‘A Complete Unknown’: Good with Words and Keeping Things Vague
Timothée Chalamet, James Mangold, and the Making of Another Dylan Enigma
Diamonds, Rust, and the Unknowable Bob
“Now you’re telling me
You’re not nostalgic
Then give me another word for it
You who are so good with words
And at keeping things vague”
— Joan Baez, “Diamonds and Rust,” A&M Records, 1975
A decade after her passionate relationship with Bob Dylan ended, Joan Baez wrote one of the most beautiful songs of all-time, “Diamonds and Rust.”
It was about Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) — who, according to James Mangold’s new biopic, A Complete Unknown, once gloated to Baez (Monica Barbaro) that she “tries too hard” when writing her own songs, then proceeded to unveil a brand-new composition: “Blowin’ in the Wind,” which the two sing together in their underwear under the cloud of Bob’s morning cigarette.
Baez saw through him even as she barely knew him, immediately calling him “full of shit” that same morning. Pete Seeger (Edward Norton) barely knew him. His true love Sylvie (Elle Fanning) never really did either. Nobody ever did, and yet…
