James Samuel pours dark joy into old Hollywood epics

James Samuel not only makes films, he writes, directs and scores them. Forget “author”. It’s a cinematic trinity. Both of his features, the revised 2021 Western “The Harder They Fall” and now “The Book of Clarence,” a new twist on the ancient biblical epic in wide release on Friday, are told in Samuel’s voice in almost every possible expression, from words to camera movements to several numbers. He wrote 11 original songs for the film and sings on all of them.

“A lot of people pretend to be fearless in their work and have 100 percent belief in what they’re doing,” says Jay-Z, Samuel’s friend and producer on both films. “And we all hesitate and think: Is this true? I don’t know if you’ve ever seen Jeymes hesitate. And it’s contagious.”

Samuel, 44, is a moving tornado with abundant energy. Wearing a T-shirt with large letters on it, he repeats his slogan: “Obey your madman.” Larger than life at 6-foot-2, he has a huge smile and giant hands that are quick to pet you or wrap you in a bear hug. Over coffee at a swanky Beverly Hills hotel, he launches into song to make a point or reference a Prince jam or a classic movie score — and because he’s Seal’s younger brother, his voice is silky, smoky silver.

West Londoner Samuel is of Nigerian and Afro-Brazilian descent, and isn’t shy about his inspirations, which in the new film range from “Quo Vadis” to the sitcom “Taxi.” It’s all filtered through his unique mind, eyes and vocal cords with the ultimate goal, as Samuel says, “to be as much like Jeymes as possible.” This begins with the rhetorical choice to fill historically white genres with predominantly black groups. On the sets of his film — “Clarence” was set in Matera, Italy, and filmed in Jerusalem around the time of Christ — music blasts from giant speakers between takes, leading to dance parties for the cast and crew, with Samuel leading the way.

“I think there’s a very vivid child in Jeymes, and you can see it,” says actor Lakeith Stanfield, who plays Clarence and his twin brother Thomas in the new film. “It puts us all in this really fun place. And creating from that place is something special.”

Taking several pages from Hollywood’s Golden Age epics like “Ben-Hur” and “Samson and Delilah,” “Clarence” begins starkly with cards printed in nostalgic script on scrolls and Samuel’s royal orchestral score reminiscent of Miklós Rózsa’s scores. The premise of this original story grew out of the New Testament’s reference to one of Jesus’ apostles, Thomas, as a “twin” – so Samuel invents a twin brother named Clarence who doesn’t believe Jesus’ claims and decides to get involved in the matter. Christ worked himself, performing miracles and preaching the gospel of knowledge.

On the surface, the movie looks like it’s going to be a “Life of Brian”-type farce, and it’s certainly full of jokes and anachronisms: Clarence smokes pot and a hookah, and the characters go to a Roman nightclub and dance to 1981 funk music. “Nights Over Egypt,” and there’s a wild gag. It features Benedict Cumberbatch which is too good to be ruined. There’s also a Moog synthesizer and electric guitar featured prominently in the score, a 1970s split screen and modern POVs of the opening chariot race.

As long as a director is true to the internal logic of the world he’s building, it’s all fair game, Samuel says. “A blank page is the most beautiful thing ever,” he says. “We could create entirely new rulebooks.”

But “Clarence” is also heartbreakingly honest, with some serious depth of faith, commentary on systems of oppression and depth of emotion in Stanfield’s masterful dual performance. The actor says he went deeper than he planned. “Because of the freedom James brings on set, you feel free to explore, and what you can dig up is often really deep,” he says.

At its core, Samuel says, his film is about self-discovery and redemption. It’s also a Jesus-era story told through the prism of modern-day black identity—a film in which two friends, minding their own business, are suddenly harassed by Roman police for stop-and-search, and as a mother watches a son being crucified, wailing: “They’re always taking our children!” “

“The reason I have so much fun there is because the hood is fun,” says Samuel. “And then it’s heartbreaking, right? So, before you drive by, you’re telling jokes, laughing, doing all sorts of silly things. And then the next minute, you’re at a funeral.” .

It’s this complex mixture of absurd humor and black joy, social appeal and genuine tragedy, edgy movie references and guest bars by Lil Wayne, that helps create Jeymes Samuel’s unique aesthetic. It’s a combination of his many influences – the “Taxi” homage can be seen in the opening credits – but taken to a completely new, crazy place.

Samuel’s recent success in Hollywood was preceded by his career as a hip-hop artist and producer under the moniker Bullitts. (He met Jay-Z after doing string arrangements for one of the rapper’s songs in 2010.) But Samuel had always planned to produce movies. He got a Super 8 camera when he was seven years old, and as a young man, by his recollection, he would call Pinewood Studios to order boxes of unused film stock that he would use to make short films and music videos. (He made several of them using leftovers sent back from the production of The Mummy Returns.)

It’s a mobile and lyrical film library, bouncing from 1970s film references to Yul Brynner quotes and back again. It was his childhood obsession with old Hollywood westerns that led him to dream up his 2013 concept album They Die by Dawn and Other Short Stories, which was turned into a short film starring Rosario Dawson and Michael K. Williams, Samuel financed it himself and filmed it. four days.

When Baz Luhrmann asked Jay-Z to create the soundtrack to the movie “The Great Gatsby” in 2013, the hip-hop mogul knew he had to use Samuel. They both realized they needed an original project they could drive from start to finish, and the result was The Harder They Fall, filmed during the pandemic and starring an all-star cast including Idris Elba, Jonathan Majors and Regina King.

“I felt like he was making music so he could film,” Jay-Z says. He was a film director all along. But I think it’s all part of it. Music was his calling, and his dominant hand was being a film director.

For Samuel, it’s all part of the same creative ecosystem. He likes to say that he sees the music and hears the movie. When he writes the script, he simultaneously comes up with musical themes for the characters and scores the film. He came up with a different tune for Clarence and Thomas, and gave them to Stanfield before filming.

Jay-Z likens him to a child who never lost that sense of “wow,” adding, “When our eyes are open to the world and anything is possible. It’s like you’re hearing someone’s dreams unfold right in front of you.”

Stanfield, who also starred in The Harder They Fall, says he’s never seen Samuel’s energy drop. “The only time his energy changed was when he was eating, and that was only because he couldn’t talk,” says the actor.

Samuel has been seizing this opportunity all his life. He first came up with the idea (and one of the songs) for “The Book of Clarence” in 2004, when he was 24 and still “just kind of finding my identity as a human being. I’m still finding myself. I’m still ignoring all the voices in my head and outside of it that say I’m I should be doing something else with my life – not music and movies.

He’s already cooked up at least three other movie ideas in his head (no hints from him), and has a producer in Jay-Z who’s keen to take risks, as well as a group of disciples who will follow him anywhere.

Sometimes, Samuel admits, he second-guesses his own thoughts. He says: “You find your pen fighting with your mind when you write.” “But you just have to remind yourself that you’re telling the story with that You want to hear. You’re directing that movie You I want to watch.”

The character-packed “Book of Clarence” could only have been written by one man. That requires a kind of faith, and James Samuel seems to have it in abundance.