DON’T LOOK BACK

14 January Saturday 14:00 29 January Sunday 16:00

1967, 95’, USA, black and white
D.A. Pennebaker
English with Turkish subtitles

“What I wanted to do was just be present when Dylan enacted his whole life and show you what he deals with and what interests him. It may not be so much about Dylan because Dylan is sort of acting throughout the film. And that’s his right... He had to be extraordinary where most of us settle for just being adequate.”
D A Pennebaker

Both a classic documentary and a vital pop-cultural artifact, Pennebaker's portrait of Bob Dylan captures the seminal singer-songwriter on the cusp of his transformation from folk prophet to rock trendsetter. Shot during Dylan's 1965 British concert tour, Don't Look Back employs an edgy vérité style that was, and is, a snug fit with the artist's own consciously rough-hewn persona. Its handheld black-and-white images and often-gritty London backdrops suggest cinematic extensions of the archetypal monochrome portraits that graced Dylan's career-making early-'60s album jackets. Pennebaker's access to the legendarily private troubadour enables us to witness Dylan's shifting moods as he performs, relaxes with his entourage (including then lover Joan Baez, road manager Bob Neuwirth, and poker-faced manager Albert Grossman), and jousts with other musicians (notably Animals alumnus Alan Price and Scottish folksinger Donovan), fans, and press. It's a measurement of the filmmaker's acuity that the conversations are often as gripping as Dylan's solo performances.