when he arrived in the city with a bag and a guitar and went to the bedside of Woody Guthrie. He was his idol, the folk singer of the oppressed and struggles, and Dylan plays him a song he wrote for him. “Hey Woody, I’ve come from far away to walk a path already traveled by others.” There’s also Pete Seeger, with them, number two on the American folk and protest scene. It all begins like this, in this film full of emotions and nominated for eight Oscars including best film, best director and best actor. Dylan is Timothée Chalamet, who embodies him in voice, body and singing – he performs all the songs in the film – in a masterful and at the same time natural interpretation (to the point that Chalamet is Dylan, but in the end you could also believe the opposite).
A Complete Unknown focuses on a handful of years – it goes up to 1965 – and gives just the minimum amount of attention to the historical context, even if in most classic of ways: television that tells of the Cuban missile crisis, first, and Kennedy's death, then, while Dylan sings in the cellars of Greenwich Village. "Hard times," he tells the audience one night, "find yourself someone to love." He has Sylvie, who takes him to the protests of the Congress of Racial Equality, attends painting classes in Queens and ends up hugging him on the cover of his first album (it's Freewheelin'). But there's also Joan Baez, who is already famous for her debut album, House of the Rising Sun, and takes him on tour in California. They will sing together, Girl From The North Country and Don't Think Twice, It's All Right.
James Mangold, who wrote the film with Jay cocks based on the book of Elijah Wald “Dylan Goes Electric!” returns intact theDylan's Enigma: a complete unknown with boundless talent who with his art earns his freedom. From the bonds that women would like him to respect and cultivate. From the political battles in which the public would like to see him on the front lines. And also from the perimeter of folk music in which producers and colleagues would like to confine him. He wrote Blowing in the Wind taking up an acoustic guitar and embracing the protest but now he wants to play the electric and sing Maggie's Farm and Mr. Tambourine's Man in new and amplified versions.
“I sing the body electric”, said a powerful verse by Walt Whitman:electric was the progress. It is also for Dylan, an author as unstoppable as a rolling stone and like this film, which captures its urgency and runs straight for two hours and a quarter, strong in a musical sequence and a perfectly compiled cast. Ed Norton is Pete Seeger, Elle Fanning is Sylvie Russo, Monica Barbaro is Joan Baez, all very good. It is cinema of professionalism and passion. What more could you want? As Bette Davis said, “Don't ask for the moon, we have the stars”.
In the room
Original title: Id.; Production: USA 2024, Director: James Mangold, Screenplay: James Mangold and Jay Cocks, Editing: Andrew Buckland and Scott Morris, Photography: Phedon Papamichael, Main cast: Timothée Chalamet, Elle Fanning, Monica Barbaro, Ed Norton, Running time: 141 minutes.
