Q: The beginning of this movie carries a dedication to Jean Eustache. How, as a filmmaker, did Eustache inspire you; did he inspire this particular story?
Jim Jarmusch: I have varied reasons for the dedication. He was an inspiration on a certain level, though not a direct one. His film The Mother and the Whore is one of the more beautiful films about male/female miscommunication, and there’s an element of that in our film. So there was only some minor connection to him in content. And stylistically, our film is not like Eustache at all.
But another way he was an inspiration is because I write in the Catskill Mountains, in the woods, and I have a little room where I write, and I have a photograph right next to my desk. The photo is of Jean Eustache on the set of The Mother and the Whore, and was printed with his obituary in The New York Times in 1981. He was kind of always looking over me; I wrote this script very fast, and he was always there when I got stuck or disillusioned. That was important to me – that photograph of him always being there.
The other reason is that the spirit in which he made films was completely true to himself and what he wanted to say with cinema. The Mother and the Whore is a three-and-a-half hour film, a great French film that’s not even available in France on DVD or video – which I find shocking and disappointing. There’s something in him that I want to carry in myself: making a film the way you choose to make it, true to yourself without being concerned with the marketplace or anyone’s expectations – just the pure spirit of wanting to express something in your own style. That’s very important to me.
At first I felt, well, maybe it’s pretentious to dedicate my film to him. But, you know, I think if three young film viewers somewhere in Japan, or Hungary, or Kansas, or somewhere, see the film and they’re not aware of Jean Eustache and they find out about his work – he made very few films, only four – then I would feel like, okay, that was worth it then. That would be enough to make me happy.
Q: As for Broken Flowers, with regard to the letter which initiates the story, whose penmanship was on the envelope?
It was such a gift to work with this crew, and all of these people – Mark Friedberg, our designer; Fred Elmes, the DP…I’ve mentioned only 3, out of maybe 60; grips, gaffers, interns, the craft service guys – they were all just amazing.
Q: You’ve worked with Bill Murray before, just a couple of years ago, on the “Delirium” segment of Coffee and Cigarettes. Did you craft this film specifically for him?
JJ: Yeah. In writing the script, I wasn’t consciously trying to write it imagining him saying the lines, exactly; I was using a certain side of Bill, and I wanted to create a character where he wasn’t reliant on things we expect or know or appreciate from Bill Murray – his ability to make things hilarious. I wanted that other side; he’s always had that balance of mischief and melancholy – that’s Bill Murray. It’s that very rare thing he has. So I kind of wanted to create something that could give a little more weight to that other side of his abilities as an actor. He liked the script, so I went forward from there based on his availability as to when to shoot it.
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