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| Jeremy Thomas (who Tilda Swinton compares to a pirate and William Blake) on Jim Jarmusch: “There’s no more American independent hero than him. He and Sara Driver have been my friends for years, decades.” |
In the second instalment with the free-thinking producer and pirate of the high seas (Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg’s Kon-Tiki), Jeremy Thomas, we discuss the filming of Jim Jarmusch’s Only Lovers Left Alive, his “favourite actor” John Hurt, his “very good buddy” Tilda Swinton, Tom Hiddleston and “the great” Mia Wasikowska, and Anton Yelchin “who was such a sweetie”. We also touch upon the opening night of Jeremy Thomas Presents at the Quad Cinema with Jeremy and the Stealing Beauty author Susan Minot, doing a Q&A following the screening of Bernardo Bertolucci’s The Dreamers.
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| Jim Jarmusch with Tilda Swinton, whom Jeremy Thomas calls “an incredible woman.” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze |
Jim Jarmusch is featured on-camera and is the composer (with Carter Logan as Sqürl) for Claire Pijman’s Robby Müller: Living The Light. Jim is also the designer of the 61st New York Film Festival poster and Sqürl’s new score for Man Ray’s Return To Reason (Le Retour à La Raison, 1923) will be shown in the Revivals programme with Agnès Varda’s Pier Paolo Pasolini (1967). His Dead Man, Down By Law, Ghost Dog: Way Of The Samurai, Mystery Train, and Sara Driver’s When Pigs Fly will be screening in Metrograph’s Robby Müller: Remain in Light series in the coming weeks.
Mark Cousin’s The Storms Of Jeremy Thomas (Cohen Media Group) opened at the Quad Cinema on Friday, September 22. In addition, upcoming screenings in the Jeremy Thomas Presents series include Bob Rafelson’s Blood And Wine (with a pre-recorded introduction by Stephen Dorff); Jerzy Skolimowski’s Shout (pre-recorded introduction by Skolimowski), and Only Lovers Left Alive (pre-recorded introduction by Jarmusch) at the Quad.
The Cohen Media Group and Posteritati at their gallery hosted a reception for Thomas on Wednesday, September 20, before The Last Emperor post-screening Q&A with Jeremy and Julian Schnabel at the Quad Cinema.
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| Jeremy Thomas driving to Cannes with Mark Cousins in The Storms Of Jeremy Thomas |
From a Manhattan hotel room, Jeremy Thomas joined me on Zoom for an in-depth conversation on his career and some of his favourite filmmakers.
Anne-Katrin Titze: The Dreamers opened your Jeremy Thomas festival yesterday [September 18], right?
Jeremy Thomas: It did! I presented it with Susan Minot, who wrote Stealing Beauty, because she worked with Bernardo. It was very nice to see a hundred people seeing that film and they were all young. It was very nice to see that they went to see it projected on a screen. It’s wonderful seeing these films with an audience. It makes you happy. It makes your heart sing when you see a film shown the way you intended it to be shown. I’m looking forward to seeing some of the films again on the screen.
AKT: Only Lovers Left Alive is the one that will close the festival!
JT: I won’t be here then, I’m on my way to Los Angeles after that weekend, but it was very nice working with a New Yorker, Jim Jarmusch. There’s no more American independent hero than him. He and Sara Driver have been my friends for years, decades. Especially to make a vampire film with him and my favourite actor, John Hurt!
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| Cohen Media Group and Posteritati invitation for the Jeremy Thomas reception |
And my very good buddy, Tilda and Tom Hiddleston and the great Mia Wasikowska. And Anton Yelchin, who unfortunately died, but who was such a sweetie. The film was wonderful to work on. We shot in Detroit with all the vampires there. Then we shot interiors in Cologne, because you follow the money when you make movies - for the interiors. And then we went to Tangier and had a very fine ten days or a week there. The film is very unusual. I like it. Christopher Marlowe hanging out.
AKT: Tilda compares you to William Blake and a pirate! How do you feel about that?
JT: I don’t know. I listen to all that Tilda said and I was very touched that she would say that. Well, Tilda’s Tilda, she’s an incredible woman. I didn’t know what she says is what she thinks about me. Of course I love to be compared to those people. I’m a very free-thinking person. I can accept a lot and I want to promote new ideas with my films. I identify with being a pirate. Because I am a pirate. Because I’m trying to sail the high seas to get resources to feed the multitudes.
Read what Jeremy Thomas had to say on working with Nicolas Roeg, Wim Wenders, Billy Wilder, Matteo Garrone and fairy tales.
Coming up - Jeremy Thomas on David Cronenberg, William Burroughs, and Naked Lunch, JG Ballard and Crash, Martin Scorsese, Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger.
Jeremy Thomas Presents runs through Thursday, September 28 at the Quad Cinema in New York.
Robby Müller: Remain in Light opens at Metrograph on Friday, September 29.
Robby Müller: Living the Light screens on Saturday, September 30 and following the Sunday, October I 2:30pm screening, there will be a Q&A with Claire Pijman.
The 61st New York Film Festival runs from Friday, September 29 through Sunday, October 15.
