Down by Law
Losing e-mail drafts and postings is a common thing, I suppose; and the longer it took to write them, the more frustrating it is. However, I managed to lose this one posting two times in a row right when I was planning on publishing it! Argh. Anyways, onto the film:
I watched it a few days ago and it was admittedly mainly because I wanted to finally have watched every single feature film Jim Jarmusch has brought out. Indeed, Down by Law was exactly what I expected: A slow, very atmospheric film with Jarmusch-typical music. The style is absolutely excellent and the actors all brilliant. Even if I hadn’t known that this is a Jarmusch work, I would have recognized it and once again, bowed down in front of this great artist. However, a Jarmusch film always also bears some kind of ennui, it was especially the case for the first part of Down by Law.
Luckily, two aspects made the movie great again: First, the great and in my opinion outstanding performance of Ellen Barkin as angry girlfriend in the négligée; second, the interaction between the characters. Especially with Roberto Benigni showing up, the whole story got a subtly funny turn and became thoroughly enjoyable for me. It doesn’t surprise me that the trailer of the film nearly only shows scenes of the main characters together – and the poster of the film (see above) even shows one of the last scenes of the film. It’s a film that doesn’t care about suspense and what happens, it’s about how it happens and what kind of people are involved. And Jarmusch is just so incredibly brilliant at picking strong characters.
In conclusion, you will see Down by Law very low on my list of Jim Jarmusch films, because the others outshine it even more.
1. Night on Earth
2. Coffee & Cigarettes
3. Mystery Train
4. Ghost Dog
5. Dead Man
6. Stranger than Paradise
7. Permanent Vacation
8. Down by Law
9. Broken Flowers
But I’m finally done! And I can’t wait for his next film, especially since the idea of combining Jim Jarmusch and Gael García Bernal is too exciting. I hope he gets a sweet role and I should keep myself up from having too high expectations for this.