So way back on Thanksgiving I took the family to see Todd Haynes' cinematic impression(s) of Bob Dylan I'm Not There, (link to Hayne's bio and note some of his work; "Far From Heaven" and his 1985 short "Assassins-A Film Concerning Rimbaud" another "aha!" Dylan connection.) Loved the film. Love Dylan. He's a member of the family in the way he's been part of my life for about 40 years now. In spite of, or maybe, because of, his occasional unlikability, exasperation and infuriation. But his words, work, meanderings and mystery has always kept me interested.

You can google this film and get all sorts of analyses and critiques and it is kinda dylanesque in how and why you respond to the film. To each his own. I smiled through most of it. You know, that (sometimes smug) delight that comes from one's personal recognition of performances, lyrics, legend and associations one may note in a film. I have one, in particular in "I'm Not There". It made me laugh. Admittedly a self-satisfied laugh but here it is...

Haynes gives the various characters different names; Jude, Woody Guthrie, Jack, Arthur and Richard Gere as, according to the cool "Official Guide the the Movie" that was given out at the theater, Billy. No character is named or addressed as "Bob Dylan". However, you have Richard Gere in that Western period setting. The Basement Tapes motif is certainly evoked in that segment but there was one moment, basically one word, that rolled me back in my comfortable, 608 Sundance movie chair. Gere/Billy is wandering around the scene with some very interesting characters, animals and just odd stuff all over when he comes upon this guy kind of hunkered down with, as I recall, a wife and kid or two near a wagon or some piece of equipment (no, I haven't attended a second viewing, yet.). Gere saunters over to this family tableau and says one work of greeting..."Chester". Immediately, from the depths of my television saturated mind came the programmed response "Mr. Dillon"................The INT character, of course, did not say "dillon/dylan" and I cannot recall what he said because I was listening for any other audience reaction, of which there was none but I was plenty pleased with my reaction/recognition. Of course, on the heels of that sweet thrill came the question; coincidence or did Haynes' only mention of the name or sound of "Dylan" come in an ethereal, unuttered reply that reached back to how Dennis Weaver's Chester would respond to James Arness's Matt Dillon every week in that great, black and white tv classic, "Gunsmoke"? That's how it would go, the man of few words Matt Dillon would greet people with just their name; "Miss Kitty" - "Hello, Matt" "Doc" - "Matt" but when he acknowledged "Chester", Chester would reply "Mr. Dillon". Of course, Chester's replacement, Festus addressed Mr. Dillon as "Matthew" but then that was in color and a 60 minute format. That's it. A moment of particular pleasure in a pleasurable film.