ITALY: Bob Dylan movie "I'm Not There" makes its world premiere at Venice Film Festival

Actors Richard Gere and Heath Ledger joined director Todd Haynes on the Venice Film Festival red carpet for the world premiere of Bob Dylan biopic 'I'm Not There' on Tuesday (September 4). Gere and Ledger are two of six actors who in the film portray different stages of the life of the singer-songwriter. Also playing Dylan are Australian-born actress Cate Blanchett, young black actor Marcus Carl Franklin, Christian Bale and Ben Whishaw. In competition at the Venice film festival, the biopic seeks to avoid reducing Dylan to an easily definable type, and gives a sense of how difficult the ever-changing musician is to categorise. Old-style, black-and-white footage is mixed with colour sequences for Gere and Ledger and with real news footage of U.S. protests in the 1960s and scenes from the Vietnam War. In production notes for the film, Haynes said these were his way of channelling anger he felt over the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The relatively obscure Dylan track "I'm Not There" was used for the title to portray the singer retreating from public life in the 1960s. Gere plays Dylan as the fabled outlaw Billy the Kid, who after finding refuge in the town of Riddle is forced to abandon his sanctuary and move on.

ITN Source | September 6, 2007

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