"Why don't you make a film about them?"

This Charlie Rose interview with Jim Jarmusch dates from the time of the release of Dead Man in 1995, but around three minutes in Rose gives away that he may not have seen the film under discussion. This current profile of Jarmusch celebrates the director of the new Only Lovers Left Alive as a cultural omnivore.

In Only Lovers, Tom Hiddleston's character has a wall of portraits apparently representing Jarmusch's own pantheon of heroes: among them, Mark Twain, Buster Keaton, Thelonious Monk, Joe Strummer.

The director's seriousness is often underestimated, says New York critic and festival director Kent Jones: "There's been an overemphasis on the hipness factor – and a lack of emphasis on his incredible attachment to the idea of celebrating poetry and culture. You can complain about the preciousness of a lot of his movies, [but] they are unapologetically standing up for poetry. [His attitude is] 'if you want to call me an elitist, go ahead, I don't care'."