Bob Dylan "Don't Look Back (1965 Tour Deluxe Edition)" (2007)

BOB DYLAN: DONT LOOK BACK--65 TOUR DELUXE EDITION is the ultimate look at Bob Dylan’s concert tour of England in the spring of 1965--one of the most intimate profiles of an artist ever put to film. This definitive set includes the remastered classic film by D.A. Pennebaker, a brand-new, hour-long look at Dylan, and the original 168-page companion book to the film. More than just a concert film, DONT LOOK BACK is a window into the spirit of the 60s, and one of the poet-musicians whose words and songs defined it.

Both a classic documentary and a vital pop-cultural artifact, D.A. Pennebaker's portrait of Bob Dylan captures the seminal singer-songwriter on the cusp of his transformation from folk prophet to rock trendsetter. Shot during Dylan's 1965 British concert tour, Don't Look Back employs an edgy vérité style that was, and is, a snug fit with the artist's own consciously rough-hewn persona. Its handheld black-and-white images and often-gritty London backdrops suggest cinematic extensions of the archetypal monochrome portraits that graced Dylan's career-making early-'60s album jackets.

Pennebaker's access to the legendarily private troubadour enables us to witness Dylan's shifting moods as he performs, relaxes with his entourage (including then lover Joan Baez, road manager Bob Neuwirth, and poker-faced manager Albert Grossman), and jousts with other musicians (notably Animals alumnus Alan Price and Scottish folksinger Donovan), fans, and press. It's a measurement of the filmmaker's acuity that the conversations are often as gripping as Dylan's solo performances. Grossman's machinations with British promoters, Baez's hip serenity, a grizzled British journalist's surrender to the fact of Dylan's artistry, and the artist's own taunting dismissal of a clueless sycophant are all absorbing.

With the exception of the studio recording of "Subterranean Homesick Blues," the live performances (including five newly restored, complete audio tracks excised from the original film but included on the DVD version) are constrained by crude audio gear. Their urgency, however, is timeless, as is Pennebaker's film, a legitimate cornerstone for any serious rock video collection.

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The Girls (1968)

Mai Zetterling, revered as much for her acting as for her directing, directed The Girls, the film that defined her feminist sensibilities during Sweden's women's lib era. Tying contemporary gender issues to the ancient, The Girls tells the story of three actors, Liz Lindstrand (Bibi Andersson), Marianne (Harriet Andersson), and Gunnila (Gunnel Lindblom of The Hunger), who, to their husbands and lovers' dismay, take Aristophanes' play Lysistrata on the road, questioning, during the tour, how different their current lives really are. As all three women become increasingly rebellious against their familial and wifely duties, their relationships crumble until they start asking themselves if their rejection of domesticity is beside the point. Contextualized by Lysistrata, a play about female revolution set during a time when women had zero political rights, Liz, Marianne, and Gunnila begin to see the complexities of the women's movement, by understanding that they lack happiness not necessarily because they lack rights. By so clearly and stylishly elucidating this concept, Zetterling proves to be ahead of her time, making the film feel more relevant than ever. Filmed in high-contrast black and white like a great Bergman movie, The Girls looks intentionally sexy, further reiterating female power.

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