Jim Jarmusch

[captainofbeef]

Discuss this master who is very underappreciated by some people on this forum.

[captainofbeef]

My favorite Jarmusch in order
1. Dead Man
2. Broken Flowers
3. Ghost Dog
4. Coffee and Cigarettes
5. Year of the Horse

Have not seen Permanent Vacation, Down By Law, or Stranger than Paradise.

[criterionmaster]

captainofbeef said:

Discuss this master who is very underappreciated by some people on this forum.

You mean overrated. He is good, but you overrate him like an idiot! You had him above Kuro-fuckin-sawa for christ sake!

[captainofbeef]

Whatever, I am not getting into one of these battles about him again.

[PTAhole]

Over Kurosawa... tsk tsk.

[captainofbeef]

Stranger Than Paradise was amazing, just like I knew it would be. Jarmusch can do no wrong!! It moves to number 3 on my top Jarmusch list.

[kiddo]

I haven`t seen too much from , but from what I have seen I like him a whole lot. Ghost Dog is a fantastic film. The suitable mix of humour and seriousness, the eminent combination of sound and image, the dualistic content, and Whitaker in his best role, makes this a film not to be missed. Not for all tastes though.



Coffee and Cigarettes was also great. The figuratively "quiet" way of telling 11 different small "stories" works very well in this quiet studie of human communication, filled with melancholy, espesially at the end. So many wonderful scenes; Loved the scene with Molina, Bill Murruy and Wu tang clan, and the last one. There is so many things that is being said, without anyone really saying it.



And that`s all I`ve seen! I know, I should see a lot more. And I have already done something with the "problem". I`ve ordered Down by Law and Night on Earth, and they should both find their way to my mailbox soon. I can merely wait.

[PTAhole]

See Dead Man, Stranger than Paradise, and Broken Flowers. Out of all the films I've seen by him, they're the only ones I really like (have yet to see Down By Law.)

[kiddo]

Thanks for the advice. I think I will check them out after I`ve watched Down by Law and Night on Earth.

[criterionmaster]

Stolen 'Flowers'?

Writer Reed Martin believes the similarities between his screenplay and Jim Jarmusch's are more than coincidental
By Joseph P. Kahn, Globe Staff | June 28, 2006

CAMBRIDGE -- Director Jim Jarmusch's ``Broken Flowers" came out last summer and made many lists of the year's best movies. A Grand Prix winner at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival, the offbeat comedy stars Bill Murray as an aging Don Juan who revisits a string of former girlfriends, trying to puzzle out why his life seems so unfulfilled.

But when Reed Martin saw ``Broken Flowers," he wasn't laughing or applauding. Martin, a freelance journalist and adjunct professor of film marketing at New York University, left the theater with a knot in his stomach.

Virtually all the film's characters, scenes, and sequencing were his creation, or slight variations thereof, Martin concluded, from the ex-girlfriend who talks to cats to the pink envelope that propels Murray's odyssey. There were differences, to be sure, but there were also more than enough similarities to convince Martin that he'd been wronged.

``I was heartbroken, and terrified," says Martin, sitting in a Harvard Square cafe. ``Nobody in that audience would ever know how much I slaved over that script."

It was the ``perfect crime," adds Martin -- who says he spent 10 years polishing and marketing his screenplay -- because complaining about it would only invite trouble. ``Who would believe," Martin says, ``that someone like Jarmusch, an icon of indie-film integrity, would rip off a struggling screenwriter like me?"

The more Jarmusch bragged about ``Broken Flowers," however, the more Martin's anguish gave way to anger. Jarmusch claimed he'd written the script in two to three weeks, yet admitted to one interviewer that its premise was ``pretty foreign to me." In a burst of candor, the filmmaker wrote in a column for MovieMaker magazine , ``Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration . . . And don't bother concealing your thievery -- celebrate it if you feel like it."

What Martin felt like doing was suing for copyright infringement. Not just Jarmusch, either, but the studios that co financed and distributed the film and the agent to whom Martin had entrusted his script.

Why not? Martin had registered multiple versions of his screenplay. Between 1996 and 2004, he registered 12 versions -- under the title ``Two Weeks Off" and, later, ``Heart Copy " -- with the US Copyright Office. He also registered it three times with the Writers Guild of America, between 1998 and 2004. He felt he had ample proof, in the form of e-mails and FedEx receipts, that his work had been received, read, and admired by people in the industry, some with known ties to Jarmusch.

Martin then bumped into another cold reality about the film business. His case was hardly unique, or even all that unusual. When pressed, claims like his were usually squashed by high-powered studio lawyers -- or quietly settled and sealed by both parties. Furthermore, pursuing legal action could kill his chances of ever working in the movies. And bankrupt him in the process. Continued...


www.boston.com/ae/movies/articles/2006/06/28/stolen_flowers/

[Nomansvally]

hmm, interesting....

[captainofbeef]

Well, I dunno about that. It is very interesting. If Jarmusch stole the script, it just means he is not that nice of a person. The film wont lose any power in my book.

[agentknight]

Jarmusch is my new favourite director. I recently saw Coffee & Cigarettes and Stranger Than Paradise and I loved them both (the latter in particular). I want to see Dead Man and Night on Earth soon.

[agentknight]

I just watched Broken Flowers, it's probably the best yet. Truly amazing stuff. I'll watch Down By Law later today.

[criterionmaster]

Yes, I love Broken Flowers! It is just perfect despite what others say.

[PTAhole]

Perfect, my ass. 8/10. It's simply 'good.'

[captainofbeef]

Nope its perfect.

[Nomansvally]

It's a solid 9/10 in my eyes!

[agentknight]

Definitely perfect.

[Nomansvally]

Does anyone know what this man is doing currently? I'd wish I knew something about his next projects...

[agentknight]

I have no idea what he's doing next. But now that I've seen all of his most relevant films I shall rank them.

1. Down by Law (10/10)
2. Broken Flowers (10/10)
3. Stranger Than Paradise (10/10)
4. Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (10/10)
5. Dead Man (10/10)
6. Night on Earth (9/10)
7. Mystery Train (8/10)
8. Coffee and Cigarettes (8/10)

[criterionmaster]

I hated Coffee and Cigarettes. I found it very boring and I think he failed at whatever he was trying to do with the film.

[agentknight]

I wouldn't call it a failure, but for the most part it just wasn't that interesting. Hence, it is at the bottom of my list.

[ie]

Well, I think Coffee and Cigarettes were suppose to emulate real conversations by real people. And, if you've ever gone over to a relative's house and listen to them talk about dairy farms, you'll know not all conversations are "interesting."

I stopped about halfway through Coffee and Cigarettes. In this situation, it's not telling of how little it was, but for how much I thought of it. I went in, just to test it out, and before I knew it a half hour went by. I kinda knew the time was going by, and that I could stop at any point - so I had to eventually will myself to stop - but it was a positive experience for me.


Ghost Dog, of course. What else is there to say?


And, I'm not sure what this business about Broken Flowers is, but I dunno. I haven't heard of this, and I don't hear a whole lot about it, so it could just be some guy being like "hey, I wrote a story that's kinda like this movie, but he took it from me!" I won't let it ruin the movie for me, worrying about whether Jarmusch borrowed a script or plagiarized it.

[criterionmaster]

Broken Flowers (Jim Jarmusch; 2005) ?/10 -- REWATCH

The "?/10" represents the impossibility of me being able to pick a grade between 9 and 10. I love the film so much, but there are some flaws in my opinion. Flaws: I feel the film's ending can be seen way to far in advance, it becomes rather obvious what will happen just based on the tone of the film alone. And some of the female performances are iffy at best. Of course there are some great ones, but the realtor lady was not good in my opinion.

But those are the only two problems in the film for me so I am leaning towards a 10. I am not going to give 9.5 to it.

And my interpretation of the ending, which I gathered minutes after the credits rolled in the theater:

SPOILER: Click to show

He wasn't searching for his son; he was actually searching for himself. So as the camera rotates around him, that is the director or the camera telling us that the character has now come full circle in the film. Maybe a cliché interpretation, but it is what I think. Also the reason for the guy looking out of the car at the end at Bill Murray is trying to tell us that he is going to now see his son in everyone. He will never find him now, because all people he will think are his son or something like that. If you don’t think this way, who do you think wrote the letter to him?

What do you guys think?

[dontdigonswine]

**SPOILERS(i guess)**I thought Broken Flowers was a film about coincidences, and how one interprets them in life. From everything pink Don notices at his ex's houses, to the only person who is kind to him throughout his entire journey being named "Sun Green", to the name of the deceased dog of one of his ex's being the same as his neighbor. This was kind of solidified in my opinion by the ending; how the younger man whom he befriends because he believes it is his son, wearing a jumpsuit, then the two kids driving by wearing jumpsuits. I do also believe that Don ended up going on a journey to discover himself in the end, and that he ended up not changing (the significance of the 360). I dont know though. The whole purpose of the movie is probably supposed to be what each individual person makes it.

[Nomansvally]

My picks:

1. Down by Law
2. Mystery Train
3. Dead Man
4. Stranger Than Paradise
5. Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai
6. Night on Earth
7. Broken Flowers
8. Coffee and Cigarettes


Anyone seen Permanent Vacation?

[sacrilegend]

Coffee and Cigarettes was an amazing movie, in my opinion. I haven't seen any other films by him, though.

[ie]

I guess I can understand why so many people dislike Coffee and Cigarettes.

I saw it as a mostly accurate depiction of conversations, which, I don't know if people don't like talking or if they don't like seeing people talk or didn't like that they weren't talking about metaphysical happenings or that there was a distinct lack of explosions or that people don't like coffee and cigarettes being around each other or they like the PTA effort more, or they just didn't like it, or what.

But I thought it was really good. Oh, and Well come to these forums.

[sacrilegend]

That's exactly what I thought as well. Coffee and Cigarettes isn't a great movie if your idea of movies is that of heartwrenching dramas and mindblowing action. It's a nice movie to watch if you've let go of all your expectations of what a movie should be, and just watch it. Yes, it is boring, but when are human lives and day-to-day conversations actually as exciting as we see them in movies?

I liked it as well. Oh, and thank-you.