One Train May Hide Another: an Interview with Jim Jarmusch

He describes a scene in the film where Adam and Eve have a sort of quarrel, saying that in preparation, he asked Hiddleston and Swinton to write out their own lengthy speeches, venting to the other character. Though Jarmusch cut out most of the dialogue, he was able to capture the feeling needed for the scene. “I’m always playing like that, trying to think of another angle for something. If we’re standing outside to do a shot and it starts to rain, most films will say, ‘OK, shut down, it’s raining, it’s not in the script,’” says Jarmusch. “Well, my first reaction is, ‘Mmm, what would this scene be like in the rain?’ … I don’t like to follow the map too closely, because in life, when you take the detour, that might be where you meet your lover! Or that might be the place you learned something you never expected.”

Of course, no Jarmusch film is complete without an exceptional, personally curated score and soundtrack. Only Lovers’ composer is Dutch lutist Jozef van Wissem, with whom Jarmusch released two albums in 2012, supplemented by Jarmusch’s latest musical project, SQÜRL, a trio including Carter Logan and Shane Stoneback. SQÜRL released two EPs in 2013, consequently with vampiric squirrel cover art and track names that undoubtedly relate to the new film. SLUG music writer Ryan Hall describes them as “no wave destruction paired with the lethargic and caustic wail of major-chord stoner riffs and a warped, warbled approximation of the music of the American West.” With a rich and varied musical background himself, Jarmusch’s track selections are always a special gift for music aficionados. “There’s a kind of cowardly nature in the corporate film world where the suits want everyone to get what they expect, and what a drag. What kind of life is that where you just get what you expect? So I find it so disappointing when there are these incredible genres of music around the world, and then it always sounds like the same thing.” Musical cameos in Only Lovers include Lebanese singer Yasmine Hamdan, who wrote the song she’s seen performing specifically for the film, New York psychedelic space rockers White Hills in a quick scene, and the soundtrack features Zola Jesus, ’60s soul singer Denise LaSalle and rockabilly musician Charlie Feathers.

Like everything else, the music in the film is a carefully selected detail with a touch of meaning beyond its surface appeal—especially with one of the main characters (Adam) being a musician. “[Adam and Eve] have been alive a long time, so they appreciate things from all of human history, and they’re also not hierarchical about high culture/low culture—they appreciate it all,” says Jarmusch. “So having lute music, which is particularly associated with Baroque and Renaissance periods, mixed with sludgy, molten drone rock, is a kind of nice way to reflect that mixture of their interests as well … They like good stuff—they don’t care if it’s Franz Schubert or Charlie Feathers’ rockabilly—if it’s good, it’s good, and they don’t differentiate that way.

It’s very Jarmuschian to write a love story about vampires free of the lustful violence usually associated with the genre. Jarmusch’s style has been criticized in the past as dull and contrived, but to appreciate his films, one must lose all expectations of Hollywood allure and watch them in the same way one would read a poem, or look at a painting: making connections, finding pleasure in the weighted details and minute brush strokes, and accepting the incomprehensible. “These poetic structures are much more inspiring to me in the form of my films, in a way, than prosaic structure because poetry leaves spaces around things. Poetry doesn’t have to connect everything syntactically or even logically,” says Jarmusch. “Someone said—I think it was e e cummings—that you can understand a poem without knowing what it means—which I love so much … A lot of people don’t get it or they may not like it, but the hell with ‘em.” It can be important to have waited at least a moment to see what was already there.

Only Lovers Left Alive has been screening at film festivals around the world, including the New York Film Festival and Cannes, and will make an appearance at Sundance in the Spotlight category. If you don’t catch it there, it’s set for theatrical release in April of this year.

Screening Times:

Monday, Jan. 20 — 11:30 a.m. • Library Center Theatre, Park City

Tuesday, Jan. 21 — 11:59 p.m. • Egyptian Theatre, Park City

Friday, Jan. 24 — 9:00 p.m. • Broadway Cinema 6, Salt Lake City

Saturday, Jan. 25 — 8:45 p.m. • Egyptian Theatre, Park City