Hi, This is James Mangold. I’m the co-writer, director, and one of the producers of “A Complete Unknown.” “Mr. Pete Seeger.” This is Gerde’s Folk City, an early scene in the film. Joan Baez has just done a show-stopping tune, and Pete Seeger comes onstage, played by the brilliant Edward Norton, and introduces his protégé, a very young 19-year-old Bob Dylan, who we’ve only heard sing one other time in the film so far, and is coming onstage for his debut. Timothée Chalamet, of course, plays Bob Dylan, and will be playing live in this scene, as he does throughout. We also introduce Dan Fogler playing Albert Grossman in the audience. He will become a sideman and forever presence in this period of Bob’s life. All right. Thanks, folks. Yeah Thanks, Pete. That’s a … Boy, that’s a lot to live up to. Monica Barbaro is Joan Baez, a kind of very fierce presence in the folk scene and a huge star at that moment in folk music. “How about that Joan Baez, folks? It’s pretty good. And she’s pretty. Sings pretty. Maybe a little too pretty.” I love this moment of Timothy kind of portraying Bob’s slightly foot-in-mouth, inappropriate, provocative nature. “I was young when I left home. I’d been out ramblin’ round. And I never wrote a letter to my home. To my home.” This is an early song of Dylan’s called “I Was Young When I Left Home” that I felt was apropos, mainly because it’s so profoundly autobiographical in the sense that Dylan was young when he left home and restarted his life in New York. “I was bringing home my pay. And I met an old friend I used to know … ” It’s interesting telling the story of this period. I felt that much of Dylan’s filmography, although it’s mostly documentary, is very handheld, very kind of vibrant, with electric in the sense of chasing the actors around in a documentary style. I felt that Bob’s style itself was so profound that I wanted to lay back and just observe and allow the power of the music, which we perform throughout the movie live. Let that music communicate. “It’s very good, isn’t it?” “Yeah.” “He’s my client.” Folk music is, of course, at its core, simple, unadorned, a human voice and a guitar. And for that reason, I felt that we really couldn’t risk producing these pieces with too much technological intervention. I wanted to just let the actors move from speaking to singing and back to speaking again in a way that feels utterly natural and like you’re there.
