- Stranger than Paradise
On Thursday Doc Films presents a screening of Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law, part of the “Prison Break!: Great Escape Films of the 20th Century” series. A stylish chronicler of cultural malaise and Americanized existentialism, Jarmusch has been making films about “hipsters” long before the word became an amorphously defined marketing phrase. In the spirit of beat literature and John Cassavetes, Jarmusch’s films center on characters firmly situated on the margins of society, outcasts defined by their isolation—self-imposed or otherwise—and fruitless intellectual pursuits. The people in his films are always richly conceived, the result of a unique preproduction process that finds the director rehearsing extensively with his actors, often going over scenes and situations that never make it in the finished script but help flesh out fully realized characters. That said, his films tend to lack conventional characterizations and structure; his characters and stories seem tangible, but not necessarily believable, creating a beautiful incongruity of dreamlike worlds presented plausibly and naturally. Below, you can find my five favorite Jarmusch films.
- Coffee and Cigarettes (2003) Similar to Night on Earth in design and execution, this is Jarmusch’s absurdist masterpiece. The structure is admittedly rickety—some of the vignettes work far better than others, and there’s really no logical progression from one scenario to the next—but there’s something warming and welcoming about such looseness. It’s easy to get lost in the conversations, due in large part to Jarmusch’s measured, accessible framing. Even with minimal staging and presentation, he generously opens up this unique world.
