In another radical shift in direction, Haynes' next film I'm Not There (2007) returned to the mythology of pop music, portraying the life and legends of Bob Dylan through seven fictional characters played by six actors: Richard Gere, Cate Blanchett, Marcus Carl Franklin, Heath Ledger, Ben Whishaw and Christian Bale. Haynes obtained Dylan's approval to proceed with the film, plus rights to use his music in the soundtrack, after presenting a 1-page summary of the film concept to Jeff Rosen, Dylan's long-time manager.
Each character (none of whom is called Dylan) represents a different aspect of Dylan's life or musical career. Franklin, a teenaged African-American actor, plays a character called Woody, referencing Woody Guthrie's influence on Dylan's early career, and making a playful visual joke on Dylan's early habit of passing himself off as a drifter from the Dustbowl Southern states and denying his own middle-class Mid-Western origins. Bale plays two roles: an earnest young folk musician involved in the civil rights movement in the early 1960s and dueting with folk singer Alice Fabian (Julianne Moore, impersonating Joan Baez), and later as a middle-aged born again Christian in the early 1980s. Gere plays a reclusive character called Billy, retreating from the world in an American pastoral, referencing Dylan's interest in American folk mythology and his performance in Sam Peckinpah's 1973 film Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid; the sequence also alludes to Dylan's period of exile living in Woodstock in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Whishaw plays a character called Arthur, filmed undergoing an interrogation-style interview about the responsibility of the artist to society; the character is named for and heavily based on the French poet Arthur Rimbaud, whose work Dylan admired, and whose precocious career as a teenaged genius and rebel Dylan to some extent emulated. Ledger plays Robbie, a Method Actor involved in a relationship with a painter, Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg), with whom he has children and subsequently divorces. Claire's character is based on Dylan's former girlfriend Suze Rotolo and his wife, and the Robbie sequence considers accusations made against Dylan of his misogyny in his life and work. Blanchett plays Jude, a pop singer based closely on Dylan in his mid-1960s "Electric" era and his involvement with Pop Art and Warhol's Factory; Jude chases an on-again off-again relationship with socialite/model Coco Rivington (Michelle Williams), a character based on Edie Sedgwick, with whom Dylan is reputed to have had an affair. The Jude sequence also features David Cross as Beat poet Allen Ginsberg.
Haynes intended the film to reverse conventions of the film biopic genre, and to represent what he perceived as Dylan's chameleonic musical persona and his resistance to easy interpretation and categorization. The film narrative, dialogue, characters, scenes and visuals are drawn from and heavily influenced by details from Dylan's music, lyrics and personal history. Each storyline in the film is made in a different style, mostly referencing 1960s art cinema, notably Fellini's 8½, Godard's Masculine Feminine and Altman's McCabe & Mrs. Miller. The film features extensive use of Dylan's music, including songs drawn from Dylan's bootleg recordings, and includes Dylan's original recordings as well as covers by Calexico (who appear in the film), Gainsbourg and other musicians. The beginning of the film features voiceover narration from singer/actor Kris Kristofferson.
The film debuted at the 2007 Telluride International Film Festival and won widespread critical acclaim. Blanchett's performance received particular acclaim for her uncannily accurate impersonation of Dylan, and won a slew of awards and nominations, including the Volpi Cup at the Venice Film Festival, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress.
Haynes has reported in interviews that the film I'm Not There was praised by Rosen, one of Dylan's sons and others close to Dylan, but he was unaware as to whether Dylan himself had viewed the film.
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