Jim Jarmusch requests French nationality to “escape from the United States”

Could this be a consequence of Donald Trump’s policies? Perhaps, given the virulent comments that Jim Jarmusch has made in the past towards the current President of the United States, qualifying him, among other things, as “criminal” and“scammer”. But he won’t say it like it is. Friday morning, at the microphone of France Inter, the American director Jim Jarmusch, in full promotion of his new film Father Mother Sister Brother, said he wanted “make a request” to obtain French nationality, seeking “a place [lui] allowing escape from the United States ». “The steps are underwayhe declared in front of our colleagues. I’m a little late, but yes I will do it. »

The filmmaker, awarded the Golden Lion in Venice this year for his new production, considers that « France, Paris and French culture are very deeply » in him and assures that he would be “very honored to have a French passport”. Father Mother Sister Brotherin theaters on January 7, was actually filmed in France, just like his next feature films, he promises. At the beginning of the 1990s, the 72-year-old director also took a liking to Paris, his “second love after New York”where he recorded certain scenes from Night on Earth. “He has a very strong link with France, he is linked to many Parisian artists and technicians”its French producer Charles Guillibert told the CNC in August.

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Influenced by French culture

Jim Jarmusch’s main French-speaking influences are the filmmakers François Truffaut (The Four Hundred Blows, American Night), Jean-Luc Godard (Out of breath) and Jacques Rivette (Paris belongs to us, Crazy Love). “I was obsessed with the New Wave, […] French poetry, surrealism, painting, literature, […] my knowledge of American cinema came as a return, an undertow of French cinema”he explains on the microphone of France Inter.

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Venice Film Festival: Jim Jarmusch, a tired Golden Lion

Earlier this year, in mid-April, the American director mentioned other reasons justifying his love for France in the columns of Interview Magazine . “In the United States, I am considered an independent filmmaker, and I am happy with that, but in France, I am a real director”confided Jim Jarmusch. Before adding : « Touring in the United States is prohibitive. It’s stressful, it’s traumatic. »