LAMBERTATHON SUPPLEMENT: NO FEAR. NO DIE (PINK SMOKE)

Here's an additional piece of writing I did about Claire Denis' No Fear, No Die in conjunction with my recent write-up on White Material

enjoy (click the image to go to the review)

MOTHER OF GEORGE

Somewhere between a Greek tragedy & a Shakespearean-style comedy (although set in modern day downtown Brooklyn with a mostly African cast) lies Andrew Dosunmu's Mother Of George (2013).

Every year after posting my year in review I always regret the placement of at least one film in my top 10 or honorable mention. Mother Of George was no doubt in my top 20 of 2013, but in the unofficial rankings I had it beneath stuff like Frances Ha & Her. I still like Frances Ha & Her, but definitely not as much as I did 18 months ago. They've both cooled off quite a bit while Mother Of George only gets better each time I watch it (without giving too much away, I used to have an issue with what I thought was a plot-hole but now I know it was needed in order to keep the story going). If I could go back and redo my list I'd put it in that same unique spot that I made for A Most Violent Year in 2014 - not exactly a top-10 movie but better than an honorable mention.
Mother Of George is quietly impressive in that it's great qualities (the cinematography, the ambiance & certain isolated scenes) slowly creep up on you weeks after you watch it.
But at the same time, this is the kind of film that could easily get overlooked (at no fault of the film or filmmaker). Besides being a smaller indie film, it shows black characters in situations that aren't exactly typical within most prominent films. What do I mean by “typical”? Mother Of George has nothing to do with any kind of racial struggle, poverty or magical negroisms. I mean, the subject of slavery alone kind of became a “thing” between 2012 (Django) through 2013 (12 Years A Slave & The Beginning of The Butler).

And please understand that in no way am I trying to downplay racism, slavery, poverty & struggle among Black people. The acts that are covered in films like Selma & 12 Years A Slave directly (and indirectly) affected my life (as far as stuff like The Butler, Django & The Help, I really have nothing nice to say so I'll just be quiet). I would even go so far as to defend certain aspects of Selma against its detractors who criticized the film for not incorporating any of Martin Luther King's real speeches due to his family not allowing them to be used in the film. Anyone who has a problem with that surely must have issues with Spike Lee's Malcolm X. I know I haven't read The Autobiography Of Malcolm X in quite some time, but last time I checked, the character of Banes wasn't even a real person and Malcolm X's introduction in to Islam is a little different from the book than it is in the film. But no one seems to have a problem with that. And at the end of the day they really shouldn't because Malcolm X is an excellent film. Spike Lee had his legitimate reasons for certain omissions as did Ava Duvernay. 

But at the end of the day I guess what I'm really trying to say is that Black people do/did more than just march for justice or swallow their pride and serve white people (and it's not like Selma's lack of Oscar nominations are going to diminish the work/iconic status of Martin Luther King Jr). Black people sometimes find themselves in the midst of complex family situations (like the family in Mother Of George). Black people embrace the beauty of their culture & ethnicity (like the close-knit African community in Mother Of George). Black people also find themselves in peculiar situations that fall within the grey area between funny & fucked up (like our female protagonist in Mother Of George). But mainstream/prominent cinema would have you think otherwise (there are obviously exceptions to what I'm saying but bottom line, my generalization is perfectly just).

In Mother Of George, we follow “Adenike”. Adenike is the loyal wife of Brooklyn restaurant owner/mama's-boy “Ayodele” (Isaach Debankole). They're under pressure from their Brooklyn-based Nigerian community to have children (most of the pressure comes from Ayodele's quietly domineering mother) but they're having fertility problems. Its not quite laid out for us in black & white, but it's implied that Ayodele's sperm count is low, yet everyone seems to blame Adenike (besides, family, loyalty & community, Mother Of George also tackles gender equality & double standards between men & women). 

After a while, Adenike is pressured by her mother-in-law to do something incredibly wrong in order to get pregnant.
The main character here may be a woman, but that doesn’t stop Andrew Dosunmu from exploring the seriousness (and sometimes silliness) of manhood & “manning up”. In addition to Ayodele being in denial about his low sperm count and not wanting to go to a fertility clinic to get help, he also doesn’t want Adenike to work because he’s stuck in the old fashioned ways of his parents where the man is the main bread winner. But no matter how stubborn and “old fashioned” Ayodele may be, he’s still a stand-up guy (the final seconds of MoG couldn’t convey the idea of “manning up” any better).

I find it funny that so many people were up in arms about Selma only getting three Oscar nominations when a year earlier, something like Mother Of George (shot, much better, by the same cinematographer as Selma) got no support outside of The Brooklyn Academy Of Music, Sundance, this very website you're reading right now or quick blurbs on Film Comment & Time Out. Where was the outcry for MoG not getting enough acknowledgement for it's excellent cinematography? I'm not exagerating when I say Mother Of George has one of the greatest opening scenes from this decade so far. It also shows a side of New York City/Brooklyn that we don't get to see too often in modern-day indie cinema.

I'm sure anyone reading this right now is aware of the recent public outrage expressed by folks who were disappointed in the lack of Oscar nominations that Selma received a few weeks ago. But I can't help but think that if Selma was nominated in every possible Oscar category, everyone would have been perfectly complacent. That's a problem to me because Selma is just ONE movie. While everyone is up in arms hashtagging “#Oscarsowhite” all over social media (because ONE movie didn't get enough nominations) there's been nice handful of films to come out in the last few years that, in my opinion, are a breath of fresh air in terms of how black people are portrayed on the big screen, but large black audiences don't seem to get behind them like they did Selma or The Butler or Precious or any of that other stuff. I know films like Newlyweeds (a smart stoner romantic comedy), Black Venus (a biopic on Sarah Bartmaan), Pariah (a film about homosexuality among young black women), A Band Called Death (a documentary about a pioneering all-Black punk band), Big Words (a film that touches on homosexuality in Hip-Hop) and other somewhat "progressive" films concerning Black people aren't always playing in major theaters, but at the same time, it's 2015. Outlets like Hulu & Netflix exist so its a lot easier to seek these movies out (I saw Pariah, Black Venus & Newlyweeds in the theater but I live in New York City). And as far as not knowing about these films existing to begin with, I blame publications like TheGrio.com, Ebony, Essence and other like-minded news sources that clearly don't seek out or push films that aren't Oprah/David Oyelowo/Lee Daniels/Tyler Perry-related (so I don't have to repeat myself, just read this piece from a few years ago).

MANDERLAY: LARS UNCHAINED...

I'm a little embarrassed to say this, but I was pretty intrigued by Manderlay when I was younger. I never thought it was a great film but I remember thinking there was something interesting about it in all of it's heavy-handedness, but not so much anymore...

I used to take Lars Von Trier way more seriously than I think I was supposed to. But now that I've read enough books on the man, kept up with his antics over the years and have re-watched everything he's done over & over, I honestly get that he's trying to be a button-pushing provocateur over everything else (Dancer In The Dark, Breaking The Waves, parts of Melancholia and the final moments of The Idiots being the exceptions) and for whatever reason; I dig that about him. It's in my newfound understanding of Von Trier that I've come to respect him and enjoy his work even more. I just wish more people shared my way of thinking about him. Anyone who STILL gets frustrated over a Lars Von Trier movie in 2014 deserves the aneurysm that they're giving themselves when they get all worked up at the sound of his name. It's like people who saw Terrence Malick's To The Wonder and took the time to write super long scathing reviews of the film or go on verbal rants about how stupid, weird & artsy it is. I personally love Malick's latest work but I can understand if someone were to not like it or brush it aside. But some people's reaction to that film were as if it was his debut and they had no idea that Tree Of Life, The New World & The Thin Red Line existed (sorry, I refuse to believe anyone stumbled upon To The Wonder without knowing about Tree Of Life. You knew what you were getting in to). It's the same thing with Von Trier's recent work. Sure, it's understandable that something like Antichrist would cause the stir that it did given certain scenes and how women are presented in it. But at the same time, were those frustrated critics & cinephiles that were familiar with his work unaware of the abuse that Nicole Kidman & Emily Watson took in the last half of Breaking The Waves & Dogville, respectively? What about Bjork's body just dangling from the noose at the end of Dancer In The Dark? Was it really that shocking to see how Von Trier handled his female character in Antichrist based on his previous two decades of work? To be honest, LvT haters make me like him even more. I liken him to that of a heel wrestler. He's essentially a troll. But what's so strange is that he's a talented troll. When it comes to the technical aspects of filmmaking (which is important no matter how you look at it), having an understanding of the language of cinema and getting excellent performances out of his actors (Emily Watson in Breaking The Waves, Bjork in Dancer In The Dark, Charlotte Gainsbourg in Antichrist, etc); I'll put Lars up against your favorite filmmaker any day of the week from Alfonso Cuaron to Christopher Nolan (yeah, I said it).

As you can see I have no problem defending LvT as a filmmaker but unfortunately Manderlay is something I can't get behind no matter how many nuggets of truth or social commentary it contains.

Top row: Confederate States Of America / Cache
Bottom: Django Unchained / 12 Years A Slave

Because of recent films like Django Unchained, 12 Years A Slave & elements of The Butler, slavery & racism has suddenly become a hot topic in cinema again. But this is an echo of 2005 when the subject of racial guilt became a minor deal within indie/art house cinema all of a sudden. You had Cache (one of the greatest modern films ever made), Confederate States Of America (one of the most eye-rolling, almost unnecessary films ever made) and Manderlay, which is somewhere in the middle of those two films although it treads closer to Confederate States Of America. Cache is a film about everything from racism being swept under the rug in Europe to chickens coming home to roost while Confederate States Of America (produced by Spike Lee) is a sort of hybrid mockumentary/fiction story about a modern day America had the confederacy won the civil war. Two out of those three films dealt with slavery (Manderlay & Confederate States) and all three were about racism, guilt and atrocities committed against people of color (I can’t exactly group the Algerian characters from Cache in with the African American characters from Manderlay & Confederate States Of America, but they’re all descendants from Africa in some shape or form so, close enough…). Strangely enough, both Manderlay & Confederate States Of America played at the IFC Center around the same time if I'm not mistaken...

I’ve eluded to my extremely uncomfortable experience watching Manderlay at IFC in previous entries, but allow me to explain in full now that we're actually talking about it...

As I sat watching this in a theater made up of mostly white people, I found myself becoming more & more uncomfortable as everyone around me chuckled & laughed out loud at scenes I honestly didn’t find to be funny as a black person. Not only was I uncomfortable, but I found myself almost embarrassed for a lot of the white audience members because a lot of their laughter was clearly their way of dealing with the discomfort they felt while watching Manderlay. Don’t get me wrong, there are some legitimate humorous moments in the film, but overall there was WAY too much laughter about something having to do with slavery. 

Manderlay is ultimately a failure but at the same time, there is still a reason I bought the DVD at full price and end up talking about it from time to time at length with equal minded friends. I even devoted some time to write about it on here when I could be writing about something else...

Shot in the same stage play style as its predecessor; Dogville, Manderlay is the kind of film where if you were to stumble upon it in the middle, you’d find yourself asking; “whoa, what am I watching here?”

Black face in Manderlay

Lars touches on the (tired) taboo's of interracial relationships in Manderlay

Strange Fruit.

Going back to my troll comment from earlier; the whole motivation behind Lars Von Trier making his Grace/America Trilogy, made up of Dogville, Manderlay and a not yet made third part, was to be just that - a troll. He just wanted to challenge/annoy Americans after the criticism he faced for Dancer In The Dark. In Dogville he criticized the immigration system in America (no matter how much he denies this) while Manderlay is about race issues concerning black people in America.

In Manderlay, we pick up with the Grace character following the events of Dogville. This time around Bryce Dallas Howard takes up the role of Grace instead of Nicole Kidman (John Hurt does return as the film's narrator). Set in the early 1930's, Grace travels with her mobster father (played by Willem Dafoe this time instead of James Caan) and his henchmen through the deep south. In their travels they eventually come across a plantation ("Manderlay") that still practices slavery decades after it's been abolished in America. Apparently this was a deep backwoods southern region where they somehow kept the news of slavery being abolished a secret. Sounds a little far-fetched, I know. But I can let that go. It makes for an interesting story. Grace, along with her father’s henchmen, takes it upon herself to free the slaves but given their institutionalized mindset, they can’t function as free people. Against her father’s wishes, Grace stays back in an effort to help the freed slaves and of course by the end of the film she incidentally becomes the new defacto "master" which is the exact opposite of what she was trying to do in the first place. It's also revealed at the end of the film that one of the elder slaves (played by Danny Glover) is a bit more sinister than what we thought. It's kind of a shame Glover wasted such a good performance on this overall mess of a film. 

Manderlay is a paradox because Grace is self-righteous & obnoxious, yet so is the overall message of this film. Von Trier tries to criticize the Grace character in all of her self-righteousness & know-it-allism in her mission to help the slaves not realizing that Grace is actually a mirror of Von Trier himself in making Manderlay. Lars points his finger at America and criticizes the racism that exists in this country (which it certainly does exist) but he has yet to even step foot on American soil. I'm not saying that he can't have an opinion on racism in America (or even make a movie about it) but for him to go as far as he did with Manderlay without ever witnessing it firsthand is a little strange to me. How could this be truly authentic? Plus, Von Trier is pretty much trying to go out of his way to blame all white people for the plight of black people in America and its SOOO much more complicated than how he presents it. He simplifies such a complex issue (racism) to the point where it becomes insulting. In the final moments of Manderlay, one of the slaves, played by Claire Denis regular; Isaach De Bankole, practically looks in to the camera and says to Grace; "YOU made us this way." I have two major problems with that. One, it's as if Debankole is speaking for all black people (myself included) as if we're one like-minded group of people who all think the same and blame the same. My other issue with that statement is, like I said earlier, it's the biggest oversimplification of what's probably the most complex issue in the world, yet Von Trier manages to whittle it down into a single phrase.

Recently a good friend of mine (Mtume Gant of the site; Alter Eye) offered an interesting perspective on Haneke's Cache which I actually feel applies more to Manderlay. On the subject of Cache, a film we don't exactly see eye-to-eye on, he felt that at the end of the day Cache was about racism & people of color, but it was made by white people and for white people only. I understand that take on it, but in my opinion, Cache is the only kind of film Michael Haneke could make. Had he made that kind of film from the perspective of the Algerian characters in Cache, I feel it would have been out of line & out of place. Cache is told from the perspective of a white European male because Haneke himself is a white European male. If you're going to make an authentic film about racism, it's potentially dangerous to take on the perspective of a black person when you've never walked in their shoes (not saying it can't be done, but it is risky). Even the few parts of Manderlay where Von Trier is on point with his social commentary, I can’t help but feel like it isn’t his place to say anything given he’s spent ZERO time around African Americans outside of a movie shoot and has yet to step foot in a highly populated black area in America. And to add an extra layer to things, Manderlay is the kind of film where mostly white intellectuals will talk about this among themselves without knowing or wanting to know a black person’s opinion on it.

And lets be clear – had a black person made this very exact same film, I still would have had problems with it…

I’m a little disappointed that Lars’ one & only film to date that tackles race head-on turned out to be this. He’s handled minor racial issues in the past (on & off camera) in a way that I’ve respected. The character that Catherine Deneuve plays in Dancer In The Dark was originally supposed to be a black woman but Lars decided to not add to another long list of black supporting, sidekick female characters so he made her white instead (as strange as that sounds, that’s how I personally prefer more filmmakers handle things instead of trying to please black audiences by throwing in an under-developed black character in an effort to make things “diverse”).
I always found it odd that the biggest controversy from the production of Manderlay was John C. Reilly walking off set in protest due to a donkey being killed for a particular scene. 

How were there no reports of racial tension or inner turmoil among the director and his mostly black cast given the subject matter & tone of Manderlay?
This almost feels like what a movie about slavery would be had it been produced by Vice Magazine. Manderlay also suffers from some of the same issues as Django Unchained - another film centered around slavery with a heavy tone of white guilt (conveyed mostly through the Dr. Schultz character) where the white characters are more interesting & complex than the black (MAIN) characters (Danny Glover's performance being the exception). I still place Manderlay above a film like Django but that’s almost like picking the lesser of the two evils. Although this movie is ultimately a failure/mess, I still think it should be seen by anyone with an interest in race issues or the films of Lars Von Trier.
I love Lars to death but I don't know if it’s possible to have something backfire in your face as bad as Manderlay did.

CHOCOLAT

Stories of Africa from the perspective of a white person can be a touchy subject (especially for black folks). You have a continent full of black people, yet the majority of mainstream films over the years that come from that continent are either written and/or directed by white people ('Tstotsi' & 'District 9'), or the main characters in those films are white (Donald Sutherland, Susan Sarandon and Marlon Brando in 'A Dry White Season', Kevin Kline in 'Cry Freedom', Klaus Kinski in 'Cobra Verde', Stephen Dorf in 'The Power Of One', etc). How is that possible? I don't know if its cynicism or "black pride", but sometimes part of me (and many other African Americans) feels like blindly & ignorantly thinking; "what could a white person know about Africa?" (and I've never even stepped foot on the continent). But that's not how i feel about Claire Denis and her films. She's someone who kind of grew up around black people (she spent some of her youth living in various countries in Africa), yet doesn't brag about it like its some kind of cool accomplishment or Rachel Dolezal-esque badge of honor. I try to limit my conversations regarding race with some white people like that because at some point they all drop the infamous line; "look, i grew up around black people. Trust me, I know black people", as if we're some kind of cool artifact or something. But i don't get that vibe from Claire Denis. Maybe its the fact that 75% of her filmography focuses on black characters in some way shape or form without that patronizing feel. Her focus on black people and various black cultures (African, Caribbean & Afro-European to be specific) feels natural and unforced.
Although very personal and semi-autobiographical, 'Chocolat' isn't Denis' best film (in fact, in my ranking of her work I'd put it in the bottom half...but that's not saying it isn't a really good movie). But it still laid the seeds for her future work. The feature debut of a great director is always an important artifact and this is certainly no exception. So many elements and themes from Denis' later work can be traced right back to her first film...

-The focus on interracial romance which started in 'Chocalt' can be found in her later work like 'Trouble Every Day', 'I Cant Sleep', 'No Fear, No Die' and '35 Shots Of Rum'

-A focus on black people (specifically black males) through the eyes of a white female character (which at times kind of represents claire denis herself) as well as sexual tension between a black male and a white female can be seen in post-'Chocolat' films like 'No Fear, No Die', 'I Cant Sleep' and 'White Material'.

-References to the continent of Africa can be found in almost all of her films either directly like 'Beau Travail' and 'White Material' or in a more subtle/hinted about way like in 'Trouble Every Day' and 'No Fear, No Die'.

-And Even the few Claire Denis films like 'Nenette & Boni' and 'U.S. Go Home' that have nothing to do with Africa (or black people for that matter) got their basic themes from 'Chocolat' in that all three films are essentially "coming of age" tales centered around young people.

(make sure to read "The Cinema Of Claire Denis...")

Claire Denis directing on set w/ the young "France"

'Chocolat' centers around a young girl by the name of "France" living with her parents in a colonized section of Cameroon who becomes friends with the family "house boy"/male servant; "Protee" (played by Claire Denis regular Isaach Debankole). The majority of the film is a flashback told from the perspective of "France" as an adult. There's a lot of unspoken tension in the film mostly dealing with racial tension between the white french people living in colonized Cameroon and the native Africans as well as the sexual tension between France's mother and Protee. All the tension comes to a head when France's family takes in a mysterious stranger after an accident close by leaves him stranded. In the same fashion as films like 'Cria Cuervos' and 'The Spirit Of The Beehive', each character in the film is more than just a person. They essentially represent a group of people or an ideal: "France" represents the new/younger generation of french people. France's parents represents the "old way" of French society, and Protee (the servant) clearly represents the oppressed people of Africa who have had their land taken over by the French. Whats also interesting is that this is the only film in which Claire Denis touches on the tension between Africans and African Americans (even if it is a quick comment). In my opinion, the African American community could use a Claire Denis film right now with all the Tyler Perry & knock-off Tyler Perry movies out there right now. Additionally, the cast of 'Chocolat' is part of the weblike connection/friendships that Denis has with other contemporaries like Jim Jarmusch (who not only went on to cast 'Chocolat' co-star Isaach DeBankole in 4 of his future films, but has started to form a regular working relationship with Claire Denis' other regular actor; Alex Descas) and Leos Carax, who worked with Mireille Perrier (who plays the older "France" in 'Chocolat') on his first 2 films is connected to this film as well.
Like i said earlier, this isn't her best film, but its required viewing if you're a fan and want a better understanding of how she developed as a filmmaker over the years.
Well, that's it. I've now written about every one of Claire Denis's feature films with the exception of 'Nenette & Boni' (the only 2 things holding me back is that I've already written about 'U.S. Go Home', which is very similar in plot and cast and John Cribbs already did 'Nenette & Boni' justice on the pink smoke).

THE CINEMA OF JIM JARMUSCH TOLD THROUGH IMAGES & STILLS

Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft) will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent. And don't bother concealing your thievery - celebrate it if you feel like it. In any case, always remember what Jean-Luc Godard said: "It's not where you take things from - it's where you take them to." - Jim Jarmusch



I'm sure you guys knew this was coming. Anyone who knows me should know that Jim Jarmusch is one of my all time favorites (i know you hear me say that about directors a lot, but i really mean it with this one). To me, just about all of his films are perfect. You don't need to be in a particular type of mood to watch his movies like you do with a director like Lars Von Trier or Michael Haneke. They'll make you laugh, think and occasionally cry (sorry but the scene in Broken Flowers when Bill Murray is sitting at his ex-girlfriends grave site is a tear jerker) all in one movie. You can learn about D.I.Y. & low budget film making while watching his movies too. Jim Jarmusch is living proof that you don't need a ridiculous budget to shoot movies all around the world (Rome, Paris, Helsinki and Barcelona), work with some of the biggest names in Hollywood (wynona rider, bill murray, johnny depp and cate blanchet) or direct memorable action sequences like in 'Ghost Dog'. Some of what I'm about to mention is common knowledge to the average person familiar with his films, while others are things i rarely ever hear anyone ever bring up.

Stranger In A Strange Land/Permanent Vacations:

Jim Jarmusch's most common theme involves someone from another country coming to America. There are a few exceptions like 'Permanent Vacation', where we see Chris Parker leave for Paris, or the mysterious hitman in 'Limits Of Control' travel all over Spain. And in 'Stranger Than Paradie', after traveling all over America, Eddie ends up going back to Hungary by accident. But at the end of the day, no matter where the location is, the fact still remains that the main characters in his films find themselves far away from home and have to learn how to adjust in their new strange surroundings. Furthermore, our foreign characters usually wind up disappointed upon arriving at their final destination. Jarmusch uses popular cities with a lot of history and culture in his films like Manhattan, New Orleans and Tennessee, however Jarmusch focuses on the not so glamorous sides of these cities. Often times when the characters step off the plane or train for the first time, they look around with an expression on their face like "...is this it?", like when the Japanese couple arrive in Tennessee for the first time in 'Mystery Train'. They assumed that because its the home of sun studios and various famous rock musicians that it'll be the coolest place in the world. However, what they see is a rundown, poor southern town. When Eva arrives in New York City, probably the most popular city in the world, all she sees are abandoned buildings and empty streets...

Stranger Than Paradise

Stranger Than Paradise

Mystery Train

Mystery Train

Dead Man

Down By Law

Limits Of Control

Sunglasses Are A Must:

Many filmmakers leave a little signature on all of their films. For Jim Jarmusch, its sunglasses. Aside from his trademark white hair, you can always see him wearing shades. And sure enough, you can find almost all of his characters in his movies wearing sunglasses at some point in a movie. In the 70's, classic new Hollywood directors like scorsese, coppola and george lucas were known for their bearded, scruffy and hippy-looking image. Because Jim Jarmusch was inspired by more "cool" European directors like Godard, the generation of directors after the new Hollywood era (which included other "cool" sunglass wearing directors like Wong Kar Wai) made it alright to look "cool" again...

Stranger Than Paradise

Night On Earth

Night On Earth

Broken Flowers

Limits Of Control

Limits Of Control

Only Lovers Left Alive

Language/Communication:

In addition to characters finding themselves far from home, they also encounter many language barriers. Language is another common theme in Jarmusch's films. Often times we see 2 characters who don't speak each other's language try to communicate. In 'Ghost Dog', although Forest Whitaker and Isaac De Bankole don't speak each others language they still consider themselves best friend and have regular conversations with each other. In 'Stranger Than Paradise', Eddie tries to put his Hungarian past behind him and insists that his family members don't speak to him in their native language, but his grandmother totally ignores him and continues to speak to him in Hungarian. This is also the case for Jim Jarmusch behind the camera as well. It isn't every common these days to find an American filmmaker to direct under so many languages that he/she doesn't even speak (Japanese, Finnish, Spanish, etc.), but that doesn't stop Jim. Even though he cant actually have a one on one conversation with a good amount of his actors, there still seems to be no problem in getting the performances he needs from them...

Stranger Than Paradise
(Eva speaks Hungarian, while Eddie only wants to speak English)

Mystery Train
(The Japanese couple in mystery train only speaks Japanese, with the 2 hotel employees only speak English, yet they still manage to work things out)

Mystery Train 

(Tom Noonan speaks English while Nicolettaa Brachi, who's first language is Italian, barely speaks English)

Paterson
(Iranian wife & American Husband)

Night On Earth
(Helmut speaks Czech and a little bit of English, "YoYo" only speaks English)

Coffee & Cigarettes
(both alex descas & isaac de bankole speak french, but cant seem to communicate or get on the same page in their conversation. This is one of a few short films in coffee & cigarettes about miscommunication)

Ghost Dog
(Ghost Dog & Pearline only speaks English, while Raymond only speaks french) 

Limits Of Control
(almost all of the characters in limits of control don't use English as their first language, but that's all they communicate with)

Small Spaces/Minimalist Film making:

Jarmusch has always been considered a minimalist director, and this was highlighted in the first half of his career where a lot of the scenes he filmed were done in single takes in small spaces. Through the 80's and half of the 90's his films took place in either; small studio apartments ('permanent vacation and 'stranger than paradise'), jail cells (down by law), small motel rooms (mystery train) or inside of cars (stranger than paradise and night on earth). Even in his later films like 'Ghost Dog', the main character lives in a small shack. Naturally this made things more intimate and we get a lot closer to the characters. In the documentary 'Kino '84', former Jarmusch cinematographer Tom Dicillo mentioned that because they didn't have a lot of film to waste or a big budget or elaborate sets to work with, they set up the shots in their early films and shorts to appear like stages in a play (permanent vacation, stranger than paradise and coffee & cigarettes)...

Permanent Vacation

Stranger Than Paradise

Stranger Than Paradise

Down By Law

Down By Law

Mystery Train

Ghost Dog

(Possible) Influences...

Jean Pierre Melville

Seijun Suzuki

Chantal Akerman

Rainer Werner Fassbender

John Waters

Wim Wender

Wim Wenders

(Possible) influences on others...

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night

America:

Like i said earlier, Jim Jarmusch is a director that doesn't always show the obvious American landmarks that you'd expect to see in the cities he shoots in. He always makes it a point to show the back roads and alleys in this country...

Permanent Vacation (New York City)

Stranger Than Paradise (Cleveland)

Mystery Train (Tennessee)

Down By Law (New Orleans)

Dead Man (some unknown place in America)

Car Shots:
If there's one shot you can almost always bank on in one of his films is a shot looking in to a car. Road movies and just traveling across the country in a car is something Jarmusch loves to show (stranger than paradise, night on earth, broken flowers). And like i said before, about 90% of 'Night On Earth' takes place either in or just outside of a car. Wim Wenders (a director known not only for his road movies, but is also the person who gave Jim the film to make Stranger Than Paradise) is one of his main influences, and you can clearly see that in his early work...

Stranger Than Paradise

Mystery Train

Night On Earth

Paterson

Ghost Dog

Broken Flowers

Wim Wenders:
and speaking of Wim Wender's influence...

Mystery Train

Alice In The Cities (Wim Wenders)

Stranger Than Paradise

Alice In The Cities

Ghost Dog

Alice In The Cities

Ghost Dog

Paris Texas (Wenders)

Stranger Than Paradise

The Goalies Anxiety (Wenders)

Musician Cameos:

You can almost guarantee a cameo from a musician in his movies. Outside of his regular working relationship with Tom Waits and John Lurie, he manages to find some of the more culty music artists like Rufus Thomas & Screamin Jay Hawkins (mystery train) and A.R.E Weapons (Broken Flowers).

Method Man (Paterson)

The White Stripes (Coffee & Cigarettes)

Broken Flowers (A.R.E. Weapons)

Permanent Vacation (John Lurie, who's also in Stranger Than Paradise & Down By Law)

Stranger Than Paradise (Rammellzee)

Down By Law (Tom Waits & John Lurie)

Mystery Train (Screamin Jay Hawkins)

Mystery Train (Joe Strummer)

Mystery Train (Rufus Thomas)

Dead Man (Iggy Pop)

Ghost Dog (Rza)

Open Endings:

Many Jarmusch films don't wrap up nicely. They don't have all the answers. We never really find out who Bill Murray's son is at the end of 'Broken Flowers'. We don't know whats going to happen to Eddie (stranger than paradise) or Chris (permanent vacation) on their trips to Hungary or Paris. And my favorite scene from a Jim Jarmusch movie that highlights this is the end of 'Down By Law' where we see Tom Waits and John Lurie come to a fork in the road and go separate ways after breaking out of prison...

Permanent Vacation

Stranger Than Paradise

Down By Law

Broken Flowers

Only Lovers Left Alive