Jude Quinn
Jude Quinn is a character from the movie I'm Not There directed by Todd Haynes. It is played by the Australian actress and Golden Globe winner Cate Blanchett. Quinn is one of the six "Dylans" in the movie.
Larry Gross, the author of The Lives of Others: I'm Not There, states it, Jude Quinn is one of the avatars of the movie representing one of Bob Dylan's phases. It is the avatar that resembles the most to Dylan and appears the most throughout the whole film. He represents the "electrified" Dylan. In other words, one of Dylan's life's most important periods of time. In fact, this period marks Dylan's change, and transformation: he revolutionized folk/traditional music by adding electrical elements. He defied people's idea of folk/protest songs and suggested something different. Only to him, this thing was the truth. People labeled him "folk singer," "prophet," etc. Fans had an idea of him, but Jude Quinn is a different idea than what they had in mind. His musical transformation was the musician and songwriter declaring his identity, that he doesn't belong to people.
Some of the most famous Bob Dylan interviews are shown in the Jude Quinn sequence, like the interview with TIME Magazine, when the journalist offends Dylan by asking him if he cares or not about what he sings. Thus, The Jude Quinn phase shows how the singer was misunderstood, not only by fans, but even journalists who never really asked the right questions. The Jude Quinn sequence ends with Dylan's motorcycle incident, but this scene is shown at the beginning of the movie, so it is not in chronological order. His motorcycle incident marks the end of his popularity.
Why choose a woman to play this particular avatar? According to an interview with the Boston Globe, "Haynes told that he wanted to find a method of getting at the “shock” of the electric Dylan, “the newness” of it. “It’s why I wanted to cast a woman to play him in 1966, because at that moment, physically, the music he was producing, is one of the most famous Dylans. But the shock value of that, the strangeness of it, the weirdness of that body and [those] hand gestures and hair and the way he talked, is something that we’ve lost.”[1] Therefore, choosing a woman to play Quinn not only represents Dylan's music revolution and transformation, but also a revolution in cinematography. Todd Haynes indeed deviates from normal Hollywood standards and pushes the boundaries by having the crazy-talented Cate Blanchett instead of a man. Moreover, on one hand, "Jude" is a unisex name that reinforces the androgyny that the character represents. Dylan is for anyone and can be anyone who relates to him. On the other, "Jude" comes from the name "Judas," the one who betrayed Jesus in the Bible. Thus, it's like saying that Jude is a traitor because he changed his style musically. This meaning is shown in the film: there is a scene when Jude performs at a concert in London and his fans scream "Judas."
References
- ↑ Haynes, Todd. "Bob Dylan as a psychological pastiche: I’m Not There". World Socialist Web Site. James Brewer. Retrieved 30 March 2016.