BEST FILMS OF 1986 - List In Progress
by Mike Lorefice

Betty Blue
Jean-Jacques Beineix

***1/2

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Down By Law
Jim Jarmusch

If you hated the Coen Brothers O Brother, Where Art Thou? for its complete disinterest in character - mocking and condescending to them being their only purpose - and cliche ridden nihilism, you might value Jim Jarmusch's "prison break" film Down By Law. Jarmusch carefully chooses individuals to play versions of themselves, allowing a great deal of creative leeway and improvisation in fully developing the characters rather than casting a big name no actor such as George Clooney to play the main cardboard cutout. Jack (John Lurie) & Zach (Tom Waits) are opposing personalities with the former fashioning himself a stylish pimp, while the latter a beatnik hipster who gets by on oration rather than appearance, that is when the unemployed DJ who was booted out of the house by his woman (Ellen Barkin) bothers to speak at all. These differences also make them too similar, as they narcissistically believe themselves to be the coolest despite their actual status as low rung hoods turned incarcerated flunkies. In Jarmusch people bond and bicker, even meet at all, though coincidence and misunderstanding. Roberto Benigni, who didn't speak English when Jarmusch met him at a film festival, is the glue that holds Down By Law together. The naive happy go lucky sprite whose enthusiasm should be infectious makes clumsy attempts at camaraderie in hilariously broken English, always struggling to keep the peace between the opposing forces he shares a cell with. He seems the most inept due to his presentation, but is the only one who ever gets anything accomplished. Jarmusch's interest lies in the interaction and coexisting of these three disparate convicts. They escape largely only because varying environments bring out more sides of their character, but it's a lucky thing they do since Robbie Muller's cinematography, great in the early and latter portions, flounders in the prison cell. We don't see the "crucial" details (how they escape or Roberto's arrest) or learn the specific details behind Jack & Zach's framing; they don't matter. The film is the characters, the ways they interact and form a tenuous friendship where they have each other's backs even if always at each other's throats. Jarmusch mixes shaggy dog realism with Muller's dreamy black and white photography to create a collision that, combined with the mysterious and inexplicable happenings, results in the timeless otherworldly feeling that he perfected with his masterpiece Dead Man. [5/28/07] ***

Summer
Eric Rohmer

****

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