Film still of Gimme Danger © Ed Caraef
Gimme Danger, Jarmusch’s love letter to The Stooges
It seems natural that the most rock'n'roll filmmaker tell the story of the group who spawned punk music: in a documentary teeming with archive footage, Gimme Danger sees Jim Jarmusch retrace the emergence, rise, and recognition of a group who shook up rock by pushing it to its wildest extreme.
"Gimme danger, and I feel with you at ease, gimme danger little stranger, and I feel your disease". Taken from the very garage rock-sounding Raw Power, The Stooges' third and last opus released in 1973, the title Gimme Danger alone symbolises the music of the group formed in Ann Arbor in Michigan: rock which is both raw and sophisticated, powerful and soft, "a blend of rock, blues, R&B, and free jazz", says Jim Jarmusch.
The gravelly voice and neurotic lopsided posture of Iggy Pop, the "grunting and growling wild thing", haunt this new documentary from the director of Only Lovers Left Alive (2013) and Paterson, selected in Competition, almost ten years after Year of The Horse, which revisited Neil Young and Crazy Horse's 1996 tour.
More of an “essay” than a documentary.
With numerous archive images, previously unseen photographs of The Stooges, and accounts given by its members, the director has deciphered the group's story, which began in the 1960s. Jarmusch also focuses on their influence, their misadventures, and their commercial, political, and musical challenges.
The film obviously concentrates of the figure of Iggy Pop, the charismatic leader whose exuberant displays on stage left their mark on the history of rock. The "iguana" will also walk the red carpet for the film screening at the Grand Théâtre Lumière.
Gimme Danger "is our love letter to the group who will doubtless remain one of the most important groups in rock history", explained the filmmaker, who sees Gimme Danger as more of an "essay" than a documentary.
