We were going to put a slight moratorium on reporting on Jim Jarmusch’s “The Limits of Control,” because a) we’ve seen it and b) we’ve written a ton about the film, but this amazing quote from the press notes about the influences of the film is just too good too pass up.
This is how Jarmusch says he pictured the film and if you’re a cinephile, this should probably give you an erection too. Much of the film has been surrounded in mystery so far, but this should give you some major clues for what to expect.
“What would it be like if Jacques Rivette remade John Boorman’s masterpiece “Point Blank“? Or what if [experimental French filmmaker] Marguerite Duras (writer of “Hiroshima mon amour“) remade Jean-Pierre Melville’s “Le Samourai“? Michelangelo Antonioni looms large in my subconscious so he’s probably there, but I wasn’t thinking about him beforehand. I was obliquely thinking of Euro crime films from the 1970s and 1980s, like some of [Italian crime and political drama director ] Francesco Rosi’s work. These impressionistic inspirations floated through my head, in terms of finding a style rather than imitating these movies.”
Cineastes who love and appreciate Melville and Boorman’s aforementioned atmospheric crime noirs, Rivette’s non-linerness, and Antonioni’s modernist enigmatic bent, should be getting pretty excited for this one. All the aforementioned films are stone-cold classics, and everyone of those filmmakers have made some seminal and remarkable pictures, so it’s further reason why you should anticipate ‘Control’ (and be somewhat excited that this kind of picture has been made by a fairly mainstream movie studio; an mini major as it were). If you’ve never heard the fascinating DVD commentary track on the making of “Point Blank” with Boorman and director Steven Soderbergh, we highly recommend it. Commentary track enthusiasts will tell you it’s one of the best out there.
“The Limits of Control” stars Isaach De Bankolé as a mysterious loner sent to pull off an equally opaque job in Spain. The film also co-stars John Hurt, Paz De La Huerta, Bill Murray, Gael Garcia Bernal, Tilda Swinton and hits theaters in limited release on May 21.
Here’s an awesome scene from “Point Blank”
“Le Samourai”
Ps, venerable contemporary cinematographer Christopher Doyle lensed “The Limits Of Control,” but this isn’t the first time that he and Jarmusch worked together. The two shot The Raconteurs video for “Steady As She Goes” in 2006 on Super 8 and primitive digital cameras made for children which purposely created a stuttering effect. Here’s the video.