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Dylan's bewildering, beautiful, incisive, incoherent, intriguing and infuriating trashcan mystery unravelled It’s 1964, and the singer is alone on the stage of New York’s Philharmonic Hall, talking to the darkness: “It’s just Halloween. I have my mask on. I’m masquerading.

” It’s 1965, and the singer is in a black and white Britain, reading about himself in a newspaper: “God, I’m glad I’m not me.” It’s 1972, and the singer stands in the dust in Durango, saying his name: “ anything you please.” It’s 1975, and the stage lights go up to reveal the singer is hiding his face behind a transparent mask.



Now it’s 2003, and the singer is wearing a blonde wig and a woolly hat at the , watching a movie he wrote under the alias . In the film he plays a singer who looks like him but calls himself . He’s called the movie .

The film is stuffed with more stars than any since ‘s . Despite – or maybe because – of this, the screening becomes one of the most infamous premieres in Sundance history, provoking walkouts and a firestorm of negative reviews. In the damning piece that sets the pace, veteran critic decries the singer’s movie as “a vanity production beyond all reason”.

The critics’ objections ultimately boil down to one question: who the hell does Bob Dylan think he is? It’s a good question. Here’s another: who the hell do we think Bob Dylan is? Hell, does anyone even think about Bob Dylan at all any more? These are some though by no mea.

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