Dylan007 wrote:
Some random thoughts....Last night I dusted off my copy of R&C for the first time in a few years and made it though most off the first disc. I was motivated after listening to the rolling thunder bootleg series lately. The official boot of the music from the is amazing, while the movie tends to dissapoint. I'm amazed at how strung out everyone in the film appears, with the exception of Joan Baez. Guess I shouldn't be considering it was the mid 70s.
I was looking with a close eye to watch mick ronson's guitar work in the film. He's there, but there aren't many telling moments that really highlight his playing or technique. Granted, that's not what the film is about. It's a good time capsule of that era I guess, but what a mess they all seemed to be. Bob and Sara appear to both be in incredibly bad shape. Knowing that he did bott & desire before the tour, makes me curious about where their relationship was at the time and how much substance abuse drove a wedge between them. I googled some of the reviews of the film today (all bad) saw that David blue (the guy playing pinball sniffing quite often and talking a mile a minute about the early days) died of complications of the liver at age 41. Kind of sad. I walked away feeling depressed after watching. Never knew the tall skinny guy on guitar was none other than t-bone b., he made it out ok. What has been written about the film and its purpose or objective by Dylan biographers? Back when I used to read up on Dylan bios, I primarily focused on the 60s and dismissed this era. I find the first leg of the tour to be pretty amazing, but agree with most that it greatly lost something when it ventured into the south in early 76. Btw - Is ratso's book about the tour worth reading? Thoughts?
The first thing you have to accept about “Renaldo And Clara” is that it is not a film “about” the 1975 tour. It is a movie about relationships and love and its many facets. Just like the movie that inspired it – “Les Enfants du Paradis/Children Of Paradise” (France 1945). “R & C” takes place in the world of rock music, “Children Of Paradise” takes place in the world of theatre, but “R & C” is not “about” rock music, just as “Children Of Paradise” is not “about” theatre.
You need to watch the movie several times to understand the system that was used to construct the film. According to Alan Ginsberg the movie was edited based on a system Dylan had laid out on index cards. There are recurring themes and motifs (the rose, the lady in white, the use of certain colors, the use of masks, “reality” vs. stage etc. etc.). Each scene was assigned one of those themes/motifs and the movie was constructed along those lines. Furthermore one interpretation sees the whole movie as Renaldo’s dream. Check the scene of Dylan as Renaldo “waking up” near the end of the movie. The dream interpretation would explain the dream-like flow of the film.
In order to get into the film it helps to study the movie that inspired it: the French movie “Les Enfants du Paradis/Children Of Paradise” (1945). A movie that also uses stage performances to comment on the relationships between the protagonists, just like “R & C”. “Les Enfants du Paradis/Children Of Paradise” also is a very long movie (approx. 200 mins). The famous “Rolling Thunder Revue” logotype was inspired by the opening title card of “Les Enfants du Paradis/Children Of Paradise”. Both films feature one of the leading characters in whiteface, both have a “woman in white”, both repeatedly use flowers as a prominent symbol, both alternate between on-stage, back-stage and “real life” scenes, the dialogue in “R & C” shares similarities with the dialogue in “Les Enfants du Paradis/Children Of Paradise” and both films use a cubist approach in that they present the main characters from the different perspectives of the other characters.