Today Todd Haynes, easily one of a handful of the most vital voices in American cinema, turns 46. Later this year his 5th full length feature I'm Not There an experimental film about the life of Bob Dylan (to be played by seven actors including: Heath Ledger, Cate Blanchett, Christian Bale, and Richard Gere) will arrive. [On a totally irrelevant note that will be of interest to Oscar watchers only: early buzz (which should always be taken with a whole entire block of salt) suggests that Cate Blanchett has the meatiest most Oscar-friendly part among the Dylan avatars] This filmmakers chief muse Julianne Moore will also appear but her role has not been revealed.There's good reason to hope that this adventurous musical biopic will be one of the 2007's best films. Haynes has not made a less than fascinating film yet. His early shorts pointed to a filmmaker with a highly original voice: Dottie Gets Spanked (1993) is hilarious and you should look it up. The banned Karen Carpenter doll epic Superstar(1987) is harder to find but find it you should --it's smashingly inventive. The four features that followed made good on the promise. Poison (1991), Safe (1995), Velvet Goldmine (1998) and Far From Heaven (2002) make for quite a filmography. There's not a bad film among them and two of them are masterpieces.
If you've missed any of those, catch up on this filmography before I'm Not There arrives. There's no release date yet but it sounds like an October-ish release, doesn't it?
