Masked and Anonymous

A film firstly by Larry Charles (who gave his black humour to the television series Seinfeld), but also and not lastly by Bob Dylan. Dylan plays the leading role as singer Jack Fate and it is his music (his immortal music) that gives the film its sound and rhythm. Dylan did not want to publicise the scale of his share in the film, but everything points to the fact that the whole project, the story, the mood and the look have been developed according to the wishes of ‘his Bobness’. The theme of the film as well ties in with the songs on his albums Time Out of Mind and Love and Theft. Masked and Anonymous is an exuberant film with the playful style of an operetta and the cheerful political pedantry of a play by Brecht. The whole film is set in a fictional time during a fictional civil war. A benefit concert has to bring political advantage and financial gain. The imprisoned troubadour Jack Fate is released for this purpose at the initiative of his shady manager Uncle Sweetheart (played by John Goodman, only one of the many well-known actors in this film). Masked and Anonymous portrays a mythical America, but is also a magnified version of the America we know only too well. (GjZ)