That idea ultimately became “Little Johnny Jewel,” a comedy-drama about second chances shot in Marshalltown and now making its way to the festival circuit in Europe. As for its disparate influences from both sides of the Atlantic — unsurprisingly, he also cited the recently passed French master Jean-Luc Godard, who directed Seberg in her most iconic role in “Breathless” — Rawlins did his best to meld the two methods of filmmaking together.

“This film, I feel, is a little of both, because it certainly has a very European sensibility in terms of (the fact that) it doesn’t follow a particularly American form. The storytelling is much more avant garde, really, and the editing is very specific,” he said, citing legendary filmmakers like Federico Fellini and Ingmar Bergman. “But the story and the characters were very influenced by films like ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’ In particular, what I’d always loved about that film and other films like it were that the minor characters were so rich and interesting, and I feel like that’s something that’s really missing these days.”

Rawlins, who wrote the script in addition to directing, said it started as a solitary process — and of course, the COVID-19 pandemic threw a few wrenches in his original plans — but now, he can finally look back and reflect on a job well done.

“I still have to pinch myself that we actually got there,” he said. “I arrived with literally nothing but the idea and the enthusiasm for Marshalltown.”

CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS  From left to right, Emily Ann Kincaid as Jinx, Rebecca Haroldson as Ursula and Lisa Ann as Isobel are pictured in a still from “Little Johnny Jewel,” the independent film shot in Marshalltown and directed by British filmmaker Jude Rawlins.

Perhaps due to his love for the city’s most famous daughter, Rawlins has enjoyed a longstanding friendship with local Seberg expert Nancy Adams dating back over 20 years, and that connection proved valuable as he began to scope out what the film would look like. Rawlins, who has also been a touring musician for much of his adult life, recruited another local legend, Modern Life is War lead singer Jeffrey Eaton, to play the title character, a drifter who returns to his Midwestern hometown and attempts to rebuild bridges burnt long ago with his estranged family. As Rawlins noted, Modern Life is War, the hardcore punk band that originated in Marshalltown, has — much like Seberg — always enjoyed a bigger audience in Europe than in the U.S.

A violent incident serves as a “key component” of the plot, and Rawlins said the situation forces Johnny’s parents to reflect on their own decisions.

“A lot of the humor is the kind of tragic humor that comes out as they sort of take their own inventory a little bit and realize that maybe they didn’t do the best job the first time around,” Rawlins said. “They were very good at putting food on the table, but they didn’t really notice who he was or who he was becoming as he was growing up.”

Tabbi Thompson, a Marshalltown native who had previously acted primarily in theater productions, plays Ivy, a feisty punk rocker who works at the local diner (Doo Dah’s served as the filming location), and she said she had no trouble getting into character because it reflected her own personality so well. She also served as the assistant director.

“I had so much fun,” she said. “I’m not gonna give too much away either, but there are some rockin’ music scenes that I had a blast making.”

Cheyenne Goode, an actress and model originally from Indianola, plays Johnny’s old flame Dotty, who’s also a close friend of Ivy. She raved about the chance to work with both Rawlins and the entire cast and crew, many of whom were relatively new to movies.

“I’ve been acting and modeling for over 10 or 11 years now, and this was by far one of the best experiences I’ve had on set, if not the best. I just made friends with everybody immediately, especially considering how long the group had been together before I got in on the project,” she said. “I just immediately felt like part of the family.”

A long journey home

Rawlins traces his infatuation with Seberg back to a chance encounter in the 1990s when he had stopped by a cemetery to see the grave of the French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir and stumbled upon Seberg’s in the process.

“I knew about Jean, and I knew about the kind of cult of Jean in terms of what she contributed to French New Wave and American cinema. Beyond that, I didn’t know too much about her (other than) she died pretty young,” he said. “(After searching her on the Internet) I was surprised at how little was out there, so I had the idea of just setting up a website so that the information might come to me.”

After he set up the site, in Rawlins’s words, “one thing led to another,” and Adams eventually got in touch with him around the turn of the century. He subsequently became involved in the effort to save the Orpheum Theater, and once it was reopened, she invited him to appear as a keynote speaker at a film festival held in Seberg’s honor to celebrate the occasion in 2011.

Marshalltown, Rawlins said, was his first experience with the “real America” outside of the major cities more closely resembling the John Wayne movies he had watched as a kid.

“Cities all over the world are carbon copies of each other, really, and that’s not where you find the real personality of a place very often,” he said. “And in Marshalltown, I really felt like I had found something instinctively, intrinsically American. It’s the place I always imagined you’d find Snoopy in the backyard somewhere.”

He liked it so much that he came back several more times, and after losing his mother in 2016, Rawlins felt a bit rudderless while living in London. A “half idea” for a redemption story focused on older rather than younger characters entered his mind, and he found inspiration in the aforementioned 1946 classic starring Jimmy Stewart and Denison native Donna Reed.

In 2017, during yet another trip to Marshalltown for the annual festival, the lightbulb turned on, and the rest is history. Adams recalls the two of them standing in front of Third Generation Upholstery near the Orpheum and Rawlins telling her he had a story but not a setting — in her recollection, he looked left, looked right and realized he was exactly where he needed to be.

“It just hit me that this is the place to set this story. It’s the perfect place, and also because the town itself has a personality. I really feel like the town is one of the characters in the film, actually, and you couldn’t do that just anywhere,” Rawlins said.

After shooting for over a year and a half, which the director called “unheard of” for a low budget, independent production like “Little Johnny Jewel,” reshoots wrapped up at the end of June, and the finished product is now out in the world with the possibility of a statewide Iowa premiere and a Marshalltown screening sometime in the relatively near future.

Independent distribution options are being explored, and Rawlins and company have already been heartened by the reception at European festivals. Local film buffs can also take solace in the fact that “Little Johnny Jewel” has a small connection to the box office smash of the summer, “Top Gun: Maverick,” directed by Marshalltown native Joseph Kosinski — both feature Cecil’s Cafe.

The way Adams sees it, the film is simply part of a larger arts and culture renaissance within the community, and she’s excited to watch it grow from the roots that have already been planted.

“I find it exceptionally gratifying but not at all surprising. I fervently believe that Marshalltown attracts and supports creative and entrepreneurial spirits, and it has for a really long time,” she said. “And so anybody who comes here, whether they were born here or not, if they’re paying attention to the light of the skies and the people and the industry and the arts, if they’re paying attention, I think they’re going to find something here and be supported in pursuing it if they’re passionate about it. It’s a passion-fueled city. So I’m delighted that it’s happening here. I’m not surprised, and I think it’s rather quaint that some people are, because that means they don’t know Marshalltown.”

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Contact Robert Maharry at 641-753-6611 ext. 255 or rmaharry@timesrepublican.com.