In white-face make-up, eyes lined heavily black, and lips smeared with red, Dylan wails out the song about whom, let’s face it, the whole of Renaldo and Clara is about – Sara, his wife at the time and soon-to-be ex-wife. Well the film could be called, Renaldo and Sara anyway, but the truth is the film is just as much about Dylan himself as it is about anyone, if not more so. It’s about …(insert Spanish guitar strum here) Renaldo!!
The problem is, even for the most diehard Dylan fan or no matter how much you love or like Dylan, watching Renaldo and Clara, is, as most critics agree, a painful and arduous task (yes, task) that takes about five hours or longer. I’ve watched and read everything Dylan and would do a lot, including watching five hours of Renaldo and Clara to review it. But there is little here to review, despite five or so hours of footage. That said, let me do my level best to tell the story of Renaldo and Clara.
Essentially, Renaldo and Clara is the Rolling Thunder Revue tour; the only trouble here is that Dylan has a bit too much artistic control over a project. Perhaps he shouldn’t have had so much input. There are scenes interspersed with the concert footage which, by the way, is great (particularly when he sings or wails out Sara - or should I say Clara as she appears in the film.) But no matter how much Dylan may profess his love in beautifully poetic song, there is something sadistic about having his ex-lover and his present - if only by a thread - wife in the film at the same time, in the same room, and interacting.
Sara and Dylan would divorce not too long after The Rolling Thunder tour. They would make another ‘go’ of it, but to no avail. Dylan wanted to stay on the road; Sara wanted a more stable life and was tired, so it is written, of the expected things that went on during the tour.
That said, any marriage is a mystery between two people, or three if you’re Christian and listen to the service, and none of this is to be taken lightly so I can’t say, nor can anyone really, what went on behind closed doors, only that it didn’t work out.
Ex-lover Joan Baez features in Renaldo and Clara as the “Woman in White” and speaks with a piss-poor French accent. (Why?) The rest of the women, including Sara, sit about in sateen robes of red and black with push-up corsets, tits all a jiggle. There is red everywhere you look – on nails, in the red wine of the glasses, in the plastic of the seats. There is something garish – almost brothel-like about such scenes as the women sit around waiting and discussing, hopefully awaiting the arrival of ….drum-roll/guitar please (take a breath) - Renaldo.
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Article comments
1 - GoHah
you're pretty much on target--I'm a big Dylan fan, and I saw it long ago at a theater, sat through the whole thing in a mix of astonishment and boredom: I knew something was going on, but I didn't know what it was. Then again, nothing was going on--I'm pretty sure they were winging it, and making it up as they went along.
2 - sadi ranson-polizzotti
GoHah, yup; i think they had some sort of dialogue situational set-ups, if you get my drift, but no real set ups that were going to be of any merit. it would be better just to see the tour, though i couldn't find footage of that either to list here. If anyone knows, let me know. This was interesting, and it's about four hours long; it just seemed like five to me...
thanks for reading, and cheers to you; always nice to meet another Dylan fan. MY site is a big part Dylan if you want to check it out through my link (just skip this piece there),
Rock on.
Sadi
3 - GoHah
I'll check out your site--Thanks
4 - sadi ranson-polizzotti
sure thing; just one part of it is Dylan - easy to find through the navigation. thanks ;)
5 - Quintessential Jane
So, I haven't seen the film, been looking for it for a while. however, I am a life long dylan fan(quite literally, I wouldn't sleep as an infant without my father blasting blonde on blonde)and after reading this, there are a few things I'd like to say. I will not argue that the film isn't bad, however little we like to admit it even Dylan trips up from time to time and having not seen it myself I surely couldn't make a value judgement. However, there were a few things that were said in here that I thought a bit out of touch; much like putting a man on a pedistole who, from the description of the film, may very well have been trying to tear himself down from such a position. The man is human, the man was a rock star, he was no angel and further, even if this is more fantasy than reality, it at least shows you what his real fantasies were. The same that any very young man in his position would have had to an extent. Baez vs. Sara is not necessarily sadistic, but also may be something true he had to deal with. Ex lovers and current lovers often have to deal with one another and honestly, in my humble opinion, it often has a more lasting impact on the person in the middle(Dylan in this case) than it does on the lovers. I suppose what I am trying to say is the lyrics this man writes are, like any other artist, an expression of the self he would most like to be- open, honest, caring, etc. The man he is in interviews and in public is his public self and the man you saw in the film is the part of the artist that remains hidden, the part that people find distasteful. Everyone has to be honest from time to time even in such a way as making a film about themself, but not.
As I said before, I haven't seen the film, but from the review I'd venture that it was possibly one man's attempt to show his not only human side, but the less than human side that resides in all of us to some extent. On the other hand, perhaps it was just another thing he put out. This man has been less than forthright is personal life throughout his career, remaining a strange enigma, and due to that fact I don't think it is far fetched to say he was just toying with his fans who don't feel that he has already contributed enough to their lives through his music and feel the need to go digging deeper into what he keeps as his own, himself.
6 - Mike
you just HAVE to check out this video about Dylan. It's hilarious!
7 - sadi ranson-polizzotti
hi Jane:
Sure - i don't think we disagree. I think Dylan was revealing part of his fantasy self, or idealized self, in the film - if you see it, i think he shows who he almost "wishes" he were to some extent - but then again, at the same time, who Dylan wishes he was is part of his reality, so it's a plaiting or intertwining - a rich tapestry - of the two...
There are a lot of complexities in the film, but you have to be very patient to watch it - as some of it doesn't always make sense or follow and it's about three hours long, as I recall (it's been a while since i last saw it...) It's interesting, but I really think it's Dylan as his idealized self to some extent - as "Renaldo"...
Your comment makes a great deal of sense however... and is interesting....
be well,
s.r.p.
8 - Mary
Like the rest of us Bob Dylan wants to be loved. His expectations may be on a grander scale in so much as he may require infinite love from the women he loves. He loves Sara one way and he loves Joan another way but love him both, he does and for Joan to be willing to play this part and do the tour her love must be never ending. You can see in her that she adores him as I am sure Sara adores him. He may have wanted Sara to have just accepted his loving others as just a fact of his life which in his mind did not diminish his love for her. He loved Joan first and without malice found himself at the same time desirous of another. The love he has fdor these women and maybe many others will not diminish over time and if you want to call this an ego trip for Bob who cares I just believe he is the greatest most life changing person to have been placed on this earth i can not fathom being as smart or to have even thought of life as he did way back then. There is something so magical about this man and I am glad to have found him. He like all of us are merely mortal and he aches, and bleeds, and wants to be loved does that make him a freak or something? I think not I think he is truly magnificent and for these women loving him may not have been so easy but I bet their lives are richer in more way than one for having been that close to a genius