Movie review: Jarmusch: Down by law & Coffee and Cigarettes

Original text in my other blog: http://nayene.wordpress.com/

For the past weeks I’ve watched a few movies that I would like to share with you. Down by law from 1986 is the first movie that introduced me to the great director Jim Jarmusch. His simple, minimalized shots are strong and mostly, they are enough. I still wonder how Jarmusch with such small details is able to show me something that I’m still so excited to talk about.

Jim Jarmusch: Down by law (1986) and Coffee and Cigarettes (2004)

Down by law is a story about three men that meet in a Louisana prison. There’s Jack, a small-time pimp that got set up, Zack the unemployed DJ that was caught driving a stolen car, and a strong-willed Italian tourist called Bob. Like Tim Holmes describes:

“Though they are unabashed lowlifes, Zack and Jack have been incarcerated for crimes they didn’t commit, while Roberto, hardly the criminal type, has accidentally killed a man in a brawl.”

I remember the shot in Down by law where the three men lean against the jaildoor and Zack, believeing he and Jack are the true bad guys, asks with an ironic tone: “so, Bob, what did you do?”. Bob answers absent-minded: “Killed a man”. The two other men get uncomfortable and don’t know what to say.
Terrific.

Jarmusch is not about the story itself. The story in his movies doesn’t need to be complicated, what makes his movies great is the way he builds up such great profiles of the characters and his talentful shots. Somebody told me:

“It’s just amazing how Jarmusch can make a film where every shot is like an artistic picture, like a painting I would like to have on the wall.”

What I remember most from Down by law is the great black and white shots, the funny, realistic moments and especially the last picture in the film. In the beginning of Jacks’ and Zacks’ friendship they try either to provoke or avoid each other. But in the last shot, when they have escaped jail and are literaly going different roads, they have an unspoken friendship left hanging in the air. After all they’ve been through, it’s understandable. This last, realistic shot doesn’t feel like a made-up happy ending, it feels like one of the moments in life that makes it special.

I think Jarmuschs movies and short films are unique since he doesn’t follow a certain script, it’s more about spontanity. What Jarmusch emphasizes is playing with dialogues and to just see what happens. I think it’s a great talent to make short films so consistent even though they’re not throughly planned. Jarmusch did this in his eleven short films in Coffee and cigarettes.

One important source for Jarmuschs spontaneous moments is an italian actor named Roberto Benigni; when he met and joined Jarmuschs movies Benignis English wasn’t that strong. What’s better then let him act an Italian tourist (Bob) in Down by law?
In the first episode of Coffee and Cigarettes ever made Benigni plays himself. In the episode Benigni and Steven Wright are silently drinking their coffees with shaking hands (stating the need and addiction for coffee). Suddenly Benigni asks Wright:
“Do you know my mother?”
Wright stumbles for a moment and answers:
“Do I know your mother? I don’t think so.”
“Oh, very good.”
And they return to drinking and smoking.
Jarmusch explains:

“And after the take, Roberto said: “I am so sorry. I forget all English…. Suddenly I can’t think anything to say except ‘Do you know my mother.’” So things like that happen, and I like to leave those in.”

And so this random comment is in the clip and makes everything in the episode even more unique, random and fun.

The first episode of Coffee and Cigarettes was shot shortly after Down by law in 1986. Not much is needed in either of the films. Both are in black and white, in every episode just a few people are in front of the camera, discussing something or just sitting. In Coffee and Cigarettes the only thing combining every episode is – surprise – coffee and cigarettes. In every episode they discuss that drinking coffee and smoking is such a bad habit. Still, all the people in the film either drink coffee and smoke or has done it in the past.

One of my favourite episodes in Coffee and Cigarettes is ”Somewhere in California”. In this episode the legendary musicians Iggy Pop and Tom Waits “smoke cigarettes to celebrate that they quit smoking, drink some coffee and make awkward conversation.” The film was made in 1993, it’s 12 minutes long and gave Jarmusch the Short Film Palme d’Or atthe Cannes Film Festival. In this episode Iggy Pop has arranged a meeting with Tom and he is excited, but their conversation just doesn’t get past the awkward part. Their attempts end either in a silent moment or a misunderstanding. Their most successfull discussion is about quitting smoking and celebrating it – by smoking:

“The beauty of quitting is, now that I’ve quit, I can have one, ’cause I’ve quit.”

(Tom Waits)

And I must add, the awesome music that is played in Down by law is by Tom Waits, “Jockey full of bourbon”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54YhQZN5Uq8&feature=related

The shot where the three men lean against the jaildoor inDown by law can be seen here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHboNFi_zPU

From THE JIM JARMUSCH RESOURCE PAGE:
http://www.jim-jarmusch.net/

“In his book, “The Art of the Short Fiction Film: A Shot by Shot Study of Nine Modern Classics”, Richard Raskin devotes chapter 2 to a close reading of “Coffee and Cigarettes”, which is available online as a pdf file here:
http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/excerpts/0-7864-1183-X.Chapter2.pdf”

Down by law (1986)
Starring Tom Waits, Roberto Benigni, John Lurie

Coffee and cigarettes (2004)
Starring Roberto Benigni, Steven Wright, Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, Renée French, Alex Descas, Cate Blanchett, Meg & Jack White, Alfred Molina, Steve Coogan, Bill Murray and so on.