I´m not there - the new film about Bob Dylan- a review

First of all: This is a bad movie. Chaotic, boring, meaningless. Nobody would shed a tear, if this film would not exist. The lengths of the film makes you fall asleep, even if you are benevolent. The cutter was probably also nodded off and he has cut the scenes as he received them randomly by Post.

A long time you think, you´re still in the programme picture, but then you are on the wrong track. Often it remains unclear, whose story is told actually: that of Woody Guthrie, that of Pete Seegers or Bob Dylan. The single stories just dont fit. What you see is more than a split personality, it is simply incoherent. The idea to use seven actors to play Dylan is genial, but the realisation is dilletante.

But nevertheless, it is a very beautiful bad film. Kate Blanchett plays very persuading the cynical poet, who has no order in his life and who gets tired, that every shit out of his mouth is sold as a wisdom by the medias. The wheel of cigarettes, drinks and drugs spins faster and faster, she perfectly plays a man, who no longer is able to feel love or emotions. Kate IS Dylan, no, she is better than Dylan himself. Until now, I thought, that it´s a crazy idea, to have man rolls played by a woman, but now I am convinced, that it is possible. She perfectly expresses the fundamental problem of a poet, who realises, that he can´t change the world. She perfectly plays the bohemian, who loses respect for everything, even himself.

And the time of the sixties is distilled full of atmosphere: the parties, the fashions, the meanigless rebellion of the do-gooders, the euphoria of drog prophets, the flickering screens with bombs, assassinations and riots. The reality gets absurd and is expressed in a abruptly "minced" way, as it was practised by the Dada movement after the First World War. "I accept the chaos, but I don´t know wether the chaos accepts me", that slogan of Dylan expresses exactly that feeling.

In short, the motto of the film and of that time was: Life is a colorful game, and you don´t need a sense for that game. Today, however, we feel the bitter and murky seriousness of life and try to find out the sense in that . As we look into the sixties, this film is a good time machine.

So there were some thoughts and ideas of brilliance, who unfortunately were sunken in the sea of chaos. They would be worth a rescue work in order to lift them. All in all, if somebody would cut the film to the half time and if someone would re-arrange the scenes, this could be a rather good film. In the actual form it is only Dada and psychedelic. If there was an Oscar for "most beautiful bad film", I would nominate "I'm not there" immediately.