By Tamara A Orlova, Photography by Joe Alvarez">
The director and the cast of the horror-comedy Dead Don’t Die stepped out on the sunny roof of the photocall area of the Palais Des Festivals on the 15th May 2019. The busy photo call followed by the press conference where most of the main cast – excluding the elusive Adam Driver -, producer, DOP, and costume designer of the film were present to answer the questions of the journalists.
Tilda Swinton © Joe Alvarez
Following Thierry Fremaux’s opening press conference, where he mentioned The Dead Don’t Die and explicitly called it anti-Trump, there was a great deal of speculation in the media and even the film critics were sure to include their conclusions and comparisons with Thierry’s opinions.
Selena Gomez © Joe Alvarez
So, it’s not surprising then that the first question at the press conference coming from the host was whether the film is actually political. The silver-haired film director Jim Jarmusch who was sitting throughout the photo call and the press conference in his sunglasses – admitted that the zombies themselves are a ‘laden metaphor’. So much so, that reading the film reviews in the morning following last night’s world premiere, Jim was surprised to read meanings and interpretations he didn’t even look into or thought through. “So, zombies are a very complex metaphor,” the director added.
Tilda Swinton, Selena Gomez, Jamie Jarmusch The Dead Don’t Die photocall Cannes – Cannes © Joe Alvarez
Jarmusch admitted during the press conference that the film is inspired by the great George Romero. “I look up at him and in fact, there are many references in this film to his work”.
Ever since that press conference where Thierry Fremaux – the director of the Cannes Film Festival – has put his personal spin on to the film, there was a great deal of speculation about it. So we made sure to ask him whether it truly was an anti-Trump film.
Coming from the horse’s mouth, Jamie told us “it is not anti-Trump. It’s anti-political.” As if that alone wasn’t clear enough, he added to the camera, “Fuck the politicians!” Thus, clearing all and any doubts in the language that anyone should be able to understand.
Bill Murray © Joe Alvarez
We couldn’t agree more, of course, as we wrote time and time again that filmmaking – and film awards for that matter – have become too politicised. It seems like in our day and age, everything has to do with advocacy, virtue signalling and ‘activism’ as opposed to character-developing and storytelling.
Copyright © 2019 - Ikon London Magazine
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. This category only includes cookies that ensures basic functionalities and security features of the website. These cookies do not store any personal information.
Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.