 |
 |
|
|
Coffee and Cigarettes (2004)
Director:
Jim Jarmusch
Genre:
Comedy
Studio:
United Artists
Check out the Official Website
|
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
There's a scene in Jim Jarmusch's "Coffee and Cigarettes" where Tom Waits explains to Iggy Pop why he's late for their only-in-rock-and-roll-heaven coffee conversation. Waits says he was stuck in traffic because he had to deliver a baby, not to mention "perform a tracheotomy with a ballpoint pen." It's a hilarious line that Waits clearly pulled out of his ass.
The chance to catch another collaboration between Jarmusch and Waits in "Coffee and Cigarettes" is not to be missed. No one has been able to capture the growling, wandering beat spirit of America's finest down and dirty ditty man quite like the director did in "Down by Law," when he placed Waits behind the wheel of a Caddy and told him to do his best late-night DJ act.
In both cases, the results of an innate understanding of what the multi-talented Waits can do and the willingness to let him go at it have paid off immeasurably. The fine folks at Cannes, in fact, were so impressed with the aforementioned segment when it was released separately in '93 that they awarded it the Palme D'Or for Best Short Film.
From "Down By Law" and "Year of the Horse" to "Ghost Dog" and "Night on Earth," nobody possesses the uncommon passion for pop culture and patient, uncompromising approach to character development that Jarmusch has perfected. Both punk rock and art house, French New Wave and hard-core hip-hop, he has made a career of soaking up culture from unlikely places and including them in his films, from mixing Public Enemy songs with Mafioso culture in "Ghost Dog" to tossing Begnini and Waits together with avant-garde jazz man John Lurie for a rousing round of I Scream You Scream, We All Scream for Ice Cream in a prison cell in "Down by Law."
Jarmusch is rampantly indulgent both with himself and with his actors. The most frequent criticism I heard after the "Coffee and Cigarettes" screening was that "nothing happens" and that the director let the scenes go on "way too long." Fans of Jarmusch are used to the director's willingness to hold shots as long as they take, to let improvisations run their natural course and to dwell within the small, gnarly nooks and cracklets between significant events.
In "Coffee and Cigarettes," those nooks hold bizarre, kitschy paintings of celebrities of yesteryear (a different one per scene – Jack Palance is particularly nice), ruminations on the overpowering lure of tobacco (hear that) and a host of structural segues (cup placement, chess boards and circular dialogue all come into play) that command repeated viewings to catch.
With the exception of a funny segment where White Stripes lead singer Jack White shows the drummer and his supposed ex-wife Meg White a fully active Tesla coil (not like the band, you dolt), nothing really does happen. The majority of the film consists of conversation over java and smokes of a fairly inconsequential manner.
What's definitely most interesting are the conversants themselves. There are representatives from the world of rock n' roll, hard-core hip-hop (RZA and GZA the Genius from the Wu Tang Clan), indie film (Steve Coogan and Alfred Molina) and Hollywood proper (Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett).
Even when you don't know who the conversants are, as I didn't with Cinque and Joie Lee (Spike Lee's siblings) and Taylor Meade (who starred in several Andy Warhol films), the spots are fascinating and finding out proves well worth your while.
There's Roberto Begnini mainlining espresso and convincing the permanently quaalude-induced Stephen Wright to give him his appointment to the dentist; members of the spliff-hittin' WuTang Clan giving Bill Murray, who's slurping coffee from a pitcher, a lecture about the evils of caffeine; and, in one of the more ingenious setups, Cate Blanchett gabbing with her cousin (played also by Blanchett) about celebrity culture in the über-posh lobby of a four-star hotel.
The pace may be slow, but for the most part, the vignettes are anything but dull. Shot over the course of 18 years during breaks between other films, you get the feeling that Jarmusch gathered up the principals for each shoot with little more than a conversation topic, an appropriate spot and a couple of subjects that struck his fancy, then let 'er rip.
There's not a lot of revelations to be gleaned from the discussions to be sure, but for an admitted Jarmusch junkie who roundly enjoys the languid pace, dry humor and rock n' roll sensibilities of the director's films, the conversations in "Coffee and Cigarettes" came off a little bit like overhearing a couple of loved family members laughing and giving each other shit from another room – a warm, funny, comfortable experience that I didn’t really want to go away.
...
Written by Richard Sharp
Review Date: May 31, 2004
Back to Reviews | Next | Home
|
