Will ‘A Complete Unknown’ ever be able to truly capture the magic of Bob Dylan’s live shows?
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(Credits: Searchlight Pictures)
Film buffs everywhere collectively lost their minds when the first trailer for the Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown was released. The teaser gave people their first glimpse into watching Timothée Chalamet assume the role of Bob Dylan and attempt to capture the mysterious charm of the influential singer. Releasing in December, the chatter surrounding the film is gradually getting louder and louder. While film fans question whether Chalamet is the correct casting, what they can expect from the picture, and how successful it could be, music lovers have their minds directed elsewhere.
In the clip, we are treated to a short stint of Chalamet performing on stage as Dylan. He sounds great, but there isn’t much else given away other than his voice. He stands alone on stage, a guitar his only accomplice, and a blinding light shining down to reveal his silhouette and not much of the crowd. As such, it leaves us questioning how much of a pivotal part Dylan’s live shows will play in this biopic. It also begs the question of if they play a role, how will they be accurately portrayed?
The issue with translating Bob Dylan’s gigs to the big screen comes down to the fact that his shows weren’t like anybody else’s. Usually, when you go to a live performance, you watch a band perform a few songs and enjoy getting to experience what you listen to in your spare time up close and personal. This isn’t what people got from Dylan, and it meant that his concerts have always been particularly divisive.
At more recent Dylan gigs, his classic songs would often be unrecognisable as he played around with the arrangement, using his music as a backbone that gave form to something utterly different from what people knew him for. His performances are an experience, totally unique and differing from show to show. The idea that a movie can capture this variety and the mixed reception that it so often gets is interesting, given that it relies on so much more than sound alone. It comes down to the atmosphere within the crowd, the mood of Dylan, and the reception to certain songs. Every show was a singular experience, and his live act could have its own movie series dedicated to it.
Leonard Cohen once spoke about witnessing Bob Dylan perform live and tried to describe the borderline mystical feeling that accompanied the gig. The two were already fans of each other’s work, but Cohen touched upon the fact that seeing him perform live was a completely different experience compared to what listening to his studio albums was like.
“As Sharon Robinson said, Bob Dylan has a secret code with his audience,” said Cohen, “If someone came from the moon and watched it they might wonder what was going on… In this particular case, he had his back to one half of the audience and was playing the organ, beautifully I might say, and just running through the songs.”
Cohen noted, “Some were hard to recognise. But nobody cared. That’s not what they were there for and not what I was there for.”
Cohen went on to describe the true meaning of the gig. It wasn’t like any other show, where people go to experience specific songs; instead, it was people going to experience Dylan as a whole. The real treat was to share in his presence, hear his voice, and actually see the man responsible for the music that was changing the world.
“Something else was going on,” he said, “Which was a celebration of some kind of genius that is so apparent and so clear and has touched people so deeply that all they need is some kind of symbolic unfolding of the event. It doesn’t have to be the songs. All it has to be is: remember that song and what it did to you. It’s a very strange event.”
For a wordsmith like Leonard Cohen to struggle to develop a proper description of what makes a Bob Dylan gig so unique, it will be extra challenging to capture that magic on the screen. That being said, no one ever thought for a moment that capturing the life and times of one of music’s most influential, captivating and mysterious contributors was going to be easy, so the challenge of showing his live shows is just another reason why people can’t wait for A Complete Unknown.
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