控制的极限

“当我来到无法渡过的河流，
我感到再也没人能指导我如何前进了——兰波”
看贾木许的《控制的极限》。一部西班牙风光片+伪犯罪+伪悬疑+伪情色片，你把它当作任何一种类型片来看都会觉得索然无味。
我不想谈让人头大的隐喻有多深刻，使命与剧情一样毫无意义，只有那些闲扯才是生命的本质，那些音乐、电影、科学、波西米亚、致幻剂……

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May 1, 2009


http://daily.greencine.com/archives/007443.html#more

FILM OF THE WEEK (AND INTERVIEW): The Limits of Control
Jim Jarmusch, THE LIMITS OF CONTROL Who knew that a Jim Jarmusch film could be the most divisive of the year thus far? I'm not ready to address The Limits of Control and all the knee-jerk, unconstructive naysayings I've read that don't actually engage with what the film is or how it does (or doesn't) work, at least until I see it a second time, since I was too mesmerized by the experience to take many notes. In lieu of that, I present to you the extended version of an interview I did with Jarmusch for IFC.com, the first part of which can be found here.

GREENCINE DAILY: Wong Kar-Wai once told me that when working with cinematographer Christopher Doyle, they share a largely unspoken, instinctual shorthand with one another. Was your relationship with Doyle similar?

JIM JARMUSCH: We were more the opposite, man. We talked and talked and talked incessantly. When I was preparing, he would come to New York for a week and a half at a time, maybe three times. We spent every day together for eight hours, just talking about the film, not about the film, about things we saw on the street, about photographs Chris had taken, looking at unrelated things, and listening to music. I've known Chris quite a long time, 12 or 15 years. I love just talking to him about anything. He's very quick, so sometimes he'll say things to me, philosophical things we're discussing that I don't understand what his point is, and then a few days later when I'm not with him, I'll be thinking it over and be like, "Oh! I see what he meant." I don't know if I'm just slow, or if his ideas are hard to enter sometimes.

Isaach De Bankolé, THE LIMITS OF CONTROL Speaking of music, I'm a big Boris fan, who is all over the soundtrack. I read that you had already planned to fill the film with this conceptual Japanese noise-rock while still sketching it out. What's your process of matching image to music?

When I'm writing or trying to think up an idea for a film, I hone in on music that seems to open up my imagination for that particular world in my head. That happens very early over and over, like Neil Young for Dead Man, or [for Ghost Dog,] RZA's beats and instrumental tracks on the B-sides of vinyl Wu-Tang stuff I was collecting. Or Mulatu Astatge in Broken Flowers was inspiring me, and I was like, "How the hell do I get Ethiopian music in a film about a guy in the suburbs?" So then it led me to have Jeffrey Wright's character be of Ethiopian origin. In this case, it was Boris and Sunn 0))), and that electric feedback-y soundscape stuff they make that I love so much. Those things came very early, while I was even just writing the 25-page treatment—well, it was more like a prose short story that we started from. So they were sort of in a little boat I was in, going down the river. I had them inspiring me. Then I got Earth in the movie and a lot of great stuff. I love the Black Angels, but I only used a little instrumental piece at the end of their song, "You on the Run." Anyway, those things were there very early, but the music always leads me. That's always happened.

Tilda Swinton, on the set of THE LIMITS OF CONTROLI stay abreast of new music by geeking out on music blogs, but how do you find all this cool music? Do you still go to a lot of record stores, or do friends keep you tuned in to new artists?

I'm not a Web guy because I don't have a computer, although I often ask people to look stuff up for me. I don't know, it's sort of a general antenna because I love music. You know, there are music stores that in the past I depended on a lot, like Final Vinyl, that used to be great to order things anywhere in the world that were in print, or what's his name, that little shop on Bowery just south of 8th street. Damn, I love that guy. He's always been really cool. There's Other Music, and in New Paltz, there's Rhino Records that is really run unlike any kind of Rhino chain—the guy there, Rick, is amazing. Those record stores are important, but they've been less so for me recently, maybe because I haven't stopped in very much. I always read the British music press, and I try to listen to what underground radio exists, or college-type radio. I'm just always scanning, and I've always been that way, like, music, music, music. I love to get playlists off of [Jersey City's] WFMU or WVKR in Poughkeepsie—Vassar has a good radio station. WFUV has a good morning show in New York, and there's some underground hip-hop shows on WKCR, the Columbia station. There's the beautiful Sunday morning country shows that I listen to, classic country.

I love radio, and I love finding things randomly. Like, I don't have TiVO for TV because I keep thinking, "Well, then I'll just program everything and I won't scan," and scanning is when you find things you weren't expecting. Not that TV isn't, for the most part, a big wasteland of garbage. But you do learn things if you scan around, more than if you have a programmed idea of what you're going to watch. I don't watch that much TV. I watch Turner Classic Movies, science shows and Antiques Roadshow, you know this one? I love Antiques Roadshow. I have this thing I always imagine. Okay, they think suddenly, they have some vase and it's worth $8,000, you know? I always equate it to: what kind of a used car could they buy with it? [Jarmusch makes a sad horn noise] "You can buy a 1986 Honda Civic!" I don't know why I do that... I'm going off in stupid places.

Bill Murray, surrogate Dick Cheney No, I appreciate it. Now, I know why Bill Murray is so great in your films, but what's so great about working with him? In the press notes for this film, you mentioned that you two liked to "talk around the character."

Yeah, we like to talk about it in the past. What's really fascinating about Bill is that, since I've known him, his procedure is always evolving. When I first worked with him in Coffee and Cigarettes, he wanted to pretty much improvise everything, and he didn't want to talk about it or rehearse it. Then with Broken Flowers, no rehearsing, no specifics, but we would take long, long walks for hours at a time, and talk about things that eventually affected our idea of that character. I thought he would improvise a lot, and he said, "I want to stick close to the script." Then in this film, he said, "I want to rehearse, and I want to do the dialogue as written. I don't want to add anything." So that was even a different step. He's just an interesting work in progress. I'm always a little surprised, like, "How does he want to approach it this time?"

That's fun, and I learn a lot from Bill about a lot of things, especially human nature. His capacity to observe and feel what people are feeling, even strangers, is uncanny. I've seen him numerous times run out of his way to help somebody try to get something out of the trunk of their car, or help with their luggage at the airport, or in a restaurant, talk to someone he doesn't even know that looks sort of down. He'll go over and respond to that: "Hey, the world hasn't ended yet, what's going on?" Amazing. He's really observant with compassion, so I love to just hang out with Bill and see how he's going to react to what we encounter in the world. I learn more from that, maybe, than anything specifically about acting, preparing or filmmaking, because it's all intertwined in the end. I really liked having him play somebody with not an ounce of humor this time, which might be frustrating for people's expectations. I don't know, that's not my problem. I choose the actors I want for the best collaboration to create something, and I really liked him being nasty and condescending. Every fucking school principal or authority figure I've ever had in my life has always, at some point, said, "You just don't understand how the world really works." Hearing Bill's character say those lines for me, I don't know. I certainly heard that a lot in my life.

The Limits of Control opens today in New York and Los Angeles, then expands to more cities beginning May 8. For more information, visit the official website.

这是一部反现代化的电影。黑人主人公崇尚东方的太极，不喜欢用手机，用吉他弦作为凶器，永远住在破旧的老房子里，火柴盒是他和同伴联络的媒介。最后，主人公杀死了那个自诩控制了世界的冰冷而森严的大人物，似乎宣告了反抗力量依然存在，以及对现代化的质疑。
音乐，电影，科学，和幻觉分段出现，被描述成一种与这个世界更本质的联系。主人公在漫长的蓄力，以期待最后一击。
这是一个类似于放弃理解真实世界的可能性，并寻求虚无的想象力统治世界的过程。所有的对话是电影的中心，多次出现了被布包住的画，生命是尘土，而世界是不可知的。只有想象力才能自我拯救。
最后，认为能控制世界固然是一种很愚蠢的思路，但认为能够夺回这种控制权同样的简单粗暴，哪怕有虚无主义做武器。
从完全控制到无可控制，现代化只是一个牺牲品，再一次证明了我们的无知。
被虚无主义征服了的现代化，就是后现代。

杀个人真的需要拍俩小时吗？作为吉姆贾木许的脑残粉这部片子我都有些吃不消。这大概是最另类的一部杀手电影了。与其说电影的意义是杀死比尔莫瑞不如说是让杀手先生领略人生的真谛。最后是想象力杀死了生活本身，生活的傲慢和狭隘、无趣和乏味。就像村上春树在小说里写过的人类最大的敌人是想象力枯竭。在电影晦涩不明的情节里代表着生活中一切美好事情的人物那些美女被除掉，性、电影、科学、艺术...这些生活中真正美好的东西。另一方面，这也是贾导在讲自己电影的技巧，控制的极限也正在于电影所展现的缓慢，就像最后那空白的纸条和被白布罩起来的画作，生活本无意义，这部电影大部分确实是在浪费时间，用浪费时间来告诉我们其中的玄妙，充满想象力的杰作。电影的张力并不仅限于华丽的镜头和紧凑的情节，这样出奇的缓慢就像太极一样。杀手先生对着镜头打太极，导演和我们打太极，雇主和杀手打太极，生活和每个人打太极...而这借力打力的功夫令人回味无穷，妙！
加之杜可风的摄影，嚯，贾导也过了回王家卫的瘾吧。

Jarmusch的這本片子，在我看來，是一則寓言，也猶如一樁禪宗公案。

刺客，深居簡出。
日復一日，喝著同樣的兩杯espresso, 聽著陌生人同樣的對話，交換火柴盒和點滴訊息，然後繼續上路。日子如同他每日修煉的太極短式，平淡枯寂，波瀾不驚。念一句阿彌陀佛，也就隨遇而安。

終於一日，風起，劍出鞘。

人生，其實亦如是。從一地到另一地，看似簡單重複，而動物本能般收取過濾相關信息，有時蜇伏，有時躍起，有時轉向，回頭看樣樣自有真意。

它像一列你偶爾登上的火車，不知沿途風景如何，你只有繼續，行至雲深水窮。接近內核的時候，一切會瞬間透徹澄明。

Jarmusch這本片子，也是對王家衛的致敬。經歷風塵滄桑的杜可風，鏡頭運用得隱忍而流暢。Boris的音樂。那一小段掠去人靈魂的flamengo。

“要參透人生真諦，那麼去看墓地。到最後一日，我們都是一小捧塵埃。”

等著看今晚記錄此片拍攝幕後的紀錄片"Behind Jarmusch", Léa Rinaldi在Sevilla跟班拍了三天。