In his black derby hat and long graying locks, Larry Charles looks hip, as they used to say when Jack Fate, the lead character of Masked and Anonymous, might have enjoyed his greatest glory. Charles greets me pleasantly. Near the end of his overnight stop in Chicago, at the end of a full day of press interviews, I ask if he's feeling a bit burned out.

LC: I would call him the initial lure. People were very fascinated and curious to work with him and be around him but ultimately the script really delivered on the promise. Big stars are constantly circling projects and where they land depends on a lot of variables. Bob was the lure, of course. Then people really responded to the density of the language, the poetry, the themes and characters. That brought them one step closer. From there, I was able to step in and talk to people about what my intentions were and what my strategy was and to engender the trust of the actors.

LC: First of all, I am not afraid of being afraid. These people would not have done the movie if they did not think that I could accommodate the project. Maybe if this happened when I was twenty-five, I may have been intimidated by the whole process but I've been doing this for a while. I don't need to make a movie, I don't need the career of a film director. I really wanted to make this movie and that passion kind of carried over to everyone. I have worked with some big stars in TV and I learned a long time ago that celebrities are human beings and simply want to do their work, just like me. We focused on the work and I could not allow myself to be distracted by the celebrity aspect of it.

SC: One of the sources that mention Rene and Sergei is the Internet Movie DataBase. An anonymous comment there totally blasted the film at length for its confusion and said it was just impossible to follow, but then concluded by saying after some thought, it was exciting, interesting, and clever. I must say I had a similar reaction.

LC: (Chuckles) I find the IMDB is sometimes accurate and sometimes not. I think that's a completely valid reaction and I am actually very happy to hear that reaction. It's a thoughtful reaction. That's all I am asking for. Whether you accept it, or initially reject it, then accept it, or end up rejecting it, at least you are engaging with it. That's the main idea behind it.

LC: Right, but that's the point. There is so much stuff going on. In that scene alone, in order to catch that line, there are a lot of other things going on that are just washing past that may be missed. It needs to be seen more than once and just let everything wash over you.

LC: I'm a Dylan fan from at least twenty-five years ago. I was vaguely aware of him and thought he was okay but when I started having serious relationships with women, they were the ones that turned me on to the poetry of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen and others. That was how I came to be a major fan of his for many years now.

SC: So you remember him as the icon that Jack Fate, sort of, is? I ask because when I was watching, I thought the film was really informed about certain aspects. For instance, Dylan's disdain for the music business I recall from an early interview in the Rolling Stone where he vilifies the music business. That layer is there in the film.

LC: Yes. That theme is there. His own personal ambivalence towards the press, toward the music business, toward the media, toward art even, and his relationship with all those things I think are found within this movie. I've labeled the film a post-apocalyptic, sci-fi, film noir, spaghetti western, musical comedy. My wife saw it recently for the second or third time and called it a fictional documentary, and it is that too. There is a great deal revealed about Dylan in the movie. Jeff bridges as Tom Friend asks Jack Fate if he is going to let it all hang out. Jack/Bob replies that it's always been hanging out. It is all out there, hanging out, but you sort of have to do the work to find it.

SC: I am probably a person like Bobby Cupid, who is in awe of him as a poet. The film seemed to be saying that after all these years we can see that Dylan was just being Dylan all along. It was not his intent to be cryptic.

LC: Yeah that's true. I was not as much into the folk stuff, or even the early electric stuff. I got into the middle period and then went backward and discovered that stuff afterward. People come at Dylan from all different angles and there are a lot different periods of his career, like Picasso. You can pick a period and go into great detail.

SC: Here is the brutal question portion of the interview. (Teasingly) I think you can handle it. This is a film that needs to be seen more than once and I am anxious to see it again. I was reminded of something Norman Mailer once said, about a film he made called Maidstone. Everyone who saw it considered it a disaster. He said it needed to be seen 50 times. I've always remembered that and wondered that if any movie were viewed 50 times, one would see the genius in it.

LC: I don't think that's true. I actually would dispute that. I think that in pop culture, most things don't bear repeated listening or viewing. They actually evaporate upon further contact, but things that resonate reveal themselves more and more upon further review. You know, I was in Minnesota yesterday and it came up that I was looking for that film.

LC: Yes. I have been trying to track down a copy because I saw it back then and I was fascinated at that time with the filmmaking technique, which was very improvisational. It's very hard to find a copy of that film and it's been on my mind. So it's interesting to hear you mention that. Talk about synchronicity. How many people are having a conversation about Maidstone these days?

LC: No, I'm not making it up but I have learned to be very open to that synchronicity. I think it's driving a lot of what's all around us that we can't explain. Being around Bob, I've become more aware of the mysterious forces of fate and destiny, like in the movie.

LC: Here is what I want. The best response to the movie would be for people to say they want to see it again. To me that says that there was enough there the first time that is going to wash over you, but that when the tide rolls back, there is a lot left on you that will want to go back and process. I want the movie to be like a great Bob Dylan song that is listened to over and over and for people to back and see it again and get a lot more things, or totally different things.

LC: That certainly could be one. It endures because to some degree, we learn about history and civilization through the art that survives. I am concerned with how the media is controlled today because the corporate media will control the version of events that will be left behind. I do think that Bob Dylan is one of the things that will be left behind. He has been interpreted in so many ways.

LC: I am very happy with it and of course, I would change everything. That gets back to my theory of the movie and the concept of the finished product. Just as Bob has so many versions of his songs, the movie has a lot of different versions. There's the Sundance version and the theatrical version and the long version, also a digital version. Each one has something unique and is a different interpretation.

SC: One last question that is certainly not least. The names of the characters alone are a lot of fun. Besides Rene and Sergei, how was it to work with Dylan on the writing? Is he a normal person? Did you actually go into the same room and hammer it out?

LC: Oh yeah. It was fun playing in that sandbox. One of the things that Bob insists on is being dealt with as Bob. Dylan is "that thing out there." When you go into the room with him from the first day, you're with Bob, the person. That person is a human being, and part of the curse of being Bob Dylan is that in order to be that he can't really enjoy his own work. He can't look back on it and enjoy the nostalgia of it. He does not get the pleasure out of it that everybody else gets. He is very unique person in the artistic landscape, so he is not totally a normal person, but in a good way. To me he became, and I'm sure he would hate to hear this, he was a guru, a total teacher. He would say things to me that would just change my whole way of thinking. There is now a line for me. I think of my life as before this movie and my life after this movie. That's how much of a life- changing event this was for me. He is a shy person but in a room alone, we talked for hours and laughed a lot. He has a great sense of humor. A lot of that stuff is in the movie.