Jim Jarmusch

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Jim Jarmusch

Jarmusch at CBGB in New York City on November 30, 2003
Born James R. Jarmusch
January 22, 1953 (1953-01-22) (age 56)
Akron, Ohio, U.S.
Spouse(s) Sara Driver

Jim Jarmusch (born January 22, 1953 in Akron, Ohio; pronounced /ˈdʒɑrməʃ/[1]) is an American independent filmmaker and script writer.

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[edit] Background

Jarmusch holds a B.A. in English and American literature from Columbia University. He attended New York University's Tisch School of the Arts but dropped out. Instead, he invested his scholarship funds into his first feature, Permanent Vacation. With this, Jarmusch introduced audiences to the deadpan style that is developed in Stranger Than Paradise and Down by Law. Nonetheless, while at NYU, Jarmusch worked as an assistant to director Nicholas Ray. Through Ray's efforts, he became a production assistant on Wim Wenders' documentary, "Lightning Over Water" (1980).[2]

[edit] Films

Jarmusch's first major film, Stranger Than Paradise, was released in 1984 to much critical acclaim. Recounting a strange journey of three disillusioned youths from New York to Cleveland to Florida, the film broke many conventions of traditional Hollywood moviemaking, and to this day is still considered a landmark work in modern independent film.[3] In 1986, Jarmusch wrote and directed Down by Law, a film about three convicts in a New Orleans jailhouse. As a result of his early work, Jarmusch became an influential representative of the trend of the American road movie.[4] His next two films each experimented with parallel narratives: Mystery Train told three stories, one after the other, set on the same night in and around a small Memphis hotel, and Night on Earth involved five cab drivers and their passengers on rides happening simultaneously in five different world cities, beginning at sundown in Los Angeles and ending at sunrise in Helsinki.

In 1995, Jarmusch released Dead Man, a film set in the American West in the 19th century starring Johnny Depp and Gary Farmer that has been called a Western movie, an "acid western," an "anti-Western," and a "post-Western" by various critics. The film has been hailed as one of the few films made by a Caucasian that presents an authentic Native American culture and character, and Jarmusch stands by it as such; however, critics have both praised and decried the film for its portrayal of the American West, violence, and especially Native Americans.[5] The film was shot in black and white by Robby Müller, and features a score composed and performed by Neil Young.

Following artistic success and critical acclaim in the American independent film community, he achieved mainstream renown with his far-East philosophical crime film shot in Jersey City, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, starring Forest Whitaker as a young inner-city man who has found purpose for his life by unyieldingly conforming it to Hagakure, an 18th-century philosophy text and training manual for samurai, becoming, as directed, a terrifyingly deadly hit-man for a local mob boss to whom he may owe a debt, and who then betrays him. The soundtrack was supplied by the Wu-Tang Clan's RZA. The film was unique among other things for the number of books important to and discussed by its characters, most of them listed bibliographically as part of the end credits.

In 2004 he released what is possibly the final version of Coffee and Cigarettes, a collection of short film vignettes the first of which had been shot for and aired on Saturday Night Live in 1986, featuring actor-filmmaker Roberto Benigni and comedian Steven Wright, followed three years later by Coffee and Cigarettes: Memphis Version with actors Steve Buscemi and Joie and Cinque Lee, then Coffee and Cigarettes: Somewhere in California in 1993 with musicians Tom Waits and Iggy Pop. In 1993, Jarmusch said, "I've shot two more which are waiting to be edited, and I've scripted two or three more. Although the intention is for them to work separately as short films, I plan to shoot around 12 to 14 and put them together for a video release." [2]. The film was eventually released to selected theaters consisting of 11 installments featuring, among others, Jack and Meg of The White Stripes, Cate Blanchett, RZA, GZA, Bill Murray, Steve Coogan and Alfred Molina.

Jarmusch' latest film, The Limits of Control, is set to open on May 22nd 2009. The film will star Isaach de Bankolé and be set in Spain. The film will also star Hiam Abbass, Gael García Bernal, Paz De La Huerta, Alex Descas, John Hurt, Youki Kudoh, Bill Murray, Jean-François Stévenin, Tilda Swinton and Luis Tosar. [6][7]

[edit] Themes

Many of Jim Jarmusch's films include some foreign actors and some (at times substantial) foreign-language dialogue, usually subtitled although intentionally not so in the Cree and Blackfoot exchanges in Dead Man, which were left untranslated for the exclusive understanding of members of those nations. Jarmusch has experimented with a vignette format in three films either released or begun around the early nineties, Mystery Train, Night on Earth, and 2004's Coffee and Cigarettes. In his two later-nineties films, he seemed fascinated by different cultures' views on violence, and by textual appropriations between cultures: a wandering Native American's love of William Blake, a black hit-man's passionate devotion to Hagakure.

[edit] Sons of Lee Marvin

Jarmusch is the founder of The Sons of Lee Marvin, a humorous 'semi-secret society'. Members of the society reportedly include musician Tom Waits and actor John Lurie, both of whom have worked with Jarmusch on several occasions. Richard Bose, Nick Cave, Thurston Moore, Iggy Pop (who has also worked with Jarmusch), Josh Brolin and Neil Young are also rumored to be members. The entry criterion for the club is that the person must have some physical resemblance or plausibly look like a son of the actor Lee Marvin — as such, women are not allowed to join. Most current members also share what seems to be a beat mentality in that they represent and express the lives of the down and out.

The club supposedly meets occasionally to watch Lee Marvin movies together. Its members perpetuate the joke in the media.

I'm not at liberty to divulge information about the organization, other than to tell you that it does exist. I can identify three other members of the organization: Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Richard Bose. You have to have a facial structure such that you could be related to, or be a son of, Lee Marvin. There are no women, obviously, in the organization. We have communiques and secret meetings. Other than that, I can't talk about it.

—Jim Jarmusch, Interview: Vol. XIX - No. 11, 1989: pp 146-150

The real son of Lee Marvin is said to have objected to the existence of the organization when he encountered Waits in a bar.[8]

[edit] Music

Jarmusch was the keyboardist and one of two vocalists for the No-Wave band The Del-Byzanteens, whose sole LP Lies to Live By was a minor underground hit in the US and Britain in 1982.

Jarmusch is also featured on Wu-Tang Meets The Indie Culture quoting Bach and Yehudi Menuhin.

[edit] Personal

Jarmusch divides his time between New York City and the Catskill Mountains of Upstate New York.

Although Jarmusch does not frequently make public appearances, in early 2003 he signed the Not In My Name declaration (along with people such as Noam Chomsky and Susan Sarandon), opposing the invasion of Iraq.

Stated in his The Golden Rules of Filming: “Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination”

[edit] Filmography

Feature films
Name Year
Permanent Vacation 1980
Stranger Than Paradise 1984
Down by Law 1986
Mystery Train 1989
Night on Earth 1991
Dead Man 1995
Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai 1999
Coffee and Cigarettes 2003
Broken Flowers 2005
The Limits of Control 2009
Documentary films
Name Year
Year of the Horse 1997
Music videos
Name Artist Year
The Lady Don't Mind Talking Heads 1986
Sightsee M.C.! Big Audio Dynamite 1987
It's All Right With Me Tom Waits 1990
I Don't Wanna Grow Up Tom Waits 1992
Dead Man Theme Neil Young 1995
Steady as She Goes The Raconteurs 2006

[edit] Short films

[edit] Other production credits

  • Lightning Over Water (1980) - Observer
  • You Are Not I (1981) - Producer/Cinematographer
  • Der Stand Der Dinge (The State of Things) Portugal (1982) - Composer
  • Burroughs (1984) - Sound Recordist
  • Sleepwalk (1986) - Camera Operator/Cinematographer
  • When Pigs Fly (1993) - Executive Producer
  • Clerks (1994) (special thanks)
  • Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room (2005) (special thanks)

[edit] Acting credits

  • Underground U.S.A. (1980) - Sound recordist
  • American Autobahn (1984) .... Movie Producer
  • Straight to Hell (1987) .... Amos Dade
  • Helsinki Napoli All Night Long (1987) ... Barkeeper #2
  • Candy Mountain (1988)
  • Leningrad Cowboys Go America (1989) ... New York Car Dealer
  • The Golden Boat (1990) ... Stranger
  • In the Soup (1992) ... Monty
  • Iron Horseman (1995) ... Silver Rider
  • Blue in the Face (1995) ... Bob
  • Cannes Man (1996) ... Cameo
  • Sling Blade (1996) ... Frostee Cream guy
  • Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (Book on Tape) (1996) ... Raoul Duke (voice)

[edit] Appearances as Himself

[edit] References

  1. ^ Hagen, Ray. "Wolfner Library: You Say It How?". Missouri Secretary of State web site. http://www.sos.mo.gov/wolfner/SayHow/?id=j. Retrieved on 2008-06-30. 
  2. ^ Jim Jarmusch at Hollywood.com
  3. ^ The Criterion Collection: Stranger Than Paradise by Jim Jarmusch
  4. ^ Mazierska, Ewa (2006). Crossing New Europe. Wallflower Press. p. 3. ISBN 1904764673. 
  5. ^ Hall, Mary Katherine: "Now You Are a Killer of White Men: Jim Jarmusch's "Dead Man" and Traditions of Revisionism in the Western". Journal of Film and Video 52:4 [Winter 2000] p. 3-14
  6. ^ "10 Actors Join Jarmusch's Limits of Control". Comingsoon.net. http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=42251. Retrieved on 2008-04-03. 
  7. ^ Rea, Steven (2008-03-30). "On Movies: Macy movie on moviemaking". Philadelphia Inquirer. Philadelphia Media Holdings. http://www.philly.com/philly/entertainment/movies/20080330_On_Movies__Macy_movie_on_moviemaking.html. Retrieved on 2008-04-03. 
  8. ^ Film Comment 28:3, June 1992 [1]

[edit] Further reading

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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