Jim Jarmusch outlines what he “hates” about modern cinema
Legendary American film director Jim Jarmusch has explained his distaste for modern movie-making during a new interview.
“I will never see any Star Wars films, because I resent that I know so much about them and the characters,” Jarmusch explained to Believer Magazine. “Why is all that in my head when I’ve never actually seen one, you know? Why do I know about R2-D2 and Darth Vader and all these things when I’ve never even seen any Star Wars films?”
“I’ve never seen Gone with the Wind, and I never will, just because I feel like it’s forced on me and it’s some kind of corny thing. But these are very subjective, just kind of stubborn things on my part,” Jarmusch admitted. “I don’t like mass things being shoved on me, but I will go see them. Like The Terminator is a masterpiece of cinema. It’s a big action movie, essentially. So I don’t really differentiate.”
Jarmusch stated that the biggest stumbling block for him regarding modern mainstream cinema didn’t actually have to do with acting, writing, or even directing. Instead, Jarmusch took issue with modern editing styles.
“But I have to tell you one thing I hate—and you can just do a little test yourself: watch any recent action-oriented movie and look for any shot that’s more than three seconds long,” Jarmusch bemoaned. “I find that really insulting and shit filmmaking: like they have to keep it moving every three seconds.”
“And that’s the longest they’ll leave a shot on! And then cut. One second, cut! Two seconds, cut! Three seconds, cut! Man, I get a headache,” Jarmusch added. “I just turn it off. I’m like, Come on, man, go to film school! Watch something! Go read a book! Look at a painting! Look at something. This is nonsense. I can’t stand that.”
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