«The dead don't die», masterpiece or turnip?

Les mercredis du cinéma - Kelly Lambiel

What do Bill Murray, Adam Driver, Tilda Swinton, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits and even Iggy Pop have in common? A mouth, of course. A prestigious filmography, of course. And the favor of director Jim Jarmusch, too. Directed on several occasions by the latter, it was in The dead don't die, presented as the opening film and in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival, that he has chosen to bring together all his «muses». An explosive cast, daring choices, a resolutely kitsch aesthetic, ambiguous morals and a humor that is, to say the least, peculiar: it borders on the nanare or verges on the genius. The choice is yours.

Subverting Conventions

After taking on the vampires in Only Lovers Left Alive, it is the other moribund figure of popular culture—the undead—that Jim Jarmusch explores in his latest film. In this baroque dystopia, the director doesn’t hesitate to exaggerate the parodic elements already evident in a certain vein of zombie cinema—a genre that’s deliberately offbeat and prone to self-parody. Meaningless dialogue, inappropriate—even disproportionate—reactions, a blend of the tragic and the comic, caricatured characters, a highly predictable plot, and an unoriginal ending revealed from the very first frames through an ingenious mise en abîme—we are indeed in the midst of a work, a priori, making no sense at all.

It is absurd, in the strict sense of the word, of course, but also in its philosophical and literary sense. One cannot help but draw a parallel with the way serious subjects are treated by playwrights of the Theater of the Absurd—at once serious and farcical, funny and biting.

To make people think…

The radio and the news keep repeating it: the Earth has shifted off its axis, and the consequences could be disastrous; in fact, natural disasters are becoming increasingly frequent. In Centerville, it’s clear that the sun spills into the night and that the moon makes its presence felt in broad daylight. We also see that animals and insects are behaving strangely and eventually disappearing. Caught between skepticism and indifference, humans are the only ones who aren’t reacting. And even if they decided to do so, it’s too late—the dead are rising from their graves, ready to wipe out the human race…

And doing everything they can to find Wi-Fi, have one last glass of Chardonnay, or get a caffeine fix! It’s as if—as the film suggests, perhaps a little too insistently—even zombies have become morons, just like us, because of consumer society, incapable of focusing on the one task assigned to them: eating brains. If the dead don’t die and the living don’t live, if the risen dead are still consumed by their addictions and humans are doomed to inaction, what possible end remains for our world?

… and, above all, to entertain?

However, presenting the film solely from this perspective does not do it justice. Between grotesque special effects (seriously!), a star-studded cast, and puns that are as bad as they are brilliant, it must be said that Jarmusch pulled out all the stops to subvert the moralizing tone of this climate-themed fable. With comedy stemming from situations, characters, words, gestures, and above all repetition, we often laugh, but we also lose interest at times. What makes this film great—namely, a ridiculous aesthetic taken to its extreme and embraced as such—is also what, over time, can become tiresome. I’m thinking in particular of the humor, which alternates between subtle and crass, and the abundance of references to the pop culture.

While some are rather subtle (pay close attention to the opening credits, in particular) and can only be understood by an audience familiar with geeks, while others are somewhat forced, too abundant, and clumsily introduced. No spoilI don't mean to give anything away here, but (obviously) expect to see The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Kill Bill, among many others.

A Film Stuck in Limbo

In the room, laughter mingles with sighs, while a few people laugh heartily. My opinion mirrors this scene—it’s mixed. I had a good time; I was intellectually stimulated, but I also got bored at times and was disappointed by the lack of subtlety in some of the biases. I’m particularly skeptical about the effectiveness of the final monologue, whose tone is especially moralizing, even though everything had been set up to avoid that pitfall.

Confronting us with our contradictions and highlighting the absurdity of our behavior would have brought a fresh perspective to this topic and might have engaged—or even moved—the audience more effectively than the usual pessimistic rhetoric and moralizing.

Write to the author: lambielkelly@hotmail.com

Photo credit: © Universal Pictures