My daughter and I continue our borderline obsessive quest to get to the bottom of the music legend called Bob Dylan. Not his actual bottom, that would be inappropriate. And gross.
After seeing the man himself in concert in Liverpool in November last year (yes, really, he is still alive), today, we saw Timothee Chalamet in A Complete Unknown.
We both agreed that today’s experience was much more enjoyable. At first sight, baby face Chalamet is not the most obvious choice for the role, but he had grown on us by the minute. The transformation was gradual, as he acquired his iconic brown leather jackets and I am too cool for my boots mannerisms. By the time he rode into the sunset on his motorbike, 2 hours and 20 minutes later, Timothee WAS Bob.
As the more attentive readers of my writing efforts might recall, my daughter and I had been bearing a grudge against Bob since that evening in Liverpool. My daughter and I, let’s call my daughter Alexia because that is her name. So, Alexia and I were properly peeved when Bob Dylan had not sang a single one of Bob Dylan Greatest Hits for us.
Little we knew that we were by no means the first ones to feel cheated by Bob the Great. We learnt today, with a raised eyebrow, that Dylan started the trend of not giving cat’s whiskers about what his audiences came to hear at Newport Folk Festival in 1965. He shocked his fans there by playing an electric guitar and debuting his rock’n’roll sound when thousands expected to sing along to his folk staples. Nearly 60 years before not singing Mr.Tambourine Man at the M& S Arena.
We felt a little less special as it looked like disappointing his fans had been Bob’s party trick since either of us was born, and that is a very long time ago!
Then again, perhaps the right way to look at it is to see ourselves as privileged enough to be part of Bob’s inner circle of the fans he goes on pissing off through the decades.
Apart from being personal to us, the film was also beautifully nostalgic, full of cigarette smoke and the musical greats of the early 1960. My top scene was Bob’s duet with Joan Baez. And finally, Edward Norton for supporting actor gong at the awards season, please.
Ania Heasley 