控制的极限

 « TRIBECA '09 PODCAST: Damien Chazelle | Main | TRIBECA '09 REVIEWS: Here and There, Seven Minutes in Heaven »
May 1, 2009


http://daily.greencine.com/archives/007443.html#more

FILM OF THE WEEK (AND INTERVIEW): The Limits of Control
Jim Jarmusch, THE LIMITS OF CONTROL Who knew that a Jim Jarmusch film could be the most divisive of the year thus far? I'm not ready to address The Limits of Control and all the knee-jerk, unconstructive naysayings I've read that don't actually engage with what the film is or how it does (or doesn't) work, at least until I see it a second time, since I was too mesmerized by the experience to take many notes. In lieu of that, I present to you the extended version of an interview I did with Jarmusch for IFC.com, the first part of which can be found here.

GREENCINE DAILY: Wong Kar-Wai once told me that when working with cinematographer Christopher Doyle, they share a largely unspoken, instinctual shorthand with one another. Was your relationship with Doyle similar?

JIM JARMUSCH: We were more the opposite, man. We talked and talked and talked incessantly. When I was preparing, he would come to New York for a week and a half at a time, maybe three times. We spent every day together for eight hours, just talking about the film, not about the film, about things we saw on the street, about photographs Chris had taken, looking at unrelated things, and listening to music. I've known Chris quite a long time, 12 or 15 years. I love just talking to him about anything. He's very quick, so sometimes he'll say things to me, philosophical things we're discussing that I don't understand what his point is, and then a few days later when I'm not with him, I'll be thinking it over and be like, "Oh! I see what he meant." I don't know if I'm just slow, or if his ideas are hard to enter sometimes.

Isaach De Bankolé, THE LIMITS OF CONTROL Speaking of music, I'm a big Boris fan, who is all over the soundtrack. I read that you had already planned to fill the film with this conceptual Japanese noise-rock while still sketching it out. What's your process of matching image to music?

When I'm writing or trying to think up an idea for a film, I hone in on music that seems to open up my imagination for that particular world in my head. That happens very early over and over, like Neil Young for Dead Man, or [for Ghost Dog,] RZA's beats and instrumental tracks on the B-sides of vinyl Wu-Tang stuff I was collecting. Or Mulatu Astatge in Broken Flowers was inspiring me, and I was like, "How the hell do I get Ethiopian music in a film about a guy in the suburbs?" So then it led me to have Jeffrey Wright's character be of Ethiopian origin. In this case, it was Boris and Sunn 0))), and that electric feedback-y soundscape stuff they make that I love so much. Those things came very early, while I was even just writing the 25-page treatment—well, it was more like a prose short story that we started from. So they were sort of in a little boat I was in, going down the river. I had them inspiring me. Then I got Earth in the movie and a lot of great stuff. I love the Black Angels, but I only used a little instrumental piece at the end of their song, "You on the Run." Anyway, those things were there very early, but the music always leads me. That's always happened.

Tilda Swinton, on the set of THE LIMITS OF CONTROLI stay abreast of new music by geeking out on music blogs, but how do you find all this cool music? Do you still go to a lot of record stores, or do friends keep you tuned in to new artists?

I'm not a Web guy because I don't have a computer, although I often ask people to look stuff up for me. I don't know, it's sort of a general antenna because I love music. You know, there are music stores that in the past I depended on a lot, like Final Vinyl, that used to be great to order things anywhere in the world that were in print, or what's his name, that little shop on Bowery just south of 8th street. Damn, I love that guy. He's always been really cool. There's Other Music, and in New Paltz, there's Rhino Records that is really run unlike any kind of Rhino chain—the guy there, Rick, is amazing. Those record stores are important, but they've been less so for me recently, maybe because I haven't stopped in very much. I always read the British music press, and I try to listen to what underground radio exists, or college-type radio. I'm just always scanning, and I've always been that way, like, music, music, music. I love to get playlists off of [Jersey City's] WFMU or WVKR in Poughkeepsie—Vassar has a good radio station. WFUV has a good morning show in New York, and there's some underground hip-hop shows on WKCR, the Columbia station. There's the beautiful Sunday morning country shows that I listen to, classic country.

I love radio, and I love finding things randomly. Like, I don't have TiVO for TV because I keep thinking, "Well, then I'll just program everything and I won't scan," and scanning is when you find things you weren't expecting. Not that TV isn't, for the most part, a big wasteland of garbage. But you do learn things if you scan around, more than if you have a programmed idea of what you're going to watch. I don't watch that much TV. I watch Turner Classic Movies, science shows and Antiques Roadshow, you know this one? I love Antiques Roadshow. I have this thing I always imagine. Okay, they think suddenly, they have some vase and it's worth $8,000, you know? I always equate it to: what kind of a used car could they buy with it? [Jarmusch makes a sad horn noise] "You can buy a 1986 Honda Civic!" I don't know why I do that... I'm going off in stupid places.

Bill Murray, surrogate Dick Cheney No, I appreciate it. Now, I know why Bill Murray is so great in your films, but what's so great about working with him? In the press notes for this film, you mentioned that you two liked to "talk around the character."

Yeah, we like to talk about it in the past. What's really fascinating about Bill is that, since I've known him, his procedure is always evolving. When I first worked with him in Coffee and Cigarettes, he wanted to pretty much improvise everything, and he didn't want to talk about it or rehearse it. Then with Broken Flowers, no rehearsing, no specifics, but we would take long, long walks for hours at a time, and talk about things that eventually affected our idea of that character. I thought he would improvise a lot, and he said, "I want to stick close to the script." Then in this film, he said, "I want to rehearse, and I want to do the dialogue as written. I don't want to add anything." So that was even a different step. He's just an interesting work in progress. I'm always a little surprised, like, "How does he want to approach it this time?"

That's fun, and I learn a lot from Bill about a lot of things, especially human nature. His capacity to observe and feel what people are feeling, even strangers, is uncanny. I've seen him numerous times run out of his way to help somebody try to get something out of the trunk of their car, or help with their luggage at the airport, or in a restaurant, talk to someone he doesn't even know that looks sort of down. He'll go over and respond to that: "Hey, the world hasn't ended yet, what's going on?" Amazing. He's really observant with compassion, so I love to just hang out with Bill and see how he's going to react to what we encounter in the world. I learn more from that, maybe, than anything specifically about acting, preparing or filmmaking, because it's all intertwined in the end. I really liked having him play somebody with not an ounce of humor this time, which might be frustrating for people's expectations. I don't know, that's not my problem. I choose the actors I want for the best collaboration to create something, and I really liked him being nasty and condescending. Every fucking school principal or authority figure I've ever had in my life has always, at some point, said, "You just don't understand how the world really works." Hearing Bill's character say those lines for me, I don't know. I certainly heard that a lot in my life.

The Limits of Control opens today in New York and Los Angeles, then expands to more cities beginning May 8. For more information, visit the official website.

“当我来到无法渡过的河流，
我感到再也没人能指导我如何前进了——兰波”
看贾木许的《控制的极限》。一部西班牙风光片+伪犯罪+伪悬疑+伪情色片，你把它当作任何一种类型片来看都会觉得索然无味。
我不想谈让人头大的隐喻有多深刻，使命与剧情一样毫无意义，只有那些闲扯才是生命的本质，那些音乐、电影、科学、波西米亚、致幻剂……

随着年龄增长，你会发现，控制你的东西变得越来越模糊抽象，即便想起身反抗，却又见不着敌人。讽刺的是，人们偏偏喜欢将这种雾煞煞称为“现实”。

于是，贾木许将“现实”反其道而行之，将思想具象成角色，将反抗具象成情节，一场莫名闷骚的行刺出现了。这可是真闷不是假闷，预告片基本就把本片里的三分之二的台词塞进去了；电影大多数时间，就是在杜可风构图童话的可爱镜头下，跟着整部片不超过十句台词、僵着苦瓜脸的黑哥们主角一道安静过去。或许可以期待些许有趣的悬念，但不要企图通过情节寻找答案。生活本来也没有答案嘛，不过一道又一道例行程序。贾木许不过是在这些例行程序外，创造了另一个阿弥陀佛的理性视觉，剔除掉无形控制者赋予社会人的生活意义，干净利落的用沉默述说思想罢了；而符号化的几个角色和几句台词，更像是这种沉默的延伸。所以，片中悬念，带给人更多的，只是一种对于思想本身的感受。

没有《离魂异客》里的西部风情，没有《鬼狗杀手》中的街头文化，《控制的极限》里，鲜艳空灵的西班牙只是一个被架空的背景，贾木许用更彻底抽象的文学性拼凑了一个思想者心路与现实的矛盾，虽不像柯恩兄弟《巴顿芬克》解构的娴熟，或是大卫柯博南尔《裸体午餐》变异的冲击，但正如本片主角的太极拳般，也许只为求一个平静。

一个杀手，或许根本不是杀手的一个人的一次内心净化之旅。音乐，电影，性欲，科学，药品都是诱惑，而现实是丑恶的，最后“杀手”运用“imagination”杀死了作为“现实” 的黑帮老大。

看过ghost dog 的人能更加理解这个电影，从很长时间起，jarmusch开始关注内心，ghost dog和现在说的‘控制的极限’都表达他对东方哲学的一种理解，即物质是虚幻的，完成内心的修炼就可以改变整个世界，杀手完成了内心的修炼，脱下工作服换上轻松的运动装完成涅槃。

所谓控制的极限，控制的极限便是控制内心。

贾木许开始拍大片子了．贾木许开始较真地想要说点什么了．贾木许开始让一部分原本喜欢他的心生距离甚至畏惧了．
《极限控制》，是一部抛弃了特效与功夫等保险可看元素的MATRIX——这样说当然极其偏颇——但看到这样的可能性不能不叫人兴奋．
《极限控制》也可以是一把尺子，一条试纸，它试的是：你真的喜欢贾木许吗？或者说，你喜欢他的原因是什么？你喜欢他的什么，又不喜欢他的什么？你是喜欢作为一种趣味或者说情调的贾木许，还是潜藏、游离在这些之后之外之间的这个人内心的敏锐与满脑子的胡思乱想？
这一连串的问题大概只能让人更犯迷糊．还是先回到影片．
就我看过的范围而言，这是贾木许最大的一部片子．大，当然不是指制作之大．而是说，导演的野心之大，诉求之大．不能说贾木许没有大过（如《离魂异客》），这不是他第一次去触碰世界或者说生活的本原这个命题，在他之前的作品中，这个命题多半是信手拈来，点到即止，柔化为一种可以让人审美可以欣赏的意境，进而命题也就随之消弭，追问戛然而止．作者保持了含蓄或者说自我隐藏，观者也获得了愉悦，更重要的是，安全．观影对体力脑力的消耗不会太高，也不会被作者逼问到死角不得逃脱．
其实贾木许一点也不晦涩，这是因为，他始终是幽默的，这种幽默相当含蓄，但贯穿始终，在每一个细节里头，成为一种质地或是底子，完全没办法把它切分成这里一个那里一个的桥段与安排. 这种幽默让观者获得了会心或假装会心一笑轻松跳离的机会，而不必深究于幽默下的意义追问．同时贾木许又意味着一种标志性的风格，标志性的美学，标志性的情趣，仅仅是摇滚或爵士音乐响起，简洁、景深控制严谨考究的画面出现，人物摆出这样那样别有意味的ＰＯＳＥ，以及那些看似重复实则微妙相差的细节，就足以令人置身于特定的境界之中，直接抵达愉悦——由此又能完成之前所说的＂轻松跳离＂，与＂晦涩＂保持安全车距．
可是贾木许又是实实在在的严肃着的，说是晦涩也不算过分．这还是因为他的幽默，这种与生俱来近乎骨子里的幽默，成为他最基本的表达方式，独一无二的语言．他的严肃与晦涩无处不在，如同幽灵一样潜伏在一切看似无聊、琐屑甚至逗趣的作品细节铺陈之中，令你若有所思，却又没法聚焦一点，获得头绪，不得不在影像流动的同时随之漂浮，直到影片结束，累积一些莫名而难以述说的情状，品之不得其味，挥之不去其影．也许东方式的禅机曾经启发过他，但最终的呈现却是彻底西方的睿智与通透．
我们也许可以将贾木许的作品大致分为两类，一类是小品式的，片段式的，高度趣味化情调化，简洁，相对单一甚至封闭，整体紧凑精致剔透，令人一见则喜爱不释手．这一类能够装下他大多数的作品，如《法外行走》《咖啡与香烟》．而第二类，也许只有《离魂异客》，最多再加上《破碎之花》．现在又出现了第三类，《极限控制》，作为第二类的发展和蜕变结果．
《离魂异客》与《极限控制》的差别在于，虽然它也是在触动终极与本原，虽然作者也在其中较真地要说点什么，虽然它也复杂乃至晦涩，但它还不够大，或者说还不够专注、系统，更要命的说法则是，它太美了，太诗性了．极美则至轻，灵动则飘忽，它的美就像导演赋予观者的凌波微步，一路晕着嗨着醉着就安然逃离了追问现场．
《极限控制》的摄影，是杜可风．在创作纪录片中，贾木许开玩笑地谈到与杜合作让每一个镜头都很麻烦．于是我们看到此片的影像将贾木许一贯的简洁发展出了一种特别的＂饱满＂，这个饱满的实质，也许是导演与摄影的互相妥协．场景与空间的相对静止、稳固，是杜可风向贾木许的妥协．而暧昧、不甚分明、光影色彩鲜美流动的柔和画面，是贾木许向杜可风的妥协．
《极限控制》的本原性，既指向我们身在其中的生活、世界，也指向电影乃至整个艺术．当剧中身穿ＰＲＡＤＡ的名媛借着老电影情结泄出＂ＤＲＥＡＭ　ＯＲ　ＦＩＬＭ＂的天机时，我们不难窥见贾木许本人的某种基本态度．
当然，我相信，更多人还是更欣赏贾木许那种信手拈来哀而不伤的安全的严肃，你可以选择置身事外，也可以选择略一沉吟转而忘却，就像《咖啡与香烟》结尾处那个在“对于这个喧嚣的世界，我已死去”的歌声中怎么也叫不醒的老头，大多数人还没等及看到这里，就已经在影片那漫长而琐碎的对话中睡着了．
真美．我为此而遗憾．