Jim Jarmusch names his favourite movie of all time
Operating at the very height of American independent filmmaking, Jim Jarmusch is celebrated as one of the country’s finest-ever filmmakers, pioneering a truly distinctive style of cinema that embraces his unique eccentricities. Working closely with the likes of Tilda Swinton, Bill Murray, and Tom Waits over the years, Jarmusch offers something in contemporary cinema that few others can truly provide; unabashed ingenuity.
Starting at the very bottom of the industry, Jarmusch studied filmmaking at New York University before establishing himself as a free-spirited director and writer. Often submitting work that followed a thin, almost non-existent plot, he was a rebellious filmmaker who regularly went against the grain despite condemnation from his lecturers who protested by refusing to give him a degree for his final university project, Permanent Vacation.
No doubt still wiping the egg off their faces, the New York University let go of one of America’s finest contemporary minds, with the director working with Hollywood icons Johnny Depp on Dead Man, along with Iggy Pop, Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Cate Blanchett, Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan years after his unsuccessful degree.
Now, he is looked up to as a sagacious figure in the industry, with his opinions on movies being treated as the gospel. Therefore, when he sat down with Rotten Tomatoes in 2019 to discuss his favourite films of all time, the world of cinema sat up to listen.
Included on the list is the curious choice of David Leitch’s 2017 action movie Atomic Blonde starring Charlize Theron, as well as the Safdie brothers’ 2014 film Heaven Knows What, Claire Denis’ comedy Let the Sunshine in and the John Waters classic Female Trouble. Still, none of these choices compares to his number one pick.
“My number one is American Psycho, 2000,” he tells the publication, choosing Mary Harron’s classic analysis of the American dream as his all-time favourite.
Explaining his love of the film, Jarmusch states: “A masterful adaptation of words to cinema by Mary Harron, an important American director, and writer…I think that the film resonates even more now than when it was made almost 20 years ago…Christian Bale’s performance is brutally riveting, and the entire cast– Willem Dafoe, Chloe Sevigny, Reese Witherspoon, and Jared Leto – are all just really good”.
Teetering on the edge of being a horror or simply a psychological drama, there’s no ignoring Harron’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho following Patrick Bateman, an egotistical psychopath with hedonistic fantasies.
Violently smashing the blinding illusion of the American dream to pieces, Harron’s film well explores the mind of one of cinema’s most infamous psychopaths. Narcissistic and insane, Bateman is brought to life through a memorable performance from Christian Bale, who does well to depict both sides of the psycho’s brain, swapping his charming smile for a sinister stare in a matter of seconds.
