#14 Post by AWA » Tue Jun 18, 2019 12:59 am

Roger Ryan wrote: ↑ Mon Jun 17, 2019 3:41 pm Exactly. The joke is on Dylan himself who was, technically, the director of the original footage - he's the one who asked Sam Shepard to come on-board to fashion a script around the events and sought to turn the footage into an arty vanity project. Exactly. The joke is on Dylan himself who was, technically, the director of the original footage - he's the one who asked Sam Shepard to come on-board to fashion a script around the events and sought to turn the footage into an arty vanity project.

Roger Ryan wrote: ↑ Mon Jun 17, 2019 3:41 pm Although he's playing Jack Tanner, I was reminded that Michael Murphy also played the presidential campaign manager in Altman's Nashville, the one who organizes the big fund-raising concert to honor the bicentennial. Given that Ronee Blakely, who sang back-up with Dylan on the Rolling Thunder Revue, played the ill-fated Barbara Jean in that movie, I feel that Murphy's appearance seemed appropriate. Although he's playing Jack Tanner, I was reminded that Michael Murphy also played the presidential campaign manager in Altman's Nashville, the one who organizes the big fund-raising concert to honor the bicentennial. Given that Ronee Blakely, who sang back-up with Dylan on the Rolling Thunder Revue, played the ill-fated Barbara Jean in that movie, I feel that Murphy's appearance seemed appropriate.

Roger Ryan wrote: ↑ Mon Jun 17, 2019 3:41 pm Since the real stuff in Rolling Thunder Revue is so spectacular, the fictitious elements didn't bother me at all. What they imply, actually, is that Dylan and Scorsese must have collaborated a lot more closely than they did on the earlier No Direction Home: did Dylan come up with the whole "Von Dorp" idea and Scorsese brought it to life or did Scorsese initiate the conceit and Dylan played along? Since the real stuff in Rolling Thunder Revue is so spectacular, the fictitious elements didn't bother me at all. What they imply, actually, is that Dylan and Scorsese must have collaborated a lot more closely than they did on the earlier No Direction Home: did Dylan come up with the whole "Von Dorp" idea and Scorsese brought it to life or did Scorsese initiate the conceit and Dylan played along?

Roger Ryan wrote: ↑ Mon Jun 17, 2019 3:41 pm Those who have seen the movie may be amused to learn that the actor who plays the independent filmmaker is van Geldorp! Those who have seen the movie may be amused to learn that the actor who plays the independent filmmaker is Martin von Haselberg , Bette Midler's husband and the guy who performed as one of the Kipper Kids in Forbidden Zone and UHF. Another intriguing discovery: Since the band Shocking Blue plays such a pivotal part in Von Dorp's early career, I was checking out some information on the band and found that the late lead singer Mariska Veres had been in a long-term relationship with a guitarist named AndréGel

Also, one strong reasoning for doing this seems to be to keep Sara out of this completely. Supposedly they are (and have relatively always) been on good terms, but Rolling Thunder / Renaldo & Clara is, even through all the improvised fiction off-stage, a detailed look at his marriage falling apart. It of course got worse on Rolling Thunder Pt2 / 1976, but it was still quite obvious throughout in this footage. He couldn't reconcile his need to perform and engage his art with her desire to keep him home and away from the vices of the road, his erratic nature, etc.I realized all that, but still - it's another person's creation, not Marty's, and it's strange to think Scorsese would take another director's creation and write new fictional background for it.However... on the other hand... Bob has made his entire career doing the musical / writing equivalent of that (especially from Time Out Of Mind onward, drawing from a dizzying array of sources to bring artisitc deconstruction and recontextualizations to unprecedented levels of which the full scope of which we may never truly know). So, in a way, I suppose it is fitting that Scorsese, embracing the spirit of Bob's own creative forces, saw something he liked from another director's canon and just flat out took it and made it his own.I would venture an educated guess that if Robert Altman were alive today, he would have enjoyed that, but he isn't and you can't ask him. It did remind me ever so slightly of The Long Goodbye, in which Altman played with Raymond Chandler's "Philip Marlowe" character (which had been done before many times, of course, but never in that manner that Altman did it in). Altman's Marlowe was somewhat Dylan-esque in many ways as well (and I recall reading somewhere that Elliot Gould played it like Dylan as well).Apparently Bob wrote all the lines for Von Dorp - and, as usual, Bob leaves a few breadcrumbs for us to find our source - the comment about Von Dorp talking about Dylan being "like looking in a mirror" is the obvious one. When taking that into account, it is interesting to read Von Dorp's commentary as being by and about Dylan himself. In that sense, it reminded me much more of Bob's writing in Masked & Anonymous.Funny too considering Bob and Bette had a brief thing back in the late 70's, not too long after the Rolling Thunder days.