Film Description

DA Pennebaker's cinema verite account of Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of England stands as a landmark film. Pennebaker cut 20 hours of film into the 90-minute final version. Not only does it capture Dylan at a crucial moment in his career, having just "gone electric", it also proved that the behind-the-scenes life of rock stars was as compelling as what they did on stage.

The film is an intimate portrait of Dylan. We see him drunk in hotel rooms, enthralled by Joan Baez and berating the press. He tells one Time magazine journalist "I know more about what you do just by looking at you than you'll ever be able to know about me".

Don't Look Back captures the 23-year-old Dylan as an enigmatic combination of ultimate performer and restless individual - a man who refuses to acknowledge or accept the labels put on either himself or his music.

As director DA Pennebaker says, "He had to be extraordinary where most of us settle for just being adequate."