OK, I need a crash course in Jarmusch. 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?

He described his first movie Stranger Than Paradise as The Honeymooners as directed by Ozu. I think both of those fit pretty well in describing his vibe. I think he likes to take the mundane and slow it down until moments are isolated and have a lot of breathing room around them. Sometimes that makes them feel strange, or comic or haunting.

Some of the best laughs in Stranger are just from the blackout cutaways. You really get seduced into his particular, languorous rhythms. I don't think he's aggressively quirky, but he likes actors who have a very strong screen presence so they can hold the screen during all that space he allows around them. He's got a great comic sense that's very dry, or just likes to back up a bit and let a performer go around the bend (like Benigni in Night On Earth with his fantastic comic rant). He's also very masterful at composing iconic imagery which really stays with you, and scenes which are very distinctive and haunting. Plus, he's got fantastic taste in music.

(and, of course, the Screamin' Jay Hawkins sections, 'cause god-DAMN they are fantastic)

Oh yeah is that true. Also, we should not forget that although he wasn't the director or conceiver, I think FISHING WITH JOHN would never have happened without him.

What were your issues with DOWN BY LAW? I can see it being Benigni, but I actually like him in that movie. Watching Waits and Lurie do a slow burn at dealing with this weird little man cracks me up.

I love Down by Law! Benigni is great in it, particularly that sweet slow dance he does with Nicoletta Braschi at the end. And Tom Waits getting his shit thrown out the window in New Orleans. And completely eliding over the actual escape. "I scream-uh, you scream-uh, we all scream-uh...." (Why didn't The Fall sample this for one of their songs?)

I like Dead Man a lot. But then I saw it at the height of my Johnny Depp obsession, so I may not be entirely objective about it.

And he was hilarious shark fishing with John Lurie!

ETA:

And completely eliding over the actual escape.

Exactly. A movie about a jailbreak that shows everything but the jailbreak.

What were your issues with DOWN BY LAW? I can see it being Benigni, but I actually like him in that movie. Watching Waits and Lurie do a slow burn at dealing with this weird little man cracks me up.

My only issue was with the Nicoletta Braschi section. I think it was supposed to be like the German Farmgirl section of Le Grande Illusion but it seemed utterly without charm to me (I didn't even like the slow dance - I know, I'm heartless). And yeah, Waits and Lurie were fantastic dealing with Benigni.

I think FISHING WITH JOHN would never have happened without him

YEAH. (Edit - "The fishermen wake up early in the morning, covered in sores and boners.")

Hey, I forgot to answer your comments about The Last Wave, Frank. I'll scroll back.

And Tom Waits getting his shit thrown out the window in New Orleans.

Heh, by a SUPREMELY pissed off Ellen Barkin. And he doesn't react until she gets to the shoes. He deserved to go to jail for not trying to stop her when she started on the vinyl - man's a DJ for cripessake.

always thought the last scene was ambiguous enough that it fit the rest of the movie

Well, I thought that he should have cut the water shots. The look on Chamberlain's face (and seriously, did he ever act in anything else he was in?) would have been fine on its own.

YEAH. (Edit - "The fishermen wake up early in the morning, covered in sores and boners.")

Heh. My favorite narrator bit: The Andaman Sea...The Andaman Sea...Oogly Boogly...The Andaman Sea