Dont Look Back

A few years after the birth of direct cinema, D. A. Pennebaker created the genre's first undeniable masterpiece with this documentary of Bob Dylan’s 1965 British tour. At the invitation of Dylan's manager, Pennebaker traveled alongside the singer-songwriter. Using his fly-on-the-wall style, he set the bar for all subsequent documentaries on pop music.

Dont Look Back mainly concentrates on the events around the shows. Although the whimsical Dylan only seems to relax onstage, the film features almost no concert footage. With artists like Joan Baez, Alan Price and Donovan in his wake, the troubadour travels across the coal-dusted landscape by car and train and jams in dingy hotel rooms. Surrounded by shady impresarios and managers, hysterical fans and fanatical journalists, the singer regularly loses his cool. The secret of the film lies not only in Pennebaker's ingenuity, but particularly in the fact that this was the first time the still somewhat timid Dylan was filmed so extensively.