The last time we saw Jim Jarmusch at Cannes, he was premiering his gentle, quiet film “Paterson,” as understated and lovely a character study as anything at the festival this year.
But hell, that’s old news from a couple of days ago. Jarmusch returned to Cannes’ screens on Thursday, and it’s time to kick out the jams and turn the amps up to 11.
The only director with two features at Cannes this year, Jarmusch has gone from the poetry of “Paterson” to the full-out rock ‘n’ roll of “Gimme Danger,” a documentary about proto-punk Iggy Pop and his band the Stooges, who burst out of Detroit in the late 1960s making music that was rawer and rougher than anything you heard on the radio.
Of course, that sort of guaranteed that the Stooges never got played on the radio, and the band burned out after a few years of influential but commercially unsuccessful music.
“Gimme Danger” and “Paterson” are alike in one way: They’re both studies of the creative process, whether it’s writing a poem in your basement or writhing across a stage singing “I Wanna Be Your Dog.”
In many ways, though, “Gimme Danger” is a more conventional film than “Paterson.” It’s a relatively straightforward documentary structured around talking-head interviews with Iggy and other surviving members of the Stooges, and proceeding more or less chronologically.
Maybe we should put the emphasis on more or less: At one point, Iggy remembers a show at which he says the Stooges opened for Joe Cocker, and he contrasts their music with how Cocker sang the ballad “You Are So Beautiful.” But he places the show in 1969, five years before that song was written. Hey, it’s close enough for rock ‘n’ roll.
Chronological slips aside, Iggy is an entertaining, wry and commanding tour guide to a rock story of guts and glory and excess and failure. It’s a hoot when he tells of nixing manager Tony DeFries’ plan to put him on Broadway as Peter Pan, or talks about how influenced he was as a child by kids’ TV icons Clarabelle the Cow and Soupy Sales.
(But why not include the info that he would be paired with Soupy’s sons Hunt and Tony Sales for the groundbreaking “Lust for Life” solo album, produced by David Bowie?)
Jarmusch’s most distinctive touch is a playful one: He constantly cuts away from stories to footage illustrating just about every pop culture reference that pops up, from “The Addams Family” to John Wayne. It gives the film a jokey but appropriately chaotic feel, which works for a band that stirred up and thrived on chaos.
Otherwise, we’ve heard cautionary rock ‘n’ roll stories like these before, and the lack of great live footage of the Stooges reduces the all-important performance sequences to brief snippets. Not until the final stretches of the film do we hear a song in its entirety, when we finally get a full-on blast of what the Stooges could do and why they’re still worth celebrating.
In “Gimme Danger,” Jarmusch presents his subject as a bemused, reflective elder statesman who has nonetheless hung onto some of his feral intensity. But the film is fun rather than bold; to cite the title of a 1973 Stooges album, it’s too bad Jarmusch couldn’t summon up a bit more raw power.
11 Best Cannes Moments, From Madonna to Jerry Lewis' Hotel-Trashing Poodle (Photos)
"In 1991, Sean Penn had directed a movie ['The Indian Runner'] and Madonna was in a different movie ['Truth or Dare']. This was after their marriage had broken up. Roger and I went to a nice party, and he spoke to Charles Bronson and Sean Penn and this other lady sitting next to Sean. And eventually Roger said to me, 'I'm tired and I have to get up early, but I know my editors will want something about Sean and Madonna. So I have to wait until she gets here.' I said, 'You've been talking to her for the last half hour.'"
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Jessica Chastain: "Cannes was really my first festival. I was there with 'The Tree of Life,' and I walked down my first red carpet with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn, the three of us holding each other's hands. But I was also there for this very small film I made for $100 a day ['Take Shelter'], which won the grand prize at Critics' Week, and 'The Wettest County in the World' [renamed 'Lawless'], which had a bidding war that Harvey Weinstein won...
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Jessica Chastain continues: "And on the last day of the festival I was back home, having breakfast with one of the producers of 'Wettest County,' and my phone kept going off. And I finally picked it up, and there was a text: 'Palme d'Or, "Tree of Life."' I actually started crying in the middle of the restaurant. I feel like my career was born in Cannes."
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Mark Damon, CEO, Foresight Unlimited: "We brought Jerry Lewis to Cannes way back in 1983 for 'The King of Comedy.' Well, he not only insisted on a suite for himself, but also a separate suite for his dog at the Carlton. A tiny little French poodle had a suite all to himself! The dog wound up shitting all over the carpet and the Carlton Hotel expelled Jerry and his dog before he could do any promotional work for us."
Jerry Lewis
Elizabeth Kim Schwan, President of International, Covert Media: "In one of my early years of attending Cannes, I went to the premiere of 'About Schmidt.' Walking down the red carpet I was enjoying the moment, looking up at the Palais and the steps to the theater. Suddenly the paparazzi began to take notice of me, yelling at me to get my attention, and the flashes started going off. I wondered who they were mistaking me for when suddenly I realized they were yelling 'bouge!' to me, which means 'move!' Turns out Gina Gershon was right behind me."
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Stuart Ford, CEO, IM Global: "My No. 1 memory arises from a few years ago when Martin Scorsese and I spent a day in a Majestic penthouse suite jointly pitching key foreign distributors on his career-long passion project 'Silence' [now in postproduction]. It was Marty's first-ever experience personally pre-selling his movie in Cannes -- but I was all the time wondering to myself, 'Why the hell does he need me here?' That's a guy who knows how to pitch a movie."
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Nadine de Barros, co-founder, Fortitude International: "I was at the Majestic, and there was a buyer at the concierge desk -- he'd forgotten to put his suitcase into the taxi. The concierge calls the airport, then turns to the buyer and says, 'I'm sorry, but your suitcase? Kaboom!' The airport had blown the suitcase up since it was sitting out front and no one was there to claim it. The buyer did the entire Cannes market with holes burned in his sweater, suits and pants -- anything that hadn't been totally burned to a crisp. That's why I hand-carry all my clothes on the plane."
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Mimi Steinbauer, CEO, Radiant Films International: "My very favorite Cannes memory is being up at a fabulous chateau for New Line's party when we were selling the 'Lord of the Rings' trilogy. The best moment was when black horses and horsemen came riding across the lawn in front of the chateau. As the evening drew to a close the owner of the chateau, a dashing older gentlemen seemingly straight out of a movie set, asked me to move to France and live there with him--not really my cup of tea, but a fun path-not-chosen moment in life."
Joni Sighvatsson, chairman, Scanbox International: "My first Cannes was back in 1986, with my then-partner at Propaganda Films, Steve Golin, and Michael Kuhn. The three of us rented a tiny apartment, bunking together to make ends meet, running up and down the Croisette talking to anyone that would listen. Fast-forward four years, we were standing alongside David Lynch on the Palais stage, accepting the Palme D' Or for 'Wild at Heart.' That night was a blur, but we partied hard at the Carlton, and all I remember is the five-figure champagne bill."
Laura Walker, CEO, AG Capital: "In 2011 or 2012 I got a call in the middle of the night from someone telling me Sean Combs' yacht needed to be parked at the old port next to the Palais. I made some calls begging, borrowing and negotiating to make it happen. I got him the only parking spot where his yacht would fit, and I became his agent after that. Then he threw a big party, which was very generous, and I got to invite all my friends."
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Ashok Amritraj, CEO, Hyde ParkEntertainment: "For many years, we used to have a party on a boat. I remember the last year the weather was so bad that I had more guests throwing up than watching the fashion show we put on, with models walking around. It may not be the happiest story, but it illustrates how unpredictable Cannes is at every turn."
Joachim Trier, director: "My grandfather, Erik Løchen, made a small Norwegian film, 'The Chasers,' that competed in the main competition in 1960, in the same program as Antonioni, Fellini, Buñuel, Bergman -- can you imagine? And the Norwegian media and public didn't really care. So when I was there last year with 'Louder Than Bombs' and I walked up the staircase to the Grand Palais as the first co-produced Norwegian film in the main competition in 36 years, I was thinking about my grandfather, who passed away when I was 9. And now the Norwegian media cared."
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Cannes veterans tell TheWrap their favorite stories about the festival
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