Thursday, July 14, 2011

THE CINEMA OF JIM JARMUSCH TOLD THROUGH IMAGES & STILLS


Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don't bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: "It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to." - Jim Jarmusch



I'm sure you guys knew this was coming. Anyone who knows me should know that Jim Jarmusch is one of my all time favorites (i know you hear me say that about directors a lot, but i really mean it with this one). To me, just about all of his films are perfect. You don't need to be in a particular type of mood to watch his movies like you do with a director like Lars Von Trier or Michael Haneke. They'll make you laugh, think and occasionally cry (sorry but the scene in Broken Flowers when Bill Murray is sitting at his ex-girlfriends grave site is a tear jerker) all in one movie. You can learn about D.I.Y. & low budget film making while watching his movies too. Jim Jarmusch is living proof that you don't need a ridiculous budget to shoot movies all around the world (Rome, Paris, Helsinki and Barcelona), work with some of the biggest names in Hollywood (wynona rider, bill murray, johnny depp and cate blanchet) or direct memorable action sequences like in 'Ghost Dog'. Some of what I'm about to mention is common knowledge to the average person familiar with his films, while others are things i rarely ever hear anyone ever bring up.



Stranger In A Strange Land/Permanent Vacations:
Jim Jarmusch's most common theme involves someone from another country coming to America. There are a few exceptions like 'Permanent Vacation', where we see Chris Parker leave for Paris, or the mysterious hitman in 'Limits Of Control' travel all over Spain. And in 'Stranger Than Paradie', after traveling all over America, Eddie ends up going back to Hungary by accident. But at the end of the day, no matter where the location is, the fact still remains that the main characters in his films find themselves far away from home and have to learn how to adjust in their new strange surroundings. Furthermore, our foreign characters usually wind up disappointed upon arriving at their final destination. Jarmusch uses popular cities with a lot of history and culture in his films like Manhattan, New Orleans and Tennessee, however Jarmusch focuses on the not so glamorous sides of these cities. Often times when the characters step off the plane or train for the first time, they look around with an expression on their face like "...is this it?", like when the Japanese couple arrive in Tennessee for the first time in 'Mystery Train'. They assumed that because its the home of sun studios and various famous rock musicians that it'll be the coolest place in the world. However, what they see is a rundown, poor southern town. When Eva arrives in New York City, probably the most popular city in the world, all she sees are abandoned buildings and empty streets...
Stranger Than Paradise
Stranger Than Paradise
Mystery Train
Mystery Train
Dead Man
Down By Law

Limits Of Control


Sunglasses Are A Must:
Many filmmakers leave a little signature on all of their films. For Jim Jarmusch, its sunglasses. Aside from his trademark white hair, you can always see him wearing shades. And sure enough, you can find almost all of his characters in his movies wearing sunglasses at some point in a movie. In the 70's, classic new Hollywood directors like scorsese, coppola and george lucas were known for their bearded, scruffy and hippy-looking image. Because Jim Jarmusch was inspired by more "cool" European directors like Godard, the generation of directors after the new Hollywood era (which included other "cool" sunglass wearing directors like Wong Kar Wai) made it alright to look "cool" again...
Stranger Than Paradise
Night On Earth
Night On Earth
Broken Flowers
Limits Of Control
Limits Of Control
Only Lovers Left Alive


Language/Communication:
In addition to characters finding themselves far from home, they also encounter many language barriers. Language is another common theme in Jarmusch's films. Often times we see 2 characters who don't speak each other's language try to communicate. In 'Ghost Dog', although Forest Whitaker and Isaac De Bankole don't speak each others language they still consider themselves best friend and have regular conversations with each other. In 'Stranger Than Paradise', Eddie tries to put his Hungarian past behind him and insists that his family members don't speak to him in their native language, but his grandmother totally ignores him and continues to speak to him in Hungarian. This is also the case for Jim Jarmusch behind the camera as well. It isn't every common these days to find an American filmmaker to direct under so many languages that he/she doesn't even speak (Japanese, Finnish, Spanish, etc.), but that doesn't stop Jim. Even though he cant actually have a one on one conversation with a good amount of his actors, there still seems to be no problem in getting the performances he needs from them...
Stranger Than Paradise
(Eva speaks Hungarian, while Eddie only wants to speak English)
Mystery Train
(The Japanese couple in mystery train only speaks Japanese, with the 2 hotel employees only speak English, yet they still manage to work things out)
Mystery Train 
(Tom Noonan speaks English while Nicolettaa Brachi, who's first language is Italian, barely speaks English)

Paterson
(Iranian wife & American Husband)
Night On Earth
(Helmut speaks Czech and a little bit of English, "YoYo" only speaks English)
Coffee & Cigarettes
(both alex descas & isaac de bankole speak french, but cant seem to communicate or get on the same page in their conversation. This is one of a few short films in coffee & cigarettes about miscommunication)
Ghost Dog
(Ghost Dog & Pearline only speaks English, while Raymond only speaks french) 
Limits Of Control
(almost all of the characters in limits of control don't use English as their first language, but that's all they communicate with)



Small Spaces/Minimalist Film making:
Jarmusch has always been considered a minimalist director, and this was highlighted in the first half of his career where a lot of the scenes he filmed were done in single takes in small spaces. Through the 80's and half of the 90's his films took place in either; small studio apartments ('permanent vacation and 'stranger than paradise'), jail cells (down by law), small motel rooms (mystery train) or inside of cars (stranger than paradise and night on earth). Even in his later films like 'Ghost Dog', the main character lives in a small shack. Naturally this made things more intimate and we get a lot closer to the characters. In the documentary 'Kino '84', former Jarmusch cinematographer Tom Dicillo mentioned that because they didn't have a lot of film to waste or a big budget or elaborate sets to work with, they set up the shots in their early films and shorts to appear like stages in a play (permanent vacation, stranger than paradise and coffee & cigarettes)...
Permanent Vacation
Stranger Than Paradise
Stranger Than Paradise
Down By Law
Down By Law
Mystery Train
Ghost Dog



(Possible) Influences...
Jean Pierre Melville
Seijun Suzuki
Chantal Akerman
Rainer Werner Fassbender
John Waters
Wim Wender
Wim Wenders


(Possible) influences on others...
A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night



America:
Like i said earlier, Jim Jarmusch is a director that doesn't always show the obvious American landmarks that you'd expect to see in the cities he shoots in. He always makes it a point to show the back roads and alleys in this country...
Permanent Vacation (New York City)
Stranger Than Paradise (Cleveland)
Mystery Train (Tennessee)
Down By Law (New Orleans)
Dead Man (some unknown place in America)



Car Shots:
If there's one shot you can almost always bank on in one of his films is a shot looking in to a car. Road movies and just traveling across the country in a car is something Jarmusch loves to show (stranger than paradise, night on earth, broken flowers). And like i said before, about 90% of 'Night On Earth' takes place either in or just outside of a car. Wim Wenders (a director known not only for his road movies, but is also the person who gave Jim the film to make Stranger Than Paradise) is one of his main influences, and you can clearly see that in his early work...
Stranger Than Paradise

Mystery Train
Night On Earth
Paterson
Ghost Dog

Broken Flowers




Wim Wenders:
and speaking of Wim Wender's influence...
Mystery Train
Alice In The Cities (Wim Wenders)
Stranger Than Paradise
Alice In The Cities
Ghost Dog
Alice In The Cities
Ghost Dog
Paris Texas (Wenders)
Stranger Than Paradise

The Goalies Anxiety (Wenders)


Musician Cameos:
You can almost guarantee a cameo from a musician in his movies. Outside of his regular working relationship with Tom Waits and John Lurie, he manages to find some of the more culty music artists like Rufus Thomas & Screamin Jay Hawkins (mystery train) and A.R.E Weapons (Broken Flowers).
Method Man (Paterson)
The White Stripes (Coffee & Cigarettes)
Broken Flowers (A.R.E. Weapons)
Permanent Vacation (John Lurie, who's also in Stranger Than Paradise & Down By Law)
Stranger Than Paradise (Rammellzee)
Down By Law (Tom Waits & John Lurie)
Mystery Train (Screamin Jay Hawkins)
Mystery Train (Joe Strummer)
Mystery Train (Rufus Thomas)
Dead Man (Iggy Pop)
Ghost Dog (Rza)




Open Endings:
Many Jarmusch films don't wrap up nicely. They don't have all the answers. We never really find out who Bill Murray's son is at the end of 'Broken Flowers'. We don't know whats going to happen to Eddie (stranger than paradise) or Chris (permanent vacation) on their trips to Hungary or Paris. And my favorite scene from a Jim Jarmusch movie that highlights this is the end of 'Down By Law' where we see Tom Waits and John Lurie come to a fork in the road and go separate ways after breaking out of prison...
Permanent Vacation
Stranger Than Paradise
Down By Law
Broken Flowers
Only Lovers Left Alive



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