Radio veterans Hemmert & Meier ready to rumble over Dylan

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: Radio veterans ready to rumble over Dylan : Nina Metz : Chicago Close-up : November 13, 2009 : Part debate, part intellectual knee-to-the-groin, Cinema Slapdown isn't quite a blood sport, but on a good night it's not too far off. : "It's not that we're belligerent or violent people," said Ron Falzone, who coordinates the critical studies program at Columbia College Chicago, which hosts several versions of Cinema Slapdown each fall and spring. : "We really believe in our hearts that every single movie can be argued, and that a good movie is simply an initiation of an argument or a discussion. If it stops with the end titles, it's not worth my time. We love it when people say, 'How can anybody hate that movie?' or 'How can anybody love that movie?' Those are perfect movies for us." : Thursday's event is the final Slapdown of the year, with a screening of "I'm Not There," director Todd Haynes' experimental, somewhat fictionalized Bob Dylan biopic from 2007 that has six actors -- Cate Blanchett, Richard Gere and Heath Ledger among them -- portraying the singer-songwriter at different stages in his life. : Some of the film is shot in color; other parts are in black-and-white. All six versions of the character have separate names, none of which is Bob Dylan. : "It's a movie that doesn't have many people who like it," said Falzone, "but those who do are absolutely passionate about it. But a lot of people look at it as a great director tripping over his own shoelaces. I think people will have reasonable questions about, 'Well, why is that supposed to be Dylan?' It's not his story, it's not anything, it's not him." : A couple of radio veterans will be duking it out onstage after the screening -- WXRT's Terri Hemmert and WGN's Garry Meier -- to argue whether the six-actor concept even works. : In one corner is Hemmert: "It's a weird film, a very strange film. But Bob Dylan is very strange, so to me it works a whole lot better than just trying to do a straight biopic." For Hemmert, it was probably the only way to capture Dylan's various layers and fractured mystique. "I mean, look at his career -- you can hardly recognize the guy from one chapter to the next." : In the other corner is Meier, who found the whole thing confusing, preposterous and artsy-fartsy: "In my wildest dreams I would never think, 'You know who would make a good Bob Dylan? Cate Blanchett.' It was just bizarre, like a bad art film. It was like if Christopher Guest did a movie, but there weren't any jokes." : Falzone will moderate. "I'm dressed as a referee. I have a whistle. It's like battle," with Falzone as prime instigator. "I start asking questions that will hopefully engender some controversy and argument. It really starts to take off from there." : Previous Slapdown events have sparked some primo trash talk. "God knows there was great heat between the two speakers about 'Showgirls.' They were slamming at each other. But by far the most heated one we ever had was Father Michael Pfleger coming in to defend 'The Passion of the Christ.' " : As for Hemmert, she's ready to take down Meier. "Garry's gonna need a doctor when I'm done with him. We're old friends, we go way back, and I'm gonna slap him silly. He's got his work cut out for him." : For more information about Thursday's event, go to colum.edu/Academics/Film_and_Video and click on Cinema Slapdown. : : (Chicago Tribune)

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