On the Road with Jim Jarmusch | schedule
Since he won the Caméra d’Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival for Stranger than Paradise, Jarmusch (born January 22, 1953 in Akron, Ohio) has become one of the most prominent figures of American independent cinema. Characteristically, his films observe the United States from an outsider’s point of view and combine American cinematic traditions with influences from Europe and Japan. To understand Jarmusch’s worldview, Akira Kurosaw’s films and American movies like The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955) and Thunder Road (Arthur Ripley, 1958) both starring Robert Mitchum are key. But so is the emerging punk music scene of the 1970s (Television, Marquee Moon, 1977), which provides his movies with a cool and laid-back mood. However, they are never confrontational or destructive.
Essentially, all of Jarmusch’s films are “road movies” and deal with journeys in which characters search – more or less successfully – for existential truths in a fragmented and de-romanticized world. Like the characters played by Roberto Benigni, Tom Waits and John Lurie in Down by Law (1986), all of Jarmusch’s protagonists are “off-beat heroes” (Ralph Eue). And plot development is secondary: Events float freely and the storyline never takes them hostage. -Heiko Stang
Since he won the Caméra d’Or at the 1984 Cannes Film Festival for Stranger than Paradise, Jarmusch (born January 22, 1953 in Akron, Ohio) has become one of the most prominent figures of American independent cinema. Characteristically, his films observe the United States from an outsider’s point of view and combine American cinematic traditions with influences from Europe and Japan. To understand Jarmusch’s worldview, Akira Kurosaw’s films and American movies like The Night of the Hunter (Charles Laughton, 1955) and Thunder Road (Arthur Ripley, 1958) both starring Robert Mitchum are key. But so is the emerging punk music scene of the 1970s (Television, Marquee Moon, 1977), which provides his movies with a cool and laid-back mood. However, they are never confrontational or destructive.
Essentially, all of Jarmusch’s films are “road movies” and deal with journeys in which characters search – more or less successfully – for existential truths in a fragmented and de-romanticized world. Like the characters played by Roberto Benigni, Tom Waits and John Lurie in Down by Law (1986), all of Jarmusch’s protagonists are “off-beat heroes” (Ralph Eue). And plot development is secondary: Events float freely and the storyline never takes them hostage. -Heiko Stang