Jim Jarmusch Survey

One of the most original and consistent of American Independent filmmakers, Jim Jarmusch’s body of work has advanced from the cinematic territory first cleared by Robert Frank and John Cassevetes. With his dry humour, narrative daring and flights of absurdity, the shock-haired writer/director has pioneered an international cinema style that has been taken up by the filmmakers as diverse as Alexander Payne, Aki and Mika Kaursimaki and fellow New Yorker Hal Hartley.  This survey of Jim Jarmusch’s work has been selected by our film Curator Ron Foley Macdonald, who will present an illustrated lecture: The Hipster As Filmmaker: Jim Jarmusch’s Birth Of the Cool in the Gallery on Thursday, 8 November at 8:00 pm.

26 September: Stranger Than Paradise

Jim Jarmusch, USA, 1984, 90 mins. Jarmusch made his mark with this funny, laconic road movie about two beatniks and their Hungarian cousin adrift in middle America in the 1980s; the film expertly balances austere lyricism with deadpan existentialism.

3 October: Down By Law

Jim Jarmusch, USA/Germany, 1986, 107 mins. Considered Jarmusch’s masterpiece, Down by Law is an absurdist rhapsody about three losers who escape from a Lousiana prison, with haunting black and white imagery by cinematographer Robbie Muller; starring Tom Waits, John Lurie and Roberto Benigni.

24 October: Mystery Train

Jim Jarmusch, USA/Japan, 1989, 90 mins. Three interweaving tales of a sleazy Memphis Motel are brought together by a single gunshot, in Jarmusch’s minimalist style (this time in colour) with a stellar cast: Joe Strummer, Rufus Thomas, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Steve Buscemi, Cinque Lee.

31 October: Night On Earth

Jim Jarmusch, USA/Finland/Italy/France, 1991, 130 mins. Fives stories set in taxis around the world at the exact same time make startling connections between loneliness, humour and companionship across the barriers of language and geography. Starring Gena Rowlands, Armin Mueller Stahl, Rosy Perez, Winona Ryder and Roberto Benigni.

7 November: Dead Man

Jim Jarmusch, USA/Germany/Japan, 1996, 120 mins. Johnny Depp stars in this stark black-and-white picaresque western about a dying accountant who thinks he is the poet William Blake. With Robert Mitchum in one of his last performances and an amazing soundtrack by Neil Young.

14 November: Ghost Dog: The Way Of the Samurai

Jim Jarmusch, USA/France, 1999. In this intense and often uncharacteristically violent tale of a hit-man (Forest Whitaker) on the run after a job gone wrong, Jarmusch mixes irony, mysticism and a search for tranquility amidst a tough contemporary urban crime milieu.

21 November: Coffee & Cigarettes

Jim Jarmusch, USA, 2003, 96 mins. Compiling three previously made shorts with several more, Jarmusch records whimsical encounters with actors and musicians as they (naturally) drink coffee and smoke cigarettes, among them Cate Blanchette, Bill Murray, Tom Waits, Iggy Pop and The White Stripes.

12 December: Broken Flowers.

Jim Jarmusch, USA, 2005, 107 mins. Jarmusch broke through to the mainstream with this casual yet compassionate portrait of an off-kilter computer mogul (Bill Murray) who searches out all his previous girlfriends (played by Jessica Lange, Tilda Swinton, Sharon Stone and Julie Delpy, among others).