Jim Jarmusch says “the film industry is kind of gone”
In a new interview, legendary independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch has bemoaned the state of the modern film industry.
Jarmusch shared his thoughts with The Guardian on why he hasn’t focused as intently on filmmaking in recent years. “The film industry is kind of gone,” he says. “It sucks. It’s gotten worse. The kind of split-rights deals – an equal 50-50 shared profits, after costs, with financiers – that I used to be able to do with my films … if you even suggested that now you would be laughed out of the fucking building.”
Jarmusch’s most recent film was 2019’s The Dead Don’t Die. Instead of working in the film industry, Jarmusch has been writing and composing drone music in his new band Sqürl, formed with composer and collaborator Carter Logan.
“It’s liberating,” Jarmusch explains. “Because I write my own scripts, it’s about a two-year process to have an idea for a film and then have it completed. Music is so different. It’s immediate. I love it.”
“Music’s always been there,” Jarmusch adds. “Since being a teenager, music has been something that shaped my life and the decisions I’ve made throughout it.”
“I’m a control freak in that I have to do it my own way,” Jarmusch concludes. “I have to choose all my own collaborators. I have to have final cut. I have to produce it through my own company. And as for the people financing the films, I allow them to give me notes on a rough cut but I always, contractually, have absolutely no obligation to use them.”
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