Release CalendarDVD & Blu-ray ReleasesTop 250 MoviesMost Popular MoviesBrowse Movies by GenreTop Box OfficeShowtimes & TicketsIn TheatersComing SoonMovie NewsIndia Movie Spotlight
    What's on TV & StreamingTop 250 TV ShowsMost Popular TV ShowsBrowse TV Shows by GenreTV NewsIndia TV Spotlight
    What to WatchLatest TrailersIMDb OriginalsIMDb PicksIMDb Podcasts
    OscarsBest Picture WinnersBest Picture WinnersEmmysAPA Heritage MonthSTARmeter AwardsSan Diego Comic-ConNew York Comic-ConSundance Film FestivalToronto Int'l Film FestivalAwards CentralFestival CentralAll Events
    Born TodayMost Popular CelebsMost Popular CelebsCelebrity News
    Help CenterContributor ZonePolls
For Industry Professionals
  • All
  • Titles
  • TV Episodes
  • Celebs
  • Companies
  • Keywords
  • Advanced Search
Watchlist
Sign In
  • Fully supported
  • English (United States)
    Partially supported
  • Français (Canada)
  • Français (France)
  • Deutsch (Deutschland)
  • हिंदी (भारत)
  • Italiano (Italia)
  • Português (Brasil)
  • Español (España)
  • Español (México)

I'm Not There

  • 20072007
  • RR
  • 2h 15m
IMDb RATING
6.8/10
59K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
4,055
622
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews
  • Trivia
  • IMDbPro
I'm Not There (2007)
I'm Not There - Trailer
Play trailer1:08
1 Video
99+ Photos
  • Biography
  • Drama
  • Music

Ruminations on the life of Bob Dylan, where six characters embody a different aspect of the musician's life and work.Ruminations on the life of Bob Dylan, where six characters embody a different aspect of the musician's life and work.Ruminations on the life of Bob Dylan, where six characters embody a different aspect of the musician's life and work.

IMDb RATING
6.8/10
59K
YOUR RATING
POPULARITY
4,055
622
  • Director
    • Todd Haynes
  • Writers
    • Todd Haynes(screenplay)
    • Oren Moverman(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Christian Bale
    • Cate Blanchett
    • Heath Ledger
Top credits
  • Director
    • Todd Haynes
  • Writers
    • Todd Haynes(screenplay)
    • Oren Moverman(screenplay)
  • Stars
    • Christian Bale
    • Cate Blanchett
    • Heath Ledger
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 251User reviews
    • 230Critic reviews
    • 73Metascore
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Nominated for 1 Oscar
      • 28 wins & 49 nominations total

    Videos1

    I'm Not There
    Trailer 1:08
    I'm Not There

    Photos137

    Best Supporting Actress
    Richard Gere in I'm Not There (2007)
    Marcus Carl Franklin in I'm Not There (2007)
    Heath Ledger in I'm Not There (2007)
    Heath Ledger in I'm Not There (2007)
    Ben Whishaw in I'm Not There (2007)
    Christian Bale in I'm Not There (2007)
    Ben Whishaw in I'm Not There (2007)
    I'm Not There (2007)
    Richard Gere in I'm Not There (2007)
    Charlotte Gainsbourg and Todd Haynes in I'm Not There (2007)
    Todd Haynes in I'm Not There (2007)

    Top cast

    Edit
    Christian Bale
    Christian Bale
    • Jackas Jack…
    Cate Blanchett
    Cate Blanchett
    • Judeas Jude
    Heath Ledger
    Heath Ledger
    • Robbieas Robbie
    Ben Whishaw
    Ben Whishaw
    • Arthuras Arthur
    Richard Gere
    Richard Gere
    • Billyas Billy
    Marcus Carl Franklin
    Marcus Carl Franklin
    • Woodyas Woody…
    Kris Kristofferson
    Kris Kristofferson
    • Narratoras Narrator
    • (voice)
    Don Francks
    Don Francks
    • Hobo Joeas Hobo Joe
    Roc Lafortune
    Roc Lafortune
    • Hobo Moeas Hobo Moe
    • (as Roc LaFortune)
    Larry Day
    Larry Day
    • Government Agentas Government Agent
    Paul Cagelet
    • Carnyas Carny…
    Brian R.C. Wilmes
    • Circus Manas Circus Man
    • (as Brian RC Wilmes)
    Pierre-Alexandre Fortin
    Pierre-Alexandre Fortin
    • Gorgeous Georgeas Gorgeous George
    Richie Havens
    Richie Havens
    • Old Man Arvinas Old Man Arvin
    Tyrone Benskin
    Tyrone Benskin
    • Mr. Arvinas Mr. Arvin
    Kim Roberts
    Kim Roberts
    • Mrs. Arvinas Mrs. Arvin
    Eric Newsome
    • Sixties Narratoras Sixties Narrator
    Angela Galuppo
    Angela Galuppo
    • Folk Girlas Folk Girl
    • Director
      • Todd Haynes
    • Writers
      • Todd Haynes(screenplay) (story)
      • Oren Moverman(screenplay)
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
    • All cast & crew

    More like this

    Velvet Goldmine
    6.9
    Velvet Goldmine
    Candy
    7.2
    Candy
    Far from Heaven
    7.3
    Far from Heaven
    The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
    6.8
    The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
    Control
    7.7
    Control
    Casanova
    6.5
    Casanova
    Coffee and Cigarettes
    7.0
    Coffee and Cigarettes
    Lords of Dogtown
    7.1
    Lords of Dogtown
    Carol
    7.2
    Carol
    The Flowers of War
    7.5
    The Flowers of War
    The Velvet Underground
    7.4
    The Velvet Underground
    All the Little Animals
    6.8
    All the Little Animals

    Storyline

    Edit
    Six incarnations of Bob Dylan: an actor, a folk singer, an electrified troubadour, Rimbaud, Billy the Kid, and Woody Guthrie. Put Dylan's music behind their adventures, soliloquies, interviews, marriage, and infidelity. Recreate 1960s documentaries in black and white. Put each at a crossroads, the artist becoming someone else. Jack, the son of Ramblin' Jack Elliott, finds Jesus; handsome Robbie falls in love then abandons Claire. Woody, a lad escaped from foster care, hobos the U.S. singing; Billy awakes in a valley threatened by a six-lane highway; Rimbaud talks. Jude, booed at Newport when he goes electric, fences with reporters, pundits, and fans. He won't be classified. —<jhailey@hotmail.com>
    • bare butt
    • voyeur
    • female voyeur
    • voyeurism
    • actor
    • 332 more
    • Plot summary
    • Plot synopsis
    • Taglines
      • All I Can Do Is Be Me Whoever That Is
    • Genres
      • Biography
      • Drama
      • Music
    • Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)
      • Rated R for language, some sexuality and nudity
    • Parents guide

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Todd Haynes needed to get approval from Bob Dylan to use his music, since (unlike in his Velvet Goldmine (1998) where David Bowie did not give his permission for his music) he felt the film would not work without it. At the encouragement of Dylan's manager, Haynes wrote a one-page summary of his concept and the characters, which Dylan approved. It took another 6 years to get the film made due to funding difficulties.
    • Goofs
      Right after Jude leaves the Beatles and they are chased by fans, you can see the last person in the mob slow down immediately when they're behind the trellis.
    • Quotes

      Billy the Kid: People are always talking about freedom. Freedom to live a certain way, without being kicked around. Course the more you live a certain way, the less it feel like freedom. Me, uhm, I can change during the course of a day. I wake and I'm one person, when I go to sleep I know for certain I'm somebody else. I don't know who I am most of the time.

    • Crazy credits
      After the title, the opening credits start with a period at the end.
    • Connections
      Featured in At the Movies: The Mist/This Christmas/August Rush/I'm Not There/Purple Violets (2007)
    • Soundtracks
      Goin' to Acapulco
      Performed by Jim James and Calexico

      Written by Bob Dylan

      Published by Dwarf Music (SESAC)

      Produced by Joey Burns

      Jim James appears courtesy of ATO Records

      Calexico appears courtesy of Quarterstick Records

    User reviews251

    Review
    Top review
    7/10
    (I Don't Want to) Chain You Down
    Unless you know something about the subject of this biography, you're bound to be confused by "I'm Not There". It is "inspired by the music & many lives of Bob Dylan." For the unenlightened, Mr. Dylan was famous, long ago ("for playing electric violins on desolation row"). The film, by writer/director Todd Haynes is excellent, but inaccessible. And, strangely, if you know anything about the subject, you're going to learn approximately nothing knew. To help navigate, there were four main Dylans…

    FIRST and famed-mostly, Dylan was a "Rock Star". This period is played out by Cate Blanchett as "Jude Quinn". This character sports a fictitious name, but like much of the movie, comes (not from McCartney's "Jude" but) obviously from Dylan's oeuvre - the Christian "Jude" and "Quinn the Eskimo". This Dylan has the clearest Beginning and End points of any. He was "born" when startling his folk audience by "going electric" (guitar) and "dies" in a motorcycle accident at the peak of his fame.

    SECOND most famous, and highly influential, Dylan was the "Folk Singer" replaced by the above. Here, it's Christian Bale as "Jack Rollins". This Dylan was quite popular on his own, but was much "covered" by other folk artists and rock bands. During this time, Dylan was more like a very big cult, and his songs were more widely heard when other people made hit records from them. The songs were more Political (protest) during this time, getting vague later (with exceptions, like "Hurricane").

    THIRD time around for Dylan was his "Cowboy" persona, essayed herein by Richard Gere and named "Billy the Kid" after the outlaw anti-hero Dylan play-acted. This was the Dylan emerging after the motorcycle accident. Dylan left a bunch of unreleased tracks (known as "The Basement Tapes") and "reinvented" himself as a more countrified mellow rocker (listen to "Lay Lady Lay"). Here, the "stages" of Dylan's art become more blurred as he no longer commanded the attention he did earlier.

    FOURTH biggest change, after a long run without defining boundaries, was the "Born Again" or "Christian" Dylan. This startled some people, but (as the film points out) it shouldn't have been unexpected. In fact, the "Fame"/"Drugs"/"Jesus" continuum is very common among music stars, as anyone watching MTV's 1990s biographies could plainly see. For this film, Mr. Bale (uniquely) plays two Dylan incarnations, revising his earlier "Folk Singer" character "Jack Rollins" to become "Pastor John".

    BUT, that's not all. There are three less public parts of the quadraphonic Dylan covered by Mr. Haynes…

    FIRST is Dylan's mysterious boyhood masquerade as "Woody Guthrie" played by Marcus Carl Franklin. He is the kid on the train, sporting the Fascist-Killing-Guitar-in-the-West. Of course, Woody Guthrie was a real person, and he had a tremendous influence on Dylan. While cute and well done, this section is not revelatory, which could be why the film project had "the real" Bob Dylan's blessing. The real Dylan, who appears briefly near the end, did not appreciate biographers peeking into his personal history.

    SECOND is Dylan "The Poet" named "Arthur Rimbaud" and played by Ben Whishaw. Like the above, but more of a conglomerate, the character is a real French poet named Arthur Rimbaud who influenced Dylan (and many other rock stars). The Dylans are presented in sort of an overlapping chronological order - which may not make sense to the uninitiated - but this one is used more like a muse for the others, accentuating Dylan's reputation as a true "Tarantula" of a Poet, even without the music.

    THIRD and perhaps most esoteric is Dylan "The Actor" played by Heath Ledger as "Robbie Clark". Dylan did do some movies. Mortals do not forgive. Even an epic focusing in his relationship with a certain sad-eyed of the lowlands. Rather than show Dylan acting in a movie, this "Actor" section perversely shows the more camera-shy Dylan. It seems highly fictitious, but you've got to appreciate "Dylan" telling what looks like "Patti Smith", "chicks can never be poets." (!) And, "I Want You" is a terrific vignette.

    In sum, "I'm Not There" is an excellent film for obvious believers, with minus zero insight into its subject. Bobby Zimmerman could hardly disapprove. By the way, the fact that the vinyl "Stuck Inside of Mobile with the…" was amusingly continued in the "Blonde on Blonde" gate-fold jacket as "…Memphis Blues Again" is no excuse to edit the song. And, changing the lyric, "Here is your 'throat' back, thanks for the loan..." to "Here is your 'mouth' back, thanks for the loan..." really sucks. Moreover, it's sacrilege.

    ******* I'm Not There (9/3/07) Todd Haynes ~ Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Heath Ledger, Richard Gere
    helpful•14
    2
    • wes-connors
    • Aug 21, 2010

    FAQ3

    • I don't understand why all the actors who play Dylan have different names. Someone explain this to me.
    • What does the title mean?

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • December 7, 2007 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • Germany
      • Canada
      • United States
      • France
    • Official sites
      • Bim Distribuzione (Italy)
      • Diaphana (France)
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • I'm Not There: Suppositions on a Film Concerning Dylan
    • Filming locations
      • Brigham, Québec, Canada
    • Production companies
      • Killer Films
      • John Wells Productions
      • John Goldwyn Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Budget
      • $20,000,000 (estimated)
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $4,017,609
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $730,819
      • Nov 25, 2007
    • Gross worldwide
      • $11,792,542
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 15 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Digital
    • Aspect ratio
      • 2.35 : 1

    Related news

    Michelle Williams Says Todd Haynes’ Peggy Lee Biopic Is Dead: ‘It’s Gone the Way of the Buffalo’
    Michelle Williams Says Todd Haynes’ Peggy Lee Biopic Is Dead: ‘It’s Gone the Way of the Buffalo’
    May 10Indiewire
    Cate Blanchett Calls Out Male Directors’ ‘Need to Feel Attracted’ to Female Characters
    Cate Blanchett Calls Out Male Directors’ ‘Need to Feel Attracted’ to Female Characters
    May 5Indiewire

    Contribute to this page

    Suggest an edit or add missing content
    I'm Not There (2007)
    Top Gap
    What is the Japanese language plot outline for I'm Not There (2007)?
    Answer
    • See more gaps
    • Learn more about contributing
    Edit page

    More to explore

    View list
    List
    The 10 Most Anticipated Marvel and DC Movies
    See the full list
    Image caption not available
    2:14
    The Most Anticipated Movies and Shows to Watch in May
    Watch the video

    Recently viewed

    Please enable browser cookies to use this feature. Learn more.
    Get the IMDb App
    • Get the IMDb App
    • Help
    • Site Index
    • IMDbPro
    • Box Office Mojo
    • IMDb Developer
    • Press Room
    • Advertising
    • Jobs
    • Conditions of Use
    • Privacy Policy
    • Interest-Based Ads

    © 1990-2022 by IMDb.com, Inc.