Jim Jarmusch Suitcases Introduction
Works
Video
The Cinema of the Others
Introduction
All Jim Jarmusch's suitcases
Suitcase number one. Allie.
From the roof of a building, it looks like he wants to commit suicide. Fortunately, at the port, he meets a young Frenchman newly arrived in New York, who invites him to travel: Paris will be your Babel. JJ was 20 years old when he left Akron, Ohio, with a population of 200,000, to go to study in Paris. Every day he goes to the theatre, and discovers Rohmer, Ozu, and cinema.
Suitcase number two. Eva.
She arrives from Hungary and has to spend a few days at her cousin WillieÕs. I put a spell on you, warns ScreaminÕ Jay Hawkins. She will be missed, he will get a car and go and find her.
Meeting another, allowing them to invade you, to alter your stasis. Without the surprise of unexpected encounters with those coming from afar, JJ would not have told the relationship as only he knows how. The details are important, the things that remain unsaid, an absent expression which reveals a sadness that the other is gone.
Suitcase number three. Jun and Mitsuko.
Far from Yokohama, they arrive in Memphis with the myth of Elvis in their heads. While everything seems to fall apart, they make love. Then, at the Arcade Hotel, a gunshot. ŅDonÕt worry, weÕre in America.Ó
Japanese, Scandinavian or Italian, the best way to see America is as a foreigner, and perhaps only in passing. It is the only way to be able to love a legend while recognising the cracks in the ceiling.
Suitcases of the trade. Ghost Dog and William Blake.
If you are already dead, the suitcase is of no use to you. William Blake doesnÕt know this yet, but he will find it out soon. He cut across the West on a wagon where they shot on wild boars from the windows, because we are in America. He clings to the suitcase, trying to defend himself. Nobody will reveal the truth to him. Then, if you already know your destiny, you can do anything. Ghost Dog has the tools of the trade in his suitcase. He can start locked cars, give orders to pigeons, and silently kill anyone who disturbs his bossÕs serenity.
Every place we go is marked on our skin. The people we know, the cities we see: we are all that which we carry with us. JJ often told stories about the actors he would like to work with, because he dreams that each of them can transfer that which they have seen, loved and heard into the films.
The suitcase of the womanising (possible) father.
Winston noticed him. A half empty suitcase, travelling from state to state, from house to house, from ex-lover to ex-lover. Maybe youÕve had a disaster, Don. Maybe you have had a lucky escape. If you hadnÕt started looking, would you ever have known whether you really have a child or not?
The infinite suitcase. Lone Man.
What does the killer carry in his suitcase? The elegant clothes in which he meditates, silently, on the thousands of signs which will lead to nothing. The mystery at its apex: the only way forward is to overcome the limits of control and trust. To go, to move, to travel.
Nobody controls JJ. In 30 years he has fought to remain independent litterally: he works with who he wants to, he chooses the times and the terms without any commercial influence. He has forbidden the dubbing of nearly all of his films, films which were released throughout the world. Today he is still a beacon for independent film-makers Š the truly independent, not the trend-following kind that fills certain festivals, and then ends up incorporated into the system.
In fifteen years many suitcases have passed. Immature talents have become acclaimed authors, people who have resisted classification, boys with a passion for cinema who have traded sleep for the excitement of a crowded film-screening. Milano Film Festival has grown thanks to a sense of urgency: pushing the boundaries of the visible, travelling and heading off to discover images that would otherwise be inaccessible. JJ explicitly fills his films with the images that have struck him. His is an ethic of inspiration, not of empty citation. In his suitcase are Fuller and Ray, Wenders and Lang, Kaurismaki and Kaurismaki, Rohmer and Tavernier, Antonioni and Bresson, Ozu and Mizoguchi, Peckinpah and Tonino Valerii, Kafka and Faulkner, Hagakure, les Fleurs du Mal, and Une Saison en Enfer. And there is still plenty of room, and we are sure that he will find it. The tribute is not an intellectual display of knowledge, but an offering of love. And here are the inscriptions, quotes and dedications to prove it.
30 years since the radical debut of Permanent Vacation, the young film-makers who do not want to travel in the business class of cinema still follow his example: they declare their love for the authors of the past; they look for the reality of the human soul in the details, in the unspoken, in the wait between events; they do not fear slowness, deviation, or rule-breaking. JJ is not a bard. He doesnÕt make films to lead the way Š although his films have done just that. But it is a certainty, a guarantee that we can live for another kind of cinema. We can even start to think that the other cinema is other. Perhaps while involving friends and people we hold in high esteem. Perhaps with a bit of music.
And even those who have been through here swear that they have brought something in their suitcase.
Jim Jarmusch Films
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Permanent Vacation by Jim Jarmusch, USA, 1980, 16mm, 75' |
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Stranger than Paradise by Jim Jarmusch, USA, 1984, 35mm, 89' |
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Down by Law by Jim Jarmusch, USA/EST Germany, 1986, 35mm, 107' |
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Mystery Train by Jim Jarmusch, USA, 1989, 35mm, 105' |
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Night on Earth by Jim Jarmusch, France/UK/Germany/USA/Japan, 1991, 35mm, 129' |
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Dead Man by Jim Jarmusch, USA/Germany/Japan, 1995, 35mm, 121' |
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Year of the Horse by Jim Jarmusch, USA, 1997, 35mm, 107' |
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Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet by Jim Jarmusch, Spain/Uk/Germany/Finland/China, 2002, 35mm, 92' |
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Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai by Jim Jarmusch, USA, 1999, 35mm, 116' |
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Coffee and Cigarettes
by Jim Jarmusch, USA/Japan/Italy, 2003 16/35mm, 95' |
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Broken Flowers by Jim Jarmusch, USA/France, 2005, 35mm, 102' |
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The Limits of Control by Jim Jarmusch, USA/Japan, 2009, 35mm, 116' |
Video
Sightsee M.C.! - Big Audio Dynamite, 1986, 3'
The Lady Don't Mind - Talking Heads, 1986, 4'
I'ts All Right With Me - Tom Waits, 1990, 5'
I Don't Wanna Grow Up - Tom Waits, 1992, 3'
Dead Man Theme - Neil Young, 1996, 3'
Steady as she goes - The Racounters, 2006, 3'
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Der Stand der Dinge by Wim Wenders, Germany, 1982, 35mm, 121' |
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Nick's Film by Nicholas Ray/Wim Wenders, Sweden, 1991, 35mm, 91' |
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Fishing with John by John Lurie, USA, 1992, 35mm, 147' |
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Tigrero by Mika Kaurismäki, Brasil, 1994, 35mm, 75' |
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Blank City by Céline Danhier, USA, 2009, 35mm, 94' |
