Very interesting film. Absolutely untraditional, but so fun to watch.

It mixes together the images Bob Dylan was, could be, thought he was and the public thought he was. The story flows from one Dylan to another and back, one becomes a dream for the next. Different actors playing different faces of the same multifaceted personality. Different cinematic styles are also applied. It's almost stream of consciousness kind of cinema, although, each story alone is quite concise and clear.

Two images - Arthur and Jude (Ben Whishaw and Cate Blanchett) carry out the most explanatory, first hand, intellectual roles. They are shot in black and white and close to documentary. Jack (Christian Bale) is also mostly black and white, he's a folk singer incarnation of Dylan and as for his part - it is a documentary. These images are the closest to the public perception of the person. Blanchett's part is the central piece of the film, everything revolves around it. She is the best look-alike. It's a quintessential Dylan, the visual, carved into Western culture's matter. It's actually amazing how the characters that are the most distant from real Dylan bear less visual resemblance to him. It's like common features are dissolved in the secondary and farther reflections of the original. Dylan-idea breaks into multiple shadows-images, less and less resembling the real man, but still bearing his stamp.

Heath Ledger's part - about an actor, playing Dylan in the feature film - portrays the family side of the star. Does that suggest that Dylan was also acting when he took a role of a family man? Could be. Anyway, it's worth seeing just for Charlotte Gainsbourg, who plays the troubled wife and is always a pleasure to watch.

Marcus Carl Franklin and Richard Gere chip in as in some sense opposite but, looking deeper, in the end, very much connected personages of a runaway black teenager (and aspiring folk singer) Woody and Billy the Kid.

To summarize: a wonderful piece of cinema, albeit wonderfully weird. Cate Blanchett really impresses with her interpretation. 4/4.

Another good debut, although a bit soporific. Egyptian police band gets lost in Israeli remote.

The film has some very good moments and some it could live without. And who was the first to think that plaintive folk songs over the long shots of deserted landscape are poetic? I always wonder.

The actors make up for the director's uncertainties, though. I heard Sasson Gabai, who plays the main part, is of the most famous actors in Israel. The movie heavily relies on body language and, specifically, mimics. It does not delve into differences and tries to find common places, being thoroughly apolitical.

The director confessed that the film is a complete fantasy. Indeed, this situation could hardly happen in today's Middle East. Anyway, it just seems that one could develop that story into much livelier movie. However, that would diminish its chances to be nominated for Oscar from Israel, because the elite loves melancholy. It's very appealing melancholy at times, though. 3.5/4. I liked another Israeli movie - The Secrets (Ha Sodot) - more.