Dylan and Melies

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Richard Hatch
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Dylan and Melies

Postby Richard Hatch » June 12th, 2019, 11:18 pm

The new Netflix documentary on Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder revue apparently opens with a film of Georges Melies performing the vanishing woman at the Theatre Robert-Houdin. You can see it briefly at the end of the teaser clip:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PS4gsWDSn68
Here's the full Melies performance:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f7-x93QagJU
Of course, Melies is using trick photography (techniques he originated) to accomplish this, but the presentation seems very much like the DeKolta descriptions (with a newspaper spread under the chair to eliminate the thought of a trap).
What this has to do with Dylan, I'm not sure, but the director, Martin Scorsese is a big Melies fan (as his film "Hugo" attests).

Richard Stokes
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Re: Dylan and Melies

Postby Richard Stokes » June 15th, 2019, 1:47 pm

Scorsese plays a few narrative tricks on his viewers in this Dylan compilation!

Bill Mullins
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Re: Dylan and Melies

Postby Bill Mullins » June 15th, 2019, 10:44 pm

And Ricky Jay was in the video for Dylan's "Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum." Is Dylan known to be a fan of magic?

Richard Hatch
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Re: Dylan and Melies

Postby Richard Hatch » June 16th, 2019, 2:08 am

I believe Dylan references Harry Lorayne in his autobiography (in the context of studying his memory systems). Dylan's son Jesse produced and directed a talk show series called "CONversations with Ricky Jay" that was never broadcast, though I believe episodes were shown at the Ricky Jay "Weekend of Wonders" a few years ago.

John Tudor
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Re: Dylan and Melies

Postby John Tudor » August 6th, 2019, 6:19 pm

The Rolling Thunder Revue documentary also has an odd old video of a man wearing a wooden devil mask, right at the spot in the credits for Martin Scorsese, Director. He seems to be casting himself (and Dylan) as a trickster.
I loved the documentary. Later I read online (in a number of places) of falsehoods deliberately placed in the narrative. There's a false character of a Senator whom Jimmy Carter got into a Dylan concert. Another made up person is interviewed as the director of the original footage, he's played by Bette Midler's husband. Sharon Stone (the real person) jokes about meeting Dylan very young and going to a KISS concert with him. And there are others... I feel the purposeful lies detract from the whole project.
"Ars longa, vita brevis." (Life is short, the art so long to learn) -Hippocrates

John Tudor



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