The following interview of Jim Jarmusch about Dead Man was published originally in Filmmaker‘s Spring, 1996 issue. It is appearing online for the first time. Dead Man was reissued last year by and is now available from Criterion. In Jim Jarmusch’s new Dead Man, Johnny Depp plays William Blake, a mild-mannered accountant who travels by train across the frontier West to work in a bookkeeping firm run by a crazed, gun-toting Robert Mitchum. When, as in a Kafka novel, the job vanishes before it’s even begun, Blake finds himself a hunted man, pursued for a murder he didn’t commit while […]
by Scott Macaulay on Aug 23, 2019According to the FBI’s former most wanted man (after Osama Bin Laden), Jimmy “Whitey” Bulger, notorious head of South Boston’s Irish-American Winter Hill Boys, ratting was the most heinous of offenses. Never mind that Jimmy (Johnny Depp) was a heartless killer and gangland powermonger: He considered loyalty a sacred bond. He did, however, define and redefine treachery to suit his own survival. He drew a distinction between his interpretations of informing — a business move in which he keeps the feds abreast of illegal actions in exchange for taking down the ruling North End Italian mob (whom he charmingly refers to […]
by Howard Feinstein on Sep 18, 2015Leading up to the Oscars on March 7, we will be highlighting the nominated films that have appeared in the magazine or on the Website in the last year. Jason Guerrasio interviewed The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus co-writer-director Terry Gilliam for our Winter 2010 issue. The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is nominated for Best Art Direction (Art Director: Dave Warren and Anastasia Masaro; Set Decoration: Caroline Smith) and Best Costume Design (Monique Prudhomme). An elderly man pulls his carriage to the curb and prepares to put on a show. Onlookers watch with a mixture of bewilderment and vague familiarity; the […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Feb 15, 2010On Feb. 20, 2005 the grandfather of Gonzo journalism, Dr. Hunter S. Thompson, was walking around his snow covered compound in Woody Creek, Colorado when he decided to point the gun he was carrying to his head and pull the trigger. For a man who lived his life with a glass of Wild Turkey in one hand and a hand gun in the other it was a fitting end. Now doc filmmaker Alex Gibney recounts Thompson’s roller-coaster life and how his intoxicating prose changed journalism forever with Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson. Blessed with volumes […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Nov 30, 2008