Well, Jarmusch isn't so much telling a story as creating a world with each film. It doesn't have a point any more than, say, Mount Fuji has a point--the experience of being there IS the point. It can be satisying and moving and thought-porvoking, but in the way an experience is rather than a story is.
It's like, in the middle of all this, I'm paranoid that you'll think I don't like poetry.
Buffy ,'Empty Places'
Buffista Movies 4: Straight to Video
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
Scrappy - Sep 08, 2005 7:25:18 am PDT #7185 of 10002
Life moves pretty fast. You don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
Cashmere - Sep 08, 2005 7:26:44 am PDT #7186 of 10002
Now tagless for your comfort.
Raq, I can't help you much but I loved Ghost Dog.
juliana - Sep 08, 2005 7:27:33 am PDT #7187 of 10002
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I miss them all tonight…
What am I looking for with his movies? Why do I never seem to get what his point is, although I generally feel like I like the movie?
Interesting characters in situations that may seem out-there, but there's a very clear path for how said characters got there?
I never really think of a Jarmusch film as having with a greater sense of the world or a *point*, really. He's just telling a story.
Or, what tommyrot and Robin said.
Hayden - Sep 08, 2005 7:36:36 am PDT #7188 of 10002
aka "The artist formerly known as Corwood Industries."
Which movies in particular have you seen, Raq?
Kalshane - Sep 08, 2005 7:37:41 am PDT #7189 of 10002
GS: If you had to choose between kicking evil in the head or the behind, which would you choose, and why?
Minsc: I'm not sure I understand the question. I have two feet, do I not? You do not take a small plate when the feast of evil welcomes seconds.
Raq, I can't help you much but I loved Ghost Dog.
Chiming in on the Ghost Dog love, but I'm also a big samurai fan.
Vonnie K - Sep 08, 2005 7:41:59 am PDT #7190 of 10002
Kiss me, my girl, before I'm sick.
Huh. I've never seen a Jarmush movie. I think I was led to believe his style was aggressively quirky (which doesn't sound like it's true from the above posts), and I hate aggressive quirky. I'm gonna see Broken Flowers and see if I like that enough to check out his other work.
I watched Peter Weir's The Last Wave last night, a fantastic, creepy-as-hell movie about a rational Western man encountering an Otherness
Oh yeah. I have to rewatch this film some time; I recall being mesmerized and creeped out, but I can't even tell you what it was about beyond that. Something apocalyptic. I did like that last shot though.
Weir made this one back to back with Picnic at Hanging Rock, right? They'd make a good double feature. Or throw in Roeg's Walkabout and make it a triple-feature.
IMDb tells me Weir's adopting William Gibson's Pattern Recognition. No casting yet, but I'm stoked.
juliana - Sep 08, 2005 7:45:13 am PDT #7191 of 10002
I’d be lying if I didn’t say that I miss them all tonight…
I think I was led to believe his style was aggressively quirky
Huh. I'd say more langorously quirky. My first Jarmusch film was Dead Man, and I immediately fell in love. It's just so... odd. And unexplained. And beautiful.
§ ita § - Sep 08, 2005 7:51:38 am PDT #7192 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I loved Ghost Dog, and would swear it had a point, but I couldn't tell you what it was. Perhaps the samurai quotations. However, the descriptions of his style make me want to run away.
tommyrot - Sep 08, 2005 7:54:31 am PDT #7193 of 10002
Sir, it's not an offence to let your cat eat your bacon. Okay? And we don't arrest cats, I'm very sorry.
I loved Ghost Dog, and would swear it had a point, but I couldn't tell you what it was.
Well, there was all that Zen stuff about always being ready for your own death. That stuck in my mind the most. Also, pigeons.
Volans - Sep 08, 2005 7:59:10 am PDT #7194 of 10002
move out and draw fire
Weir's adopting William Gibson's Pattern Recognition. No casting yet, but I'm stoked.
This is awesome!
Night on Earth was my first Jarmusch, and I recently watched Ghost Dog. My husband just bought Dead Man because he'd seen it a few years ago and it had really stuck with him, and yet he's been unable to explain it.
To me, Jarmusch seems like an auteur rather than a straightforward director, but his movies seem...uneven. But they have memorable tones.