Jim Jarmusch: Interviews (Conversations With Filmmakers Series) [ABRIDGED] (Paperback)

~ Ludvig Hertzberg (Editor) "THE TEXT IS COMPILED from interviews that Ralph Eue and Wolfgang Stukenbrock did with Jim Jarmusch on October 10, 1980, during the 29th Filmwoche in..." (more)
Key Phrases: graduate film school, New York, Dead Man, Jim Jarmusch (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Jarmusch may not be the most commercially successful or artistically acclaimed of the American independent filmmakers who surfaced in the early '80s, but he may have the most integrity of any of them. He is the only one who has consistently insisted upon retaining the right of final cut, and he owns the negatives of all his films. Whereas his young protagonists tend to be laconic--from the protoslackers of his breakthrough feature, Stranger Than Paradise, to the central figure of his Kafkaesque western, Dead Man (arguably the most underrated film of the '90s), and the urban samurai of Ghost Dog--Jarmusch comes across in these 17 interviews as thoughtful and articulate. Strongly influenced by European and Asian directors, he often works with foreign collaborators and gets much of his financing overseas. His films, however, with their iconoclastic outlook, individualistic heroes, and affinity for pop culture, are quintessentially American. Gordon Flagg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

Perhaps the most gifted and invigorating of the American independent film directors of the past two decades, Jim Jarmusch (b. 1953) has presented moviegoers with his uniquely personal vision, from his first feature film, Permanent Vacation (1980), to his latest, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999).

As the interviews in this volume reveal, Jarmusch has always been interested in mixing very different cultural ingredients to form something uncategorizably new in films that transcend the boundaries between high and low cultures. Jarmusch half-mockingly described his movie Stranger Than Paradise (1984), the film that first brought him substantial notice, as "a semi-neorealist black comedy in the style of an imaginary Eastern European film director obsessed with Ozu, and familiar with the 1950s American television show The Honeymooners."

His unique approach to movie making jump-started the low-budget American independent film movement with Stranger Than Paradise, which won the Camera d'Or for best first feature at the Cannes Film Festival.

Ranging from 1981 to 2000 this collection chronicles the career and sensibility of a thoroughly independent filmmaker. It features one previously unpublished interview, two that have never appeared in English, and another two which are presented in their entirety rather than in the abridged forms in which they were published.

Jarmusch discusses the actors with whom he has worked (Johnny Depp, Forest Whitaker, and Roberto Benigni among them), the progression of his camera and editing techniques, his fascination with the co-existence of disparate and often opposing cultures, and his cult status as an independent movie director. He comes across as kind, modest, and attentive, with a warm sense of humor and an ever-glowing affection for and dedication to his art, and for all the small and marginalized aspects of the world.

Ludvig Hertzberg is a freelance film critic and a doctoral candidate in cinema studies at Stockholm University, Sweden.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 217 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Mississippi; abridged edition edition (September 10, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578063795
• ISBN-13: 978-1578063796
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #124,677 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A True Visionary, February 3, 2002

By	Robert DeRose (Racine, Wisconsin USA) - See all my reviews

"I consider myself a minor poet who write fairly small poems. I'd rather make a movie about a guy walking his dog than about the emperor of China."- Jim Jarmusch

Over the last few years, University Press of Mississippi has released several book under their "Conversations with Filmakers Series." Past directors in the series have included Martin Scorsese, Bernardo Bertolucci, Jean-Luc Godard, and Quentin Tarantino. I've read just about all of them, and I have to say this one, about American independent film director Jim Jarmusch, is one of my favorites.

The book consists of seventeen interviews of Jarmusch ranging from 1981 to 2000. During that time, Jarmusch has released independent classics starting with Stranger In Paradise(1984), Down By Law(staring a young Robert Benigni-1986), Mystery Train(1989), Dead Man(1995), and Ghost Dog:Way of the Samurai(1999).
These series of interviews reveal some of the meaning and influences that helped shape those films.

For those who might not know, Jarmusch is not only a brillaint director but he is also a facinating conversationalist. In the interviews, he describes his backgroung starting in Akron, Ohio and his early college years studying abroad in Paris, France. As an "outsider" studying in a foreign country, Jarmusch was never able to forget that feeling, and you can tell that when you watch his movies.

What's fascinating about Jarmusch is his mixing of "high' and "low" cultures which permeates his films. In the interviews, he admits being obsessed with the Japanese director Ozu and, at the same time, being influenced by the TV show "The Honeymooners."

I've been waiting for years on a biography about Jarmusch. Although this not a biography(or autobiography or that matter),
it is an excellent introduction this director's life and work. I recommend it to not only Jarmusch nuts, but to anybody who interested in American Independent movies.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great filmmaker but an okay book., January 17, 2009

By	Hung Tran - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

If you read the first chapter, you will know everything you need to know about the rest of the book. The interviews are all the same and so are the answers. I got bored with the monotony so I never finished the book.
One good thing about the book is that you get to know Jim Jarmusch ideas and concept behind his films, a good reason to get the book if you are an admirers of his films like myself.

5.0 out of 5 stars As simple as his films, July 4, 2008

By	Cesar Diaz "madmundo" (Bogota, COLOMBIA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

I found two volumes of this "Conversations With Filmmakers Series" at a university library in Japan, and as soon as I could, I bought both for my personal library: Jim Jarmusch and Peter Greenaway. The reason: I think that, if you do a map of contemporary filmmaking, the North Pole and the South Pole would be these two gentlemen. Everything else is somewhere in between. I don't know if any of these two directors is actually so clear, so witty and so self aware, or if it is just good editing work, but very few times you'll find books of film criticism to be so insightful, so revealing and yet, so simple. I know this sounds vulgar, but I'd give up stuff like Film Semiotics if only the University Press of Mississippi had published more books of these series. I just ordered a third book: Akira Kurosawa.