This year will mark the seventy-fifth edition of the Berlin Film Festival which has been the first to give us a preview of films that will begin seeing throughout the rest of 2025 and beyond. This edition of Berlinale will see a new artistic director, Tricia Tuttle who begins her tenure at the festival which runs from February 13th to February 23rd.
Todd Haynes will be the Jury President who will lead his panel to select which films will take home prizes. The American filmmaker will be joined by Chinese actress, Fan Bingbing; German actress and filmmaker, Maria Schrader; German costume designer, Bina Daigeler; Argentinian filmmaker, Rodrigo Moreno; Moroccan filmmaker, Nabil Ayouch and American film critic, Amy Nicholson.
Some of the films in the Main Competition includes new films by Richard Linklater ("Blue Moon"), Hong Sang-soo ("What Does That Nature Say to You"), Radu Jude ("Kontinental '25"), Lucile Hadžihalilović ("La Tour de Glace"), Michel Franco ("Dreams"), Rebecca Lenkiewicz ("Hot Milk") and Vivian Qu ("Girls on Wire").
Films selected for the Berlinale Special screenings are the latest from German filmmaker, Tom Tykwer, "Das Licht (The Light)" which will kick off the fest. The director who broke through with his 1998 action-drama, "Run Lola Run" has returned with his first feature film in ten years in a story about a fractured middle-class family living in a world that has become unstable. The follow-up to the Korean director, Bong Joon-ho Best Picture Oscar-winning film, "Parasite" is an English-language sci-fi comedy, "Mickey 17". Robert Pattinson stars as a man who wants to get off Earth and becomes a disposable worker who is continuously cloned on a long journey through space to start a human colony on a new planet. And "A Complete Unknown" , the musical biopic on Bob Dylan from director, James Mangold that earned eight Academy Award nominations will make it's German premiere at the fest.
And the British actress Tilda Swinton will be awarded this year's Honorary Golden Bear. There will be screening of a 4K remastering of one of her early screen roles in Peter Wollen's 1987 sci-fi drama, "Friendship's Death". Swinton appears as a female extraterrestrial on a mission to Earth in the name of peace yet inadvertently lands in Amman, Jordan during the events of Black September in 1970.
Where & When: Landmark Theatres Sunset, West Hollywood, CA. December 25, 2024 10:00 PM
Bob Dylan has been known as a rock and roll poet, a musical artist who was able to intuitively use the social and political upheaval that was beginning to happen at the time in the early 1960's and capture it into an momentous anthem. His thoughtful and uplifting words would go on to make a deep connection with his youthful peers. Beginning with his arrival to New York's Greenwich Village, rumpled, eccentric and essentially homeless, Dylan found inspiration all around him. And while many people didn't know what to make of this peculiar individual, they did realize he was an exceptionally, gifted talent. With "A Complete Unknown", James Mangold's riveting biopic, the film traces this brief period of Dylan making a powerful impact on folk music and how this crushing fame made him want to explore another musical avenue, much to the emphatic objections by folk purists.
The initial reason Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) had come to New York was to seek out his musical hero, Woody Guthrie (Scoot McNairy) who was suffering from a neurodegenerative disease and convalescing at a psychiatric hospital. After sneaking in to the hospital late one evening, Dylan finds Guthrie, no longer able to communicate verbally, and his good friend, Pete Seeger (Edward Norton). He performs a song he wrote that was inspired by Guthrie, making a deep impression on them. An intrigued Seeger, who was also a prominent musician of folk music and social activist, invites the young vagabond to stay with him and his family until he can get settled in the city.
Seeger has Dylan perform at open mics, introduces him to other musicians and industry figures which created a swirl of interest around the fledgling performer. Albert Grossman (Dan Fogler) leaps at the chance to manage Dylan and helped get him signed to Columbia, still one of the biggest record labels on the planet. For his self-titled debut album in 1962, the producer, John Hammond (David Alan Basche) insisted Dylan should record mostly covers of traditional folk and blues songs. This album only sold modestly but while on tour, audiences responded well to Dylan's original compositions, encouraging Hammond to allow him to record them for his follow-up album.
Mangold is well known as a proficiently versatile filmmaker, dabbling in various genres throughout his career and excelling at many of them. He has worked his magic on dramas ("Girl, Interrupted"), romantic-comedies ("Kate & Leopold"), comic-book adventures ("Logan") and action-thrillers ("Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny"). And while some where not major box-office hits, these films had been expertly crafted and efficiently stimulating. Mangold had made a musical bio previously, taking on the life of country music legend, Johnny Cash (played by Joaquin Phoenix) and his love affair with fellow performer, June Carter in "Walk The Line". This drama received five Academy Award nominations with Reese Witherspoon winning for Best Actress. Cash makes an appearance in "A Complete Unknown" (played here by Boyd Holbrook) who connects with Dylan first as a fan and later as a confidant.
The script by Mangold and Jay Cocks is not entirely successful in escaping the overly familiar rhythms of the Hollywood-styled biopic yet the solid direction and compelling, intimate performances help make this film a rewarding experience. Not surprisingly, music plays a strong part of "A Complete Unknown", effectively energizing the film with thrilling full-length performances of some of Dylan's greatest songs sung by Chalamet. The actor perfectly captures the essence of Dylan; a midwestern enigma who allowed people to only get so close to him, revealing as little about himself as possible and making up the rest. And while Chalamet's singing doesn't sound much like the musician, he does manage to find the emotional force of each song performed.
Dylan was consumed with getting each song just right, largely shutting out the world during his laser-focused, creative process. And while the world would benefit greatly by his passionate drive, the people who where closest to him would suffer the most by his lack of consideration. He first met Joan Baez (Monica Barbaro), a popular folk singer, following one of her performances. Having dismissed him after he clumsily flirted with her, Dylan captured her attention once seeing him on stage much like the rest of the audience. Baez would record some of his songs and these temperamental musical artists would begin an on-again, off-again affair, made more complicated because he was living with Sylvie Russo (Elle Fanning). Based on Dylan's real-life girlfriend, Suze Rotolo (who he had requested for this character's name to be changed), Russo was a New York born activist who influenced him on politics, art and music and ended up being on the cover with him on his second album, "The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan". But once she had to start sharing him with the world, Sylvie began to feel less important in their relationship and Dylan didn't do nearly enough to reassure her.
The real drama in the film occurs after Dylan achieves great fame a few years later, abandoning his casual look of jeans and work shirts and taking on a more upscale, leather-clad style of a rock & roller. He would begin to chafe under the never ending glare by an adoring public and took on wearing black sunglasses, day and night, using them as a shield against constant prying eyes. It was also during this time Dylan started experimenting musically with the electric guitar during the recording of his next album. Word spread to the committee of the Newport Folk Festival who grow concerned since Dylan is supposed to headline their next event and strongly opposed to anyone deviating from the theme.
I'll admit I have never been much of a fan of the music by Bob Dylan, not really connecting to any of his songs and finding his nasal-based singing voice to be grating. But "A Complete Unknown" has certainly opened my eyes to recognize and appreciate what Dylan brought to music and the culture, expanding the idea of what a pop song can achieve through reflective, artistic expression. His vocal abilities may have been limited yet he was able to communicate through his colorful lyrics in a way that was distinctive and original.
