Jim Jarmusch: biography
Jim Jarmusch is a bright star, who represents the independent American cinema. Such movies as Permanent Vacation, Stranger Than Paradise, Dead Man have become classics of the underground cinema.
Jarmusch was born in January 1953 in the state of Ohio, in the town of Akron. His father worked in the automotive industry, in the company B. F. Goodrich Company, the activity of which the manufacture of tires. The boy's mother received a diploma in journalism. She was engaged in the news of show business and the cinema.
The young boy even tended the humanities. Therefore, in 1971, Jim entered Northwestern University, where he chose journalism. But he realized that literature attracts him the most a year later. Thus, the young man changes his specialization to study English literature and goes to Paris.
Jim Jarmusch had a new hobby in Paris: the cinema. His starting point was a visit to French cinematics. Watching dozens of French movies has a strong impression on the young writer. After returning home, Jim receives a bachelor's degree in literature but cinema becomes his priority.
His love of cinema led him to New York University, where the famous movie school was located.
Movies
The young man works as an assistant to the cult director Nicholas Ray. Jim Jarmusch received his first unforgettable experience of shooting, carefully watching the work of Nicholas Ray and Wim Wenders in the movie Lightning Over Water. It is a documentary drama about the last months of Ray's life, dying of cancer. The movie began to be directed by two directors.
The young director made his debut in the movie Permanent Vacation the following year. The creative biography of Jim Jarmusch begins with this movie. The future American star of the independent cinema shoots the first movie for $ 15 thousand.
Nevertheless, the low-budget project had enthusiastic reviews of movie critics. The movie has almost no plot. The main character wanders through the abandoned houses of New York and then goes to visit his mother, who is in a psychiatric hospital. He steals a car to get money for a trip to Paris.
Jarmusch started his second project only four years later. Jim starred in the movie as an actor during this period and this experience was not excessive.
In 1984, the second movie Stranger Than Paradise of the director was released. Later, critics called this movie one of the most important and best movies from the independent cinema in the country. The project brings Jim Jarmusch the first the prestigious Camera d'Or Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. The movie is shot in the unique author's manner of the famous master. The black-and-white image gave the story a unique style. The movie even was in the Library of Congress as a movie, which has an artistic significance for the nation.
There was a shooting of a short 6-minute director's work Coffee and Cigarettes two years later. The comedy turned out to be the first movie in a cycle of 11 novels, which was released under the same name in the form of a feature movie 17 years later. Each part is a funny dialogue between actors and musicians when they drink coffee and smoke a cigarette. This manner of filming from several novels had a hot response from movie critics.
Jim takes two more projects Down By Law and Mystery Train after his success. The director makes a trilogy, combining these movies with the movie
Stranger Than Paradise. Two last movies were awarded, these movies won the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival.
In 1987, Jarmusch appeared on the screen in the image of a cruel mafia boss in the comedy thriller Straight to Hell. Joe Strummer, frontman of The Clash and Courtney Love starred in the movie. And then Jim turned into a strange barkeeper in the movie Helsinki Napoli All Night Long.
The next director's masterpiece was called Night On Earth, which was shot in the technique of the movie Coffee and Cigarettes. The new movie consists of 5 short stories, that have a common theme: night, casual meetings, taxi. Each of the novels tells about a new country.
1995 was marked by the most expensive project in the director's career of Jarmusch, the drama Dead Man, the movie is about the journey of the failed accountant William Blake (Johnny Depp), who went together with the Indian outcast across the country to the West to the Pacific Ocean. American investors refused to sponsor the movie because of the apparent anti-American message. He invested part of the money from his savings. He received a part of the money from European patrons. Such Hollywood stars as Robert Mitchum, Billy Bob Thornton, as well as the rock idol Iggy Pop were involved in the movie.
In 1990, Jim Jarmusch gave his fans a movie Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai. This movie is a parody of the gangster movies that were so popular in the US until recently. The famous director anticipated the American fashion for Japan, which arose in the XXI century. Ten years later adter Jim's project his colleagues who were famous directors - Sofia Coppola, Quentin Tarantino, Edward Zwick and Rob Marshall had "Japanese" works too. But the pioneer was brilliant Jarmusch.
The project Broken Flowers was among the "fresh" works of the director. Bill Murray had the main role in this movie; Jim Jarmusch is his fan. The director wrote the script within 20 days. Jeffrey Wright and Sharon Stone had the main roles. This movie received the Grand Prix.
In 2008, Jarmusch was marked with his new director's work in the genre of road movie The Limits of Control, which had the improvisation effect. There was a fantasy drama Only Lovers Left Alive with Tom Hiddleston, Tilda Swinton in the lead roles five years later. The main characters are Adam and Eve; they are vampires who drink blood, which they get through their friend Christopher Marlowe (John Hurt). But Marlowe dies after a series of incidents. The vampire was engaged in the killing of people.
Jarmusch doesn't have so many movies: no more than 20. But they are all masterpieces of the independent cinema and models for other Hollywood directors.
Jim Jarmusch`s other hobby is music. The director founded the rock band SQÜRL, which releases studio albums every year. In the early 80s, Jim was a musician of the band The Del-Byzanteens, participated in the project Dark Day. Jim Jarmusch process uses the genre of minimalism in the songwriting.
Personal life
This area of the director's life is as unusual as his work. He showed the diversity in the cinema. Jim Jarmusch`s own life is a large number of beautiful women, who always showed interest in the talented and fashionable director.
Perhaps the actress Sara Driver is the main love of Jim of all his romantic relationships. Jarmusch was in civil marriage with her, which can be called "non-linear." The couple lived together. Then they parted again for a while. He has no children but it seems that Jim never dreamed of them.
Jim Jarmusch now
The director chooses actors with atypical appearance, looking at them on a photo and the screen during casting for a long time. So, Adam Driver and Golshifteh Farahani have the main roles in Jim Jarmusch's last project, the drama Paterson, this movie is about the life of the poet, who has to work as a bus driver. The premiere of the movie took place at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016, where it was nominated for the Palme d'Or. Jim Jarmusch has a net worth of $5 million.
Jim Jarmusch plans to create a continuation of the movie Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, which brought the director worldwide popularity in the late '90s.
Filmography (a director)
- 1980 – Permanent Vacation
- 1984 – Stranger Than Paradise
- 1986 – Down By Law
- 1989 – Mystery Train
- 1991 – Night On Earth
- 1995 – Dead Man
- 1999 – Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai
- 2003 – Coffee and Cigarettes
- 2005 – Broken Flowers
- 2008 – The Limits of Control
- 2013 – Only Lovers Left Alive
- 2016 – Paterson
Filmography (an actor)
- 1984 – American Autobahn
- 1987 – Straight to Hell
- 1987 – Helsinki Napoli All Night Long
- 1990 – The Golden Boat
- 1992 – In The Soup
- 1996 – Sling Blade
- 1996 – Cannes Man
- 2009 – Bored To Death
