The Limits of Control (2009)

Director: Jim Jarmusch
Writer:    Jim Jarmusch
Cast:       Issach De Bankole, Tilda Swinton, John Hurt, Gael Garcia Bernal

A mysterious lone man in the process of completing a criminal job.

The film doesn't have any plot and is set in Spain, specifically in Madrid, Sevilla and Almeria. It can only be described as modern art since you are definitely left to interpret it any way you want. As can be seen from the works of directors who love film history, their latter films kind of reflect that. The title of the film can be seen as a reference to the limits under which the artists operate. For films it is the hunt for box office revenue because of which there are limits on how you express, what you express and the amount of freedom you have. This film with its unconventional methods, challenge this system and as is the case with truly path breaking art it will get recognized only later. 

In the last sequence of the film Bill Murray's character tells the lone man: 'You don't understand how the real world operates', to which he replies: 'I understand it subjectively'. When he asks how he got in there, he replies that he used his imagination. The above two dialogs can be used in its existential sense as well as how the film works. There are references to many other films and directors and the following dialog by Tilda Swinton's character reinforces the idea that it is about art:

Blonde: 'Are you interested in films, by any chance? I like really old films. You can really see what the world looked like, thirty, fifty, a hundred years ago. You know the clothes, the telephones, the trains, the way people smoked cigarettes, the little details of life. The best films are like dreams you're never sure you've really had. I have this image in my head of a room full of sand. And a bird flies towards me, and dips its wing into the sand. And I honestly have no idea whether this image came from a dream, or a film. Sometimes I like it in films when people just sit there, not saying anything.' 

It is certainly a film to watch but you will either hate it because of his pretentiousness or love it because of the challenge it is. The camerawork by Wong Kar Wai's frequent collaborator Christopher Doyle is stunning and the soundtrack by the bands Boris, Earth and Sunn also adds much to the film. These are the things to go by as there is very little dialog.  

Rating: 4/5