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cover of episode Is Bob Dylan Still a ‘Complete Unknown’?

Is Bob Dylan Still a ‘Complete Unknown’?

2025/2/11
logo of podcast The Book Review

The Book Review
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Gilbert Cruz
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James Mangold
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Gilbert Cruz: 本次访谈主要围绕James Mangold导演的电影《A Complete Unknown》展开,该电影改编自Elijah Wald的《Dylan Goes Electric》。这本书不仅讲述了Bob Dylan的故事,还涉及了1960年代的文化变革、民谣运动以及Pete Seeger等重要人物。电影改编的关键在于如何将非虚构作品转化为引人入胜的视觉叙事。 James Mangold: 我最初被Elijah Wald的书所吸引,并与Jay Cox一同进行剧本改编工作。Wald的书详细记录了Bob Dylan在1965年Newport音乐节上的电子音乐表演之前的事件和人物,对我们的创作具有重要意义。然而,电影的时间限制使得我们无法完全展现书中丰富的内容。因此,我们决定聚焦于1960年至1965年这五年,将故事的重点放在Bob Dylan与Joan Baez、Suze Rotolo、Pete Seeger等人的关系上,深入挖掘他的私人生活、友谊和竞争,以此来理解他音乐创作的根源和动力。在与Bob Dylan本人会面后,我更加确信了他性格的复杂性和多面性,以及他对于音乐创作的独特视角。我希望通过这部电影,展现一个更加真实、不被过度解读的Bob Dylan。

Deep Dive

Chapters
This chapter explores the challenges and approaches of adapting Elijah Wald's book, "Dylan Goes Electric," into a film, focusing on the specific period between 1960 and 1965. James Mangold discusses his decision to structure the film similarly to "Amadeus," prioritizing the exploration of human emotions surrounding immense talent rather than solely focusing on unlocking the protagonist's secrets.
  • Adaptation of Elijah Wald's book, "Dylan Goes Electric!"
  • Focus on the period between 1960-1965
  • Film structure inspired by "Amadeus"
  • Emphasis on human emotions surrounding immense talent

Shownotes Transcript

Elijah Wald’s 2015 book, “Dylan Goes Electric! Newport, Seeger, Dylan and the Night That Split the Sixties,” traces the events that led up to Bob Dylan’s memorable performance at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. The book is about Dylan, but also about the folk movement, youth culture, politics and the record business. For the writer and director James Mangold, Wald’s work provided an opportunity to tell an unusual story about the musician.

“You could structure a screenplay along the lines of what Peter Shaffer did with “Amadeus,’” Mangold told the Book Review editor Gilbert Cruz. “I don’t really know what I learned about Mozart watching “Amadeus.” But I do know that I learned a lot about how we mortals feel about people with immense talent.”

Mangold’s film “A Complete Unknown” is a chronicle of Dylan’s early years on the New York folk scene, and it avoids easy explanations for the musician’s genius and success. “What if the thing we don’t understand, we just don’t want to understand,” said Mangold, “which is that he’s actually different? That he’s just a different kind of person than you or I?”

In the second episode of our special series devoted to Oscar-nominated films adapted from books, Cruz talks with Mangold about making a film centered on one of music’s most enigmatic figures.

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