Renaldo and Clara is a surrealist movie, by and starring Bob Dylan. Filmed in 1975, during Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue tour, it was released in 1978. In its original form, it is nearly four hours long.
The movie was written by Dylan and stars him as Renaldo; his then-wife Sara Dylan appears as Clara, and his ex-lover Joan Baez plays "The Woman in White." Dylan hired Allen Ginsberg and Sam Shepard to create scenes for the film; how many of their contributions survive can only be guessed, but the writing credit in any event belongs to Dylan.
Many of the artists performing with the Rolling Thunder Revue are featured in the movie, which also includes clips of concert performances and footage of Rubin Carter, the subject of Dylan's song "Hurricane".
The movie was generally poorly reviewed, often scathingly received, and its initial theatrical run was short. After opening in New York City and Los Angeles, the only other cities where the original form ran was reportedly Minneapolis and Kansas City.
Later in 1978, Dylan allowed a two-hour edit of the film to be distributed. The shortened version focused more on the concert footage and omitted many of the dramatic scenes. It had a longer, low-profile run in wider distribution, but was not seen as commercially successful.
After a small number of showings (perhaps only a single airing) of the original version on European television, Dylan withdrew the film from distribution. Copies, made from recordings of the television broadcast, circulate among collectors, but the only parts of the movie to be released for consumers are the excerpts found on the "bonus" DVD accompanying the initial release of Dylan's The Bootleg Series Vol. 5: Bob Dylan Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue.
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