Perhaps Timothée Chalamet will be the first actor to win an Oscar for voice adaptation. Even before we see him as Bob Dylan in “A Complete Unknown,” we hear him singing “Girl From The North Country” and “Like A Rolling Stone,” a very good Dylan song and his very best. There are countless Dylan imitations, even John Lennon wasn’t above recording a nasal parody. But Chalamet has to realistically emulate the Dylan of 1963-1965. He has nothing to interpret here.
And he doesn’t interpret. The phenotypic resemblance to the harlequin-like Dylan of the time is striking, but in biopics we have become accustomed to the actors being astonishingly similar to their role models.
“Like a Rolling Stone”:
“Girl from the North Country”:
There is no need for glued noses. “Girl From The North Country” appeared in May 1963 on “The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan,” the record with the cover photo of Dylan walking on the street with Suze Rotolo. In 1969, Dylan recorded the song as a duet with Johnny Cash for Nashville Skyline. Chalamet sings the song mercurially with Monica Barbaro, who has a very bright voice in the manner of Joan Baez. “Like A Rolling Stone” rolls and has funfair organs in the “Newport version” from 1965, i.e. the eternally valid one.
Well done, Timothée! Now we’re looking forward to “A Complete Unknown.”
The soundtrack will be released on December 25th and the film will be in German cinemas on February 27th.