By Jake Howell jake.howell@utoronto.ca

Countdown To Cannes: Jim Jarmusch

Posted Saturday, May 4th, 2013 - Comments Off on Countdown To Cannes: Jim Jarmusch
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JIM JARMUSCH

Background: American; born Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, 1953.

Known for / style: Dead Man (1995), Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), Broken Flowers; experimenting with vignettes; deadpan cameras; creating both features and shorts; dark comedy and minimalist structures across a variety of genres.

Notable accolades: Jarmusch is the proud owner of a Palme d’Or—but not for any of his features. His 1993 short Coffee and Cigarettes III landed the top prize of the Court Métrage program. Other Cannes wins include the Grand Prix (Broken Flowers), the Camera d’Or (Jarmusch’s 1984 debut, Stranger than Paradise), and an award for Best Artistic Contribution (Mystery Train, 1989).

Previous Cannes appearances: Jarmusch and the Festival have a storied past, going back nearly 30 years (Stranger than Paradise played in a parallel section in 1984). Since then, he has played in the Long Métrage Competition five times (Down by Law, 1986; Mystery Train, 1989; Dead Man, 1995; Ghost Dog, 1999; Broken Flowers, 2005), once in the Court Métrage Competition (1993’s Coffee and Cigarettes III), and once in Un Certain Regard (2002’s Ten Minutes Older). Jarmusch was also interviewed for out-of-Competition documentary Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession (2004).

Film he’s bringing to Cannes: Only Lovers Left Alive, a vampire romance featuring Tom Hiddleston (The Avengers), Tilda Swinton (We Need To Talk About Kevin), Mia Wasikowska (Stoker), Anton Yelchin (Like Crazy), and John Hurt (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy). Rekindling a centuries-old love after passing for mundane humans, the romance of Adam (Hiddleston) and Eve (Swinton) is interrupted by Eve’s chaotic younger sister Ava (Wasikowska).

Could it win the Palme? Jarmusch’s cast is strong and his hand is steady. The formula works on paper, of course, but the genre might be out of place. But it doesn’t really matter if the Jury isn’t interested, as Jarmursch has already won most everything Cannes has to offer (though some may argue his Court Métrage Palme d’Or isn’t as impressive as a feature-length counterpart). With last year’s Amour win, Michael Haneke did nothing if not prove winning streaks do predictably occur, and Jarmusch has yet to leave any given decade of Cannes Film Festivals empty-handed. Off the top, though, Tilda Swinton seems to have spent the last few months playing the game, so to speak; her performance work at the MoMA served as a reminder that she is a true artiste. In her defense, however, Swinton has never won a prize at Cannes, despite having won Best Supporting Actress awards from both BAFTA and the AMPAS (2007’s Michael Clayton). If Eve is a juicy enough character for Swinton to sink her teeth into, it’s hard to see a short-list of Best Actress potentials that doesn’t include her name on it (and with Lynne Ramsay of We Need To Talk About Kevin aboard the Jury, Swinton has a ready ally).

Why you should care: That Only Lovers Left Alive is a late addition (announced after the April 18 Official Selection reveal) says little of its relative worth: we know that Jarmusch and Cannes are inseparable, regardless of quality. But besides that (and of course besides Jarmusch’s unique and exciting filmography), there’s really only one other thing that matters here: this vampire romance isn’t Twilight.

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Posted in Cannes, Cannes Originals, MCN Originals, Movie City News | Comments Off on Countdown To Cannes: Jim Jarmusch

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It shows how out of it I was in trying to be in it, acknowledging that I was out of it to myself, and then thinking, “Okay, how do I stop being out of it? Well, I get some legitimate illogical narrative ideas” — some novel, you know?

So I decided on three writers that I might be able to option their material and get some producer, or myself as producer, and then get some writer to do a screenplay on it, and maybe make a movie.

And so the three projects were “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep,” “Naked Lunch” and a collection of Bukowski. Which, in 1975, forget it — I mean, that was nuts. Hollywood would not touch any of that, but I was looking for something commercial, and I thought that all of these things were coming.

There would be no Blade Runner if there was no Ray Bradbury. I couldn’t find Philip K. Dick. His agent didn’t even know where he was. And so I gave up.

I was walking down the street and I ran into Bradbury — he directed a play that I was going to do as an actor, so we know each other, but he yelled “hi” — and I’d forgot who he was.

So at my girlfriend Barbara Hershey’s urging — I was with her at that moment — she said, “Talk to him! That guy really wants to talk to you,” and I said “No, fuck him,” and keep walking.

But then I did, and then I realized who it was, and I thought, “Wait, he’s in that realm, maybe he knows Philip K. Dick.” I said, “You know a guy named—” “Yeah, sure — you want his phone number?”

My friend paid my rent for a year while I wrote, because it turned out we couldn’t get a writer. My friends kept on me about, well, if you can’t get a writer, then you write.”
~ Hampton Fancher

“That was the most disappointing thing to me in how this thing was played. Is that I’m on the phone with you now, after all that’s been said, and the fundamental distinction between what James is dealing with in these other cases is not actually brought to the fore. The fundamental difference is that James Franco didn’t seek to use his position to have sex with anyone. There’s not a case of that. He wasn’t using his position or status to try to solicit a sexual favor from anyone. If he had — if that were what the accusation involved — the show would not have gone on. We would have folded up shop and we would have not completed the show. Because then it would have been the same as Harvey Weinstein, or Les Moonves, or any of these cases that are fundamental to this new paradigm. Did you not notice that? Why did you not notice that? Is that not something notable to say, journalistically? Because nobody could find the voice to say it. I’m not just being rhetorical. Why is it that you and the other critics, none of you could find the voice to say, “You know, it’s not this, it’s that”? Because — let me go on and speak further to this. If you go back to the L.A. Times piece, that’s what it lacked. That’s what they were not able to deliver. The one example in the five that involved an issue of a sexual act was between James and a woman he was dating, who he was not working with. There was no professional dynamic in any capacity.

~ David Simon