Product Details

• Actors: Isaach De Bankolé, Alex Descas, Jean-François Stévenin, Óscar Jaenada, Luis Tosar
• Directors: Jim Jarmusch
• Writers: Jim Jarmusch
• Producers: Carter Logan, Gretchen McGowan, Jon Kilik, Stacey E. Smith, Yuki'e Kitô
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Universal Studios
• DVD Release Date: April 25, 2010
• Run Time: 116 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002P7UCBI
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #25,642 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Limits of Control" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Jim Jarmusch has been the cinema's deadpan poet of lives in transit, from his breakthrough feature Stranger Than Paradise (1984) to Broken Flowers (2005). Limits of Control pretty much consists of deadpan and transit as it follows--make that contemplates--the mission of an enigmatic hitman through some picturesque but sparsely populated corners of Spain. Whom this "Lone Man" (Isaach De Bankolé) is supposed to kill and why are matters not shared with the viewer. Neither is the content of the various minuscule messages Lone Man periodically receives, reads, then swallows. Presumably they cue the next stage of his itinerary, which includes encounters with John Hurt as a guitar-toting philosophe who disdains the word "bohemian," Tilda Swinton as a platinum-blonde-wigged femme fatale emulating Rita Hayworth in The Lady from Shanghai (and reminding us that that glorious movie made no sense either), and Pas de la Huerta as a young woman called, with incontrovertible aptness, "Nude." Throughout, De Bankolé's magnificent carven-ebony features register little, not even exasperation that every conversation begins with someone saying to Lone Man, "You don't speak Spanish, do you?"--in Spanish.

Most of the little that's said in Limits of Control is stuff like "Everything is subjective ... Reality is arbitrary ... Life is a handful of dust" (though that gets translated as "Life is a handful of dirt"). You've gathered by now that no way is this a thriller, although it teases against the outline of one. Its hipster self-consciousness includes name-dropping (Eliot, Rimbaud, Hitchcock; the title is from William Burroughs), homage (Citizen Kane, Contempt, De Chirico), and quite a bit of cutting from paintings to actual scenes that resemble them, and vice versa. It's all impeccably shot by Christopher Doyle, who knows just how to light De Bankolé and his dark monochrome outfits against dark monochrome backgrounds, and make us glad he does. Otherwise, Limits of Control pales in comparison to Jarmusch's other film centered on a taciturn black assassin, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999), with Forest Whitaker. There the minimalist narrative took on an aura of ritual, devotion, and genuine mystery. The rituals being observed in Limits of Control feel empty and played out. --Richard T. Jameson

Product Description

Acclaimed filmmaker Jim Jarmusch delivers a stylish and sexy new thriller about a mysterious loner (De Bankolé) who arrives in Spain with instructions to meet various strangers, each one a part of his dangerous mission. Featuring an all-star international cast that includes Isaach De Bankolé, Gael García Bernal, John Hurt, Tilda Swinton and Bill Murray, it’s a stunning journey in an exotic Spanish landscape that simmers with heat and suspense.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars transcendence of the ego, February 26, 2010

By 

Joel S. Schneider (San Francisco) - See all my reviews
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Okay, for all you who say this film is about nothing, I'd like to give you my take on it. Now, I'm not saying that Jarmusch consciously intended this as an interpretation - I have no way of knowing what he was thinking other than the images that he and Christopher Doyle put together. I do think, though, that the artist is often used by the unconscious to communicate what is very difficult to put in words. Here's what I got from this beautiful, mysterious work.

In the film, "The Limits of Control", the lead character, "The Lone Man", is an existenialist hero. He is both detached and disciplined and through his spontaneity and openness to "imagination" he is able to follow his intuition and slay the tyrannical ego, "the American", played by Bill Murray. In both the personal sense and a societal sense (as embodied by the giant corporation) the ego has become an instrument of control run amok - one that crushes the individual and all creativity (mankind's artistic, intuitive side)... he is the ultimate imperialist. The ego, in its overwhelming narcissism, is above all else fearful of its demise and loss of control. "The American" (the ego) creates a fortress, or citadel of defenses to keep out any perceived threats to his dominance and unnatural pretense of immortality. "The American" has literally surrounded himself in an armed fortress, overrunning with hired guards and a flawed sense of security - all to prop up his inflated self-worth. What this does is mask his basic vulnurability and fear of death. He places his toupee (or vanity) on the skull that sits on his desk of authority. He sees himself as the ultimate ruler and force of control - the fortress that keeps out the imagination (the Bohemians of the world) and all other things he can't dictate to - and most fundamentally, his own death. "The American's" arrogance and condescension is a mask to cover his fear of mortality. He wants to be separate from others, but in death he knows he faces his "invincible defeat" (as Leonard Cohen calls it) - in death he will be like everyone else and will be absorbed into the eternal flow of nature ("in the dirt").

The following is a description of Jean Paul Sartre's thinking regarding the "transcendence of the ego" which can be applied to "The Limits of Control":

According to Sartre, consciousness is unstable by its nature. The basic characteristic of consciousness is its dynamicity, spontaneity, and freedom. He believes in the principle of the intentionality of consciousness. Sartre states that all forms of consciousness are somehow intentional. Imagination and feelings need something to appear. They are the ways of relating to the world, and in this relation consists the intentionality. Spontaneity doesn't emanate from the ego, it directs to it. The main thesis of "the transcendence of the ego" states that "transcendental consciousness is an impersonal spontaneity". Sartre puts practical function of the ego above its theoretical function and he maintains that "perhaps the essential role of the ego is to mask from consciousness its very spontaneity". It affects not the ideal unity but the real instant unity of the moment. Therefore, our consciousness sometimes tends to accept the ego for the false representation of itself. All thanks to the ego, it's possible for us to make a distinction between the possible and the real, between appearance and being, between the willed and the undergone - as there is no such difference for the consciousness. Escaping the ego by consciousness, however, can sweep all the barriers and limits hiding consciousness from itself. Then consciousness is suddenly anguished by fear of itself, which is inherent to pure consciousness.

Beyond the limits of the ego - the limits of control - transcendence (death/art) is found in the realm of infinite imagination (where "there are no edges and no center"). In the ultimate state of transcendence, mankind is his own creator - he no longer is dictated to by some unseen authority from which he is separate - art and life become One. What comes to mind is the famous drawing by M.C. Escher that depicts the artist's hand drawing itself into existence.

Was that pretentious? Probably - so what. Go sue me if you like. This is my take on "The Limits of Control" but its just as valid to appreciate it simply for its beautiful imagery, landscape and color. Thats whats great about a work of art - it can mean a lot but it also can mean nothing. Its up to you - nothing is forbidden, everything is permissable.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Limits of Visual Narrative, May 9, 2010

By 

Giordano Bruno (Wherever I am, I am.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Limits of Control (DVD)

"Limits" DOES tell a story. It has a plot, almost the same plot really as many films about assassination. An impassive, relentless,'professional' hit man is commissioned by a syndicate to kill a big shot of another syndicate. The 'hit' requires him to make contact witha series of strangers who present him with crucial info, presumably about the location of his target. The strangers are bizarre. The mission proceeds to its climax, as it has been obvious that it would from the first scene.

However, there's no explication. No context. We have no idea who wants whom killed, or for what reason, and we never learn. Likewise, we have no reason to care, no favorites as it were, no complicating empathy for the killer or sympathy for his target. The whole verbal script for this film could be typed on a single flash card, and if its insistent repetitions were deleted, half the flash card would be blank. There is nothing in this film to engage the viewer's involvement. It's a pure ballet of cinematography, a narrative as abstract as a painting by Mondrian.

In other words, it's a tour de force by director Jim Jarmusch, a manifestation of his "limits" of cinematic control. An experiment in which the viewer is the arbiter of success, as of course the viewer must be. If it works for you, it works. Period. I rather suspect that the vast majority of viewers will denounce this film as boring beyond belief, and for them, it surely is. I stayed the course, as cold-bloodedly as the killer did. I've given MYSELF five stars for perseverance in the quest for artistry.

25 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting neo-noir, May 5, 2009

By 

avoraciousreader (Somewhere in the Space Time Continuum) - See all my reviews

The Limits of Control
dir Jim Jarmusch 2009

5* Haunting neo-noir

I just saw a preview of this film last night, and ... wow. Very Jarmuschian, very Doyle'ish. Yes, legendary Wong Kar-Wai cinematographer Chris Doyle shot this, and it was an inspired fit. Visually, the film is beautiful as we tour Spain from the cities to the remote country, yet at the same time brooding and ominous.

Which was suitable, since the overall effect of this film is definitely noir. Mysterious goings on, presumably unlawful; suspenseful music; a morally ambiguous central character; the aforementioned brooding and ominous landscape; even a flamenco rehearsal reminiscent of the almost obligatory nightclub scenes in classic noir.

Structurally, the film is simple. A Lone Man (played with impeccable detachment by Isaach De Bankole') arrives in Madrid. He is contacted, given brief and cryptic instructions, and goes on to make the next contact. At each stage, he orders two espressos, "in separate cups", opens a matchbox to find a folded square of paper with a few numbers and letters on it (coordinates?), which he memorizes and destroys; he has some task such as "find the violin"; he hangs out for a while, always ordering two separate espressos, until he is contacted, given a pass phrase; has a few cryptic words and exchanges his matchbox for a new one, and sets off on the next phase. At each stage there is a small cast of sharply drawn characters, cameos really ... the flamenco performers; or a cafe waiter impatient with his habits; or the beautiful, naked, and seemingly very willing (though we're never sure just what game she's playing), young woman (Paz de la Huerta) who shows up in his hotel room. Few, if any, characters other than the Lone Man are here for more than a few minutes.

This structure seems like it should quickly get tedious, but instead the tension builds palpably. What, we wonder, is really going on, even as we are presented with a few clues. Why all the complex charades? Is this criminal, political, or...? Fortunately, we eventually do get to resolution of sorts, although a suitably ambiguous and head scratching one. I know I'm definitely looking forward to a chance to view this one again.