Martin Scorsese's "American Masters" two-parter on Bob Dylan won't be ready for months, but critics here got to see extensive footage from it Saturday, thanks to PBS, whose executives were tap-dancing like crazy to cover the fact that Scorsese, the crown jewel of their daylong series of presentations, was caught in traffic.

When he finally arrived, I asked him about some scenes in which he'd subtitled the dialogue of some British schoolboys -- who were speaking in English -- and about whether or not he might do the same for Dylan, who is, after all, notorious for a certain lack of enunciation.

Scorsese, whose resources include ten hours worth of interviews with Dylan conducted by his manager, Jeff Rosen, doesn't think he's going to need to subtitle the singer.

"If...there are certain words that are unclear to me, I've got to ask him to redo a few," he said.

"It depends on the moment. In other words, if he says, 'A musician feels,' and then something happens, a truck goes by, how do you put a subtitle? You know what I'm saying? I think you'll have to have his language, the way he speaks. If he speaks in circles and he goes around, 'I'm just coming home,' blah, blah, blah, blah, 'and that's all I ever meant to do. I'm just on my way home, bang,' that you take. And it sounds like music to me. I don't think you need to subtitle it."