控制的极限

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。

    这是吉姆·贾木许对于创作本体论的一个自我表达。是他的一个梦。因为他在影片中说，一部好的电影跟梦是分不开的。这会让人想起梦的解析家费里尼说的，“梦的象征意味是跟电影密不可分的。”当习惯了黑白摄影的贾木许去到西班牙，决定往他的赛璐珞上泼洒绚丽的色彩时，他必然是小心翼翼的，在让颜色丰富他的梦境的同时，又让它变得异常简单。作为贾木许的一个关键作品，《控制的极限》实际上保持着一种活跃的简单性，主题上的阐述也尽力向电影这一门艺术的本质靠拢，因此它是纯粹的，像诗歌，像音乐。贾木许不是讲得太多，从而让观众变得不耐烦，而是说得过于易懂，使得他的读者惊异，甚至质疑，这会不会是那个拍摄了《离魂异客》的作者最不应该拿出手的作品。它的经典有赖于从一个全景式的视角审视他的电影：缺少了它，他的电影不会因此模糊，但有它的存在，托起贾木许电影的那一套自足的美学会像岩石一样更加坚实。

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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.

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。

吉姆.贾木许的电影不适合喜欢酒吧嘈杂气氛的人观看，那会挑战你的忍耐极限，他的电影太安静，安静得大多数人会觉得沉闷。看多了所谓大片的观众们，对于电影的定义似乎仅限于“刺激度”，场面是否宏大，情节是否紧张，明星是否耀眼等等。我们在生活中习惯了快，也把这种经验带到了观影的体验当中。其实，就像书一样，有小说，有散文，有诗歌，电影也可也有区别于类型片的分类。贾木许的电影，更像散文。
 
华人电影里也有那么一位：王家卫。所以，当贾木许拍《控制的极限》时，他也选择了杜可风。在一部故事和情节都不重要的电影里，画面或者是影像起到了给整部电影确定基调和节奏主要作用。杜可风证明了，他既可以把王家卫的香港或者上海拍得摇曳迷离也可以把西班牙拍得如梦似幻。区别在于，本片的镜头和主人公一样以静止为主，再无以前令人眩晕的感觉。
 
讨论这样一部电影要表达的东西是费力不讨好的事，我觉得最主要的是影片营造了一种气氛，非常疏离，非常安静非常缓慢。你也可以说，这是贾版的《重庆森林》。
 
两部片子都是犯罪题材，但是有都没有把重点放在案件本身上，都是通过对于杀手这个特殊职业的身份上让观众从熟悉的生活中抽离出来，强调了我们与他人的距离，以及人与人相互了解的困难，另外也给整个旅程找了个借口。不同的是王家卫的线索更多。
 
片中人物，我们看一下蒂尔达.斯文顿的造型就会联想起林青霞的金色假发还有那段著名的：不知道什么时候开始，我变成一个很小心的人，每次我穿雨衣的时候，我都会戴太阳眼镜，你永远都不会知道什么时候会下雨，什么时候出太阳。那个杀手对于两杯Espresso的执着可以对应金城武对五月一号的凤梨罐头的执着。贾木许的裸体女和王菲演得痴情女也可相互对照。区别是：贾木许的人物更安静，杀手完全没有独白，让你无法确定他脑子里想的是什么。但是，如果我们仔细看和他接头的几个人在他面前的自言自语，其实和他的独自一人参观博物馆，听音乐，看弗拉明戈都有联系。也许，这是贾木许式的独白，只不过每一次都从别人口中说出。也许，这一切都是一场梦。正如影片的结尾，他脱下标签似的笔挺的西装，换上最随意的运动服，点明过去一段时间的生活都是非常不真实的。我们看到的一切，也许只是一个很人在一个阳光明媚的下午，发呆神游的幻想。
 
正如杜可风抓住了香港的精髓一样，他镜头里的西班牙可能在很长时间都会成为我们对那个国家的印象。在火车上我们看到了广袤的乡村，绵延的群山，不断变换的林木，或昼或夜；在咖啡馆，我们看到窄小的街道，空旷的广场，惊飞的鸟群；在杀手住过的三个地方，有城市的警笛嘈杂，小镇的稀疏人语，乡间的一派静谧。这倒是比王家卫眼中逼仄的中环和尖沙咀更丰富。
 
把两部片子放在一起看，有当年看朱自清和俞平伯各自写的《桨声灯影里的秦淮河》之感，明明是一种景象，不同的人能生出完全不一样的心情，这就是风格吧。
 
对很多看不下去的人来讲，拿出压箱底的《重庆森林》温习一下，或许会让这部闷片有点意思。
 
Blonde: Are you interested in films, by any chance? I like really old films. You can really see what the world looked like, thirty, fifty, a hundred years ago. You know the clothes, the telephones, the trains, the way people smoked cigarettes, the little details of life. The best films are like dreams you're never sure you've really had. I have this image in my head of a room full of sand. And a bird flies towards me, and dips its wing into the sand. And I honestly have no idea whether this image came from a dream, or a film. Sometimes I like it in films when people just sit there, not saying anything.
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Guitar: La vida non vale nada.
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Molecules: Are you interested in science by any chance? I'm interested in molecules. The Sufis say each one of us is a planet spinning in ecstasy. But I say each one of us is a set of shifting molecules. Spinning in ecstasy. In the near future, worn out things will be made new again by reconfiguring their molecules. A pair of shoes. A tire. Molecular detection will also allow the determination of an object's physical history. This match box for example. Its collection of molecules could indicate everywhere it's ever been. They could do it with your clothes. Or even with your skin, for that matter. Wait three days until you see the bread. The guitar will find you. Among us, there are those who are not among us.
Lone Man: I'm among no one.
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American: How the fuck did you get in here?
Lone Man: I used my imagination.
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American: Is this your twisted idea of revenge for something?
Lone Man: No. Revenge is useless.
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Mexican: Sometimes for me, the reflection is far more present than the thing being reflected.
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Molecules: The Sufi say each one of us is a planet spinning in ecstasy. But I say each one of us is a set of shifting molecules, spinning in ecstasy.