Bob Dylan - Don't Look Back

D. A. Pennebaker follows Bob Dylan's 1965 tour of England with a handheld camera: hotel rooms, corridors, tedious encounters with journalists, backstage, and some concert footage. There is no narrator, no interview and no explanation, and it is among the best known examples of direct cinema. Its most famous passage is the opening, with Dylan dropping cards bearing the words of Subterranean Homesick Blues, generally treated as an ancestor of the music video. The film does not make him likeable; it records someone impatient, mocking toward the press and at times cruel. Joan Baez and Donovan are also present. This is the moment just before he left folk behind. Who it is for: viewers curious about music documentary and the direct cinema method. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a concert film, since most of this takes place in hotel rooms.