Jim Jarmusch applies for French citizenship: 'I want to escape from the US'

US filmmaker Jim Jarmusch has announced his intention to apply for French citizenship, saying he is seeking "a place that will allow me to escape from the United States". The announcement came over the microphones of the France Inter radio network, where the 72-year-old filmmaker was busy promoting his new film Father Mother Sister Brother. "The paperwork is ongoing. I'm a little late, but yes, I'm going to do it,' Jarmusch said, avoiding direct references to US politics, despite the fact that he has in the past expressed very critical positions towards the current president Donald Trump.

awarded this year with the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for his last film, Jarmusch emphasised the deep bond that unites him with France: "France, Paris and French culture are very deeply in me. It would be a great honour to have a French passport'. Father Mother Sister Brother, to be released in French cinemas on 7 January, was made in France, as will be his next feature films.

The director's relationship with Paris dates back to the early 1990s, when he shot scenes for Taxists by Night (1991), which also starred an irreverent Roberto Benigni. "It is my second love after New York," he has repeatedly said. A bond also confirmed by French producer Charles Gillibert, who spoke of "a very strong relationship with France and with many Parisian artists and technicians". Jarmusch has often acknowledged the decisive influence of French culture on his cinema, citing among his references the masters of the New Wave François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Rivette.

'I was obsessed with the New Wave, French poetry and surrealism. My knowledge of American cinema came as a return, an echo of French cinema,' Jarmusch explained to France Inter. In an interview with Interview Magazine in April, the American director had already highlighted the differences between the two countries: 'In the US I am considered an independent filmmaker, and that's fine, but in France I am a real filmmaker. Turning in the US is prohibitive, stressful, traumatic'.