The Limits of Control
| The Limits of Control | |
|---|---|
Promotional film poster
|
|
| Directed by | Jim Jarmusch |
| Produced by | Stacey Smith Gretchen McGowan |
| Written by | Jim Jarmusch |
| Starring |
Isaach de Bankolé Paz de la Huerta Tilda Swinton Gael García Bernal Bill Murray Hiam Abbass |
| Music by | Boris |
| Cinematography | Christopher Doyle |
| Edited by | Jay Rabinowitz |
|
Production
company |
Entertainment Farm
PointBlank Films |
| Distributed by |
Focus Features (United States) Revolver Entertainment (United Kingdom) PiX Incorporated (Japan) |
|
Release date
|
|
|
Running time
|
116 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English Spanish French Japanese Arabic |
| Box office | $2 million |
The Limits of Control is a 2009 American film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch, starring Isaach de Bankolé as a lone wolf assassin, carrying out a job in Spain. Filming began in February 2008, and took place on location in Madrid, Seville and Almeria, Spain. The film was distributed by Focus Features. It received mixed reviews, and as of December 12, 2012, has a 43% rating on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, having been criticized for its slow pace and inaccessible dialogue while praising its beautiful cinematography and its ambitious scope.
In an airport, Lone Man (Isaach de Bankolé) is being instructed on his mission by Creole (Alex Descas). The mission itself is left unstated and the instructions are cryptic, including such phrases as "Everything is subjective," "The universe has no center and no edges; reality is arbitrary," and "Use your imagination and your skills." After the meeting in the airport he travels to Madrid and then on to Seville, meeting several people in cafés and on trains along the way.
Each meeting has the same pattern: he orders two espressos at a cafe and waits, his contact arrives and in Spanish asks, "You don't speak Spanish, right?" in different ways, to which he responds, "No." The contacts tell him about their individual interests such as molecules, art, or film, then the two of them exchange matchboxes. A code written on a small piece of paper is inside each matchbox, which Lone Man reads and then eats. These coded messages lead him to his next rendezvous.
He repeatedly encounters a woman (Paz de la Huerta) who is always either completely nude or wearing only a transparent raincoat. She invites him to have sex with her but he declines, stating that he never has sex while he is working. One phrase that Creole, the man in the airport tells him is repeated throughout the movie: "He who thinks he is bigger than the rest must go to the cemetery. There he will see what life really is: a handful of dirt." This phrase is sung in a flamenco song in a club in Seville at one point in his journey.
...
Wikipedia