"Coffee and cigarettes. That's like the breakfast of champions."

So reviewing what could possibly be on the menu for this week’s topic, I’m torn between so many. The obvious being the apparent danger one places themselves in while killing birds with this man. Or perhaps, the confirmation that the US still has a rational mind and is waking up from a 5 year orgy of Pat Robertson and a trunk full of ‘ludes.

Ultimately though I just didn’t feel the need to explain to the blogshpere or Lodgeshpere, why that $2 box of Cheerios actually cost you $5. This is not because I don’t view myself as an advocate for social awareness or public indecency, but because I wanted to shine my weekly spotlight on a director that will garner very little comments and will only basically serve my own need to validate my self-inflated opinion about film, so away we go:

Independent: neither deducible from nor incompatible with another statement motion picture: a series of pictures projected on a screen in rapid succession Director: one that supervises the production of a show…Now, there is no other way to begin a post or written expression in more pretentious style than to either quote Oscar Wilde or reference Merriam&Webster. And just to make sure I utilize the whole gamut of pretension "A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.” - Oscar Wilde.

Seriously folks, when I think of the above defined terms, well I usually don’t, but if I did I would apply this to the legacy of films directed and written by Jim Jarmusch.

Now for those of you unfamiliar with the man’s work, I’m going to utilize a Lodge favorite and allow quotations to speak for the body of work:




“Hey, leave me some Chesterfields. …Can I get them in Cleveland?..Yeah, yeah, you can get 'em in Cleveland…They taste good there, like here? …It's the same Chesterfields…Yeah?...All over America. Yeah.”

From the film Stranger Than Paradise. Jarmusch’s "semi-debut" film starring the underrated talents of John Lurie Not much to STP if you’re looking for exploding airplanes or gun fire in slow motion or even color, but for a total cost of $90,000 STP gives a great introduction to the Jarmusch’s narrative about self-desribed “hipsters”, a Hungarian cousin and Cleveland in January. Also, the use of Screamin’ Jay Hawkin’s “I Put a Spell on You” as the only musical score of the movie, gives an extra bucket of indie popcorn to go along with the live sound and black and white cinematography. To get a glimpse of his unique style, one needs to merely see this film and the rest act on the 10-20% rule that I spoke about earlier this week.

“If looks could kill, I am a-dead now.”


The unique buddy-drama/comedy about 3 guys locked up in a New Orleans jail for various crimes set up by the cops called: Down By Law. John Lurie returns in this one along with Tom Waits and Roberto Benigni. The trio make up the inmates who eventually break out and run together through the Louisiana Swamp. Once again, Jarmusch focuses on diaglogue and cinematic framing with B&W more on the actual plot line. Following this film Universal dropped him from his director's role in the Die Hard 2.


*editor’s note: both of these films were seen due to the impact that the next film has/had on me and if I had a scale of rating movie’s I would place this film at an 11 because that’s louder than a 10.

“It is strange that you do not remember any of your poetry, William Blake.”


I’m not sure I can accurately give an objective review of this film, other than to say if I set out to create a movie; it would end up looking a whole lot like this one. “Dead Man” creates one of the first and only Indie/Western’s I’ve ever seen, and for anyone who appreciates the following things, this might be something you need to watch: B&W film of the West, Crispin Glover, Native American philosophy carried out by “Nobody”, single notes of Neil Young’s electric reverb as the only score, a minimalist JD along with Iggy Pop in a dress oh yeah and Crispin Glover. The ability to create a Western with substance following the Eastwood-Era in Western's has become an extremely difficult process, and with the most unlikely director's it was achieved in this pinnacle of all that is good about film-making.

I feel the need to continue trying to come up with the perfect cheer to try and capture this movie, but I’m going to stop for the sake of overwriting this post, which is probably too late. A couple of other quotes I need to include:

“The eagle never lost so much time as when he submitted to learn from the crow.”
“What's a philistine?... Well, it's just a real dirty person.”
“Look... they're shooting buffalo, government says... it killed a million of 'em last year alone.”

Jarmusch, following ‘Dead Man” did an excellent documentary on Neil Young and CrazyHorse, which is one of the best R&R docs I’ve seen, along with the flop that was known as “Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai”, hey after “Dead Man” there’s only one place to go…but his last two films have validated his legacy, especially with the help of EPIC-Acting Genius of Bill Murray:

Coffee and Cigarettes , which basically is set up to have so many one-liners it makes my f’n head explode, but Jarmusch got back to the B&W and the stage-settings of coffee shops and restaurants to give a narrative about two of my favorite obsessions, and since there’s so many good quotes to choose from, I’m going with the classic from a classic for a classic, *highlight also on Iggy and Tom Waits scene regarding drumming and smoking: "You know the great thing about quiting smoking?....what...you can smoke whenever you want", but no other scene quite captures the film quite like Delirium:


“Doc, what could I do for this cough?..Shit, I was just thinking about that. Check this out: you get some hydrogen peroxide... We got that for cuts and stuff. ...take fifty percent hydrogen peroxide, fifty percent water. You gargle with it. Do *not* swallow, you spit it out. Don't swallow, Bill Murray…And if that doesn't work, try oven cleaner…We got that in the back, too”

Finally, saw “Broken Flowers” last night and was impressed to see a new development in Jarmusch’s direction, not shot in B&W, he goes out on a ledge and makes an entertaining film starring a man that deserves his own post(s) someday.

So, there's a quick Wikipedia version of a director I think gets a little overshadowed by the Wes Andersons and Spike Jonzes of the world, but I assume that would be the point of being labled an Independent Motion Picture Director.

*my apologies for Mystery Train and Night on Earth not reviewed in this post