CANNES – “The Dead Don’t Die” has received a mostly ambivalent reaction from the media at Cannes, but when you have Bill Murray in your cast and in town you pretty much know his press availabilities are gonna be a ton of fun. Murray, who has previously collaborated with director Jim Jarmusch on “Broken Flowers” and “The Limits of Control,” was on fire as he answered one question after another at the film’s official press conference on Wednesday. Take, for instance, when the cast on hand were asked about what movies scared them growing up.
“I find Cannes frightening,” Murray deadpans.
“You won’t find zombies on la Croisette,” the moderator retorts.
“Says you,” Murray replies.
At first viewing, “The Dead Don’t Die” appears to be the result of Jarmusch using of the zombie genre as a metaphor for the current political environment (although the filmmaker oddly disputed that the film was “political” during the presser). Murray, along with Adam Driver (not in attendance) and Chloe Sevigny (blessing us by keeping her sunglasses on during the first few minutes of the press conference), play police officers in a small middle America town who realize that something very wrong is going on. It turns out that an abundance of polar fracking has cause the the earth has shifted off its axis and it’s caused, among other things, the dead to reanimate. The trio run into an unsuspecting “hipster” portrayed by Selena Gomez (impressive speaking on the dangers of social media) and get some assistance chopping the zombies down from a samurai welding Tilda Swinton (wonderfully articulating the lack of female filmmakers in competition). Still, it was Murray who ended up stealing the show.
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When an Iranian journalist asked a somewhat incoherent question that began with acknowledging the lack of a film from their country at the festival this year (something no one on the panel had anything to do with), Murray took one for the team with this off the cuff answer.
“I am sorry there is not an Iranian film this year,” Murray says. “Um. I’m gonna work a little harder than I have the other questions because I think yours was a good one and the others were not.[Laughs.] This is what we do for a living up here. I’m at my best when I’m working for a living. When I’m not working I’m lazy. I feel the vitality of film is a representation of my current state of consciousness. I’m a better person when I’m working on a film. The state of a working on a film is the high point of the month or the year of my state of life. My concern for the planet is demonstrated and – and the people I work with on a film. This is how I operate. This is my chance. This is how I bring most of myself too. Even this is sort of my work in film. I’m trying hard to be with you. This is my little ice flow I stand on and I hope it doesn’t melt.”
When asked how Jarmusch convinced Murray to reunite him on “Dead Don’t Die,” the icon replied, “Jim just throws a lot of money at you. [Laughs.] He’s jus complete B.S. He just throws a lot of money at you. And gifts. Lots and lots of presents. For days and days things just start arriving at your door and it’s like, ‘Oh, god. Jarmusch wants me to work for him.’ You can tell who it is by the way he operates. He’s a manipulator. I don’t know how the hell I got this job. I was just excited. The script was funny. He lives in black and white in a kind of funny way. It’s about shadows with him. It’s day for night. Lots of day for night for him. He comes to you in the daytime but dressed as darkness.”
Randomly, Murray was asked if he believes in life after death. It was almost too perfect a set up for him.
“I believe in life after death but not for everyone,” Murray says. “Some of you I’ll see and some you I might not. Truly, I mean that.”
As for Jarmusch, who met filmmakers John Carpenter and Dario Argento for the first time the night before, he spent a good deal of time
on the obvious influence of George A. Romero on the film.
“Certainly ‘Night of the Living Dead’ was the first Romero film I saw. As a child I first saw the Universal monster movies which had a big impression of me [such as’ ‘Dracula.’ I’m more of a fan of vampires than zombies. I like John Carpenter’s films,” Jarmusch says. “It’s not my biggest expertise it’s not in horror film although I’ve observed a lot of them. Romero is extremely important because he changed the idea of zombies and monsters too, but monsters in films like Godzilla or Frankenstin they come from outside the social structure and they are meaning from outside of it. With Romero the zombies come from within a collapsing and they are also victims as well. It’s very interesting making them both the victims and the kind of monsters. He did very interesting things with the films by using its own kind of awkwardness as part of the fabric of the film and how it affects us. He used a lot of limitations as strengths in the film.”
“The Dead Don’t Die” opens on June 14.