The Making of I'm Not There: Interview with Director Todd Haynes

I'm still thinking about the ACI Response to the TEC House of Bishops Statement - I got it around lunchtime but have been thinking about it so haven't posted it yet. You can read it here. There's much to commend about it, as it is denotes that special kind of British academic diplomatic understatement (which we Americans are not known for doing well - in fact, we're not known for doing it at all). One almost needs to read it as though one is an Oxford Don lost on the floor of the House of Commons. While Americans are involved in the writing of the statement (and the signing of it), it still has that air of academic detachment, like these guys would never want to find themselves taking the wrong exit off the freeway and end up in a scene from Tom Wolfe's masterpiece Bonfire of the Vanities. Which of course, then puts us in a Dylan-State-of-Mind (see Summer Days below, which hit the chord correctly as we paused at the Union Station Starbucks before running to catch our train tonight). So, as we continue to mull over the ACI Response and what influence it may actually end up having on Rowan Williams (who seems to be the the report's solely intended audience of one, by the way), we turn to Bob Dylan (did you expect anything less?) or at least to the upcoming film based on a unique interpretation of his life called "I'm not there," (which is the fragment of a song never finished by Dylan and only available in bootlegs). Here's a little bit from the recent New York Film Festival Press Conference with director Todd Haynes (see above). Six different actors play Dylan, including British actress Cate Blanchett. Below is from the same press conference where Haynes talks about why he cast six different people to play Dylan. And we'll be thinking about the ACI Statement. Maybe we just need six different actors to play the Archbishop of Canterbury as well.