Post by klep on Nov 16, 2020 11:39:28 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 11/16: Paterson
MOVIES TO RELAX TO WEEK
Every day we see people to whom we hardly pay any attention. Delivery workers, janitors, clerks, etc.; all critical jobs that keep society going but when they're done well they fade into the background of our day. But each of those workers is a person, with their own life and their own story to tell, and few are better at letting us just live with someone as Jim Jarmusch.
Paterson (Adam Driver) is a bus driver for the city of Paterson, NJ - home of artists and poets. If you were to get on his bus, you'd never notice him (except maybe to remark that he is a large man). But what you probably wouldn't guess is that he is a fine poet, composing his next work as he ferries passengers around town. You wouldn't guess how free-spirited his wife Laura (Golshifteh Farahani) is or that he has a nightly ritual of walking the dog down to his favorite bar.
Paterson follows its protagonist around over the course of a week, from when he wakes up in bed with his wife to his night at the bar. He's a quiet man, reserved but personable standing a stark contrast to his exuberant wife. You get a strong sense that he loves her boundless creativity and enthusiasm for life - that she provides a reflection for the love of the world he has in his soul that he finds himself unable to express openly.
Jim Jarmusch has always been adept at showing us people just living, whether it's mundane people like in Stranger Than Paradise or eternal vampires in Only Lovers Left Alive. He crafts films that manage to have narrative and incident without feeling like the time is a particularly special one in his characters' lives. And yet even though they don't feel particularly special, they still feel meaningful.
The great tragedy of Paterson is a small one, as tragedies go. Laura's dog Marvin (Nellie) gets ahold of Paterson's poetry notebook and chews it up to little bits, destroying any record of his creative output. It's a harsh blow, one he bears with his typical restraint even as you can tell how much it has hurt him. Certainly the last thing he wants is for Laura to feel any guilt over it.
But a chance meeting gives Paterson a lift out of his despair. While out walking to clear his head, he meets a Japanese man (Masatoshi Nagase) on an artistic pilgrimage to Paterson, NJ. They converse a bit about poetry, and the man leaves Paterson with a parting gift - a blank notebook. Paterson opens it, and starts to write. Because Jarmusch wants us to know that just as the people in the background of life contain unexpected poetry, so to does the world.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 11/23: Paprika
ANIMATION WEEK!
Miyazaki gets the most attention, but Satoshi Kon's tragically short career threatened to give the master a run for his money. Join us next week for one of the most spectacular films put to animation with Paprika, available for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 11/17: The Ice Storm
A pairing on tense family dramas kicks off with Ang Lee's The Ice Storm. Join us Wednesday for our discussion of The Ice Storm, available for rent in the usual places.
MOVIES TO RELAX TO WEEK
Every day we see people to whom we hardly pay any attention. Delivery workers, janitors, clerks, etc.; all critical jobs that keep society going but when they're done well they fade into the background of our day. But each of those workers is a person, with their own life and their own story to tell, and few are better at letting us just live with someone as Jim Jarmusch.
Paterson (Adam Driver) is a bus driver for the city of Paterson, NJ - home of artists and poets. If you were to get on his bus, you'd never notice him (except maybe to remark that he is a large man). But what you probably wouldn't guess is that he is a fine poet, composing his next work as he ferries passengers around town. You wouldn't guess how free-spirited his wife Laura (Golshifteh Farahani) is or that he has a nightly ritual of walking the dog down to his favorite bar.
Paterson follows its protagonist around over the course of a week, from when he wakes up in bed with his wife to his night at the bar. He's a quiet man, reserved but personable standing a stark contrast to his exuberant wife. You get a strong sense that he loves her boundless creativity and enthusiasm for life - that she provides a reflection for the love of the world he has in his soul that he finds himself unable to express openly.
Jim Jarmusch has always been adept at showing us people just living, whether it's mundane people like in Stranger Than Paradise or eternal vampires in Only Lovers Left Alive. He crafts films that manage to have narrative and incident without feeling like the time is a particularly special one in his characters' lives. And yet even though they don't feel particularly special, they still feel meaningful.
The great tragedy of Paterson is a small one, as tragedies go. Laura's dog Marvin (Nellie) gets ahold of Paterson's poetry notebook and chews it up to little bits, destroying any record of his creative output. It's a harsh blow, one he bears with his typical restraint even as you can tell how much it has hurt him. Certainly the last thing he wants is for Laura to feel any guilt over it.
But a chance meeting gives Paterson a lift out of his despair. While out walking to clear his head, he meets a Japanese man (Masatoshi Nagase) on an artistic pilgrimage to Paterson, NJ. They converse a bit about poetry, and the man leaves Paterson with a parting gift - a blank notebook. Paterson opens it, and starts to write. Because Jarmusch wants us to know that just as the people in the background of life contain unexpected poetry, so to does the world.
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 11/23: Paprika
ANIMATION WEEK!
Miyazaki gets the most attention, but Satoshi Kon's tragically short career threatened to give the master a run for his money. Join us next week for one of the most spectacular films put to animation with Paprika, available for rent in the usual places.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 11/17: The Ice Storm
A pairing on tense family dramas kicks off with Ang Lee's The Ice Storm. Join us Wednesday for our discussion of The Ice Storm, available for rent in the usual places.