Interview: Jim Jarmusch

In the mid-’80s, a short entitled ‘Coffee and Cigarettes’ played as support to a new feature in London. Now it's a feature itself.

Oct 12 2004

Back in the mid-’80s, a short entitled ‘Coffee and Cigarettes’ played as support to a new feature in London. Its blend of minimalist rigour (in an otherwise empty café, two guys – Roberto Benigni and Steven Wright – simply chat over and about the titular addictive substances) and gentle absurdist humour marked it as the work of Jim Jarmusch, who’d already proved himself a leader of the blossoming US indie scene with ‘Stranger than Paradise’ and ‘Down by Law’. A few years later, he mentioned plans for a whole feature comprised of similar vignettes (this writer was lucky enough to see one particularly lovely instalment with Tom Waits and Iggy Pop), but time passed, and passed, and passed, and nothing appeared… until last year, when ‘Coffee and Cigarettes’ the feature finally premiered in Venice.

It’s symptomatic of Jarmusch’s integrity that he never abandoned his efforts to get the thing made; while many indie figures have sold out or given up, unable to make the films they want to, he’s hung in there, retaining the right to final cut, ensuring he owns the negatives and making movies that have nowt to do with the formulaic clichés so beloved by Hollywood. This portmanteau’s a case in point. Like his earliest features, it’s concerned with how pride, vanity, resentment, envy and language itself may get in the way of proper communication; and like all his work, it merges an unflashy, pared-back style with plenty of droll, deadpan humour to produce a laconic but lyrical means of expression. No wonder the 11 dialogues – which also find room for the likes of Steve Buscemi, Cate Blanchett, the White Stripes, Alfred Molina, Steve Coogan, Bill Murray, and GZA and RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan – end with a subtle, touching tribute to the spirit of independence in the form of Taylor Mead and Bill Rice, veterans of work by Warhol, Cassavetes, Godard, Amos Poe, Beth and Scott B, et al.

‘The final episode’s especially close to me,’ drawls Jarmusch down the phone from New York, where he’s halfway through filming his next movie. ‘Those two guys were Lower East Side superstars to me just as I was getting the idea I might express myself through cinema. But there’s also, I hope, a cumulative effect to the film. Mind you, it came about pretty much at random. A guy from the ‘Saturday Night Live’ TV show called and asked if I’d make a five-minute film for them; they needed it in two weeks. I said ‘Sure’ without having any idea what I’d do. But Steven Wright was in New York, and Roberto – whom I knew – was about to hit town, so I thought I’d get them together; their comic styles were so diametrically opposed. So we got together the night before filming, played around a bit, and the next day shot something cartoon-like and ridiculous.

‘Some years later I was making “Mystery Train” in Memphis and found myself doing another one with Buscemi and Joie and Cinque Lee, then I did one with Tom and Iggy in California; it’d become a pleasant diversion. I love the theme-and-variations form, anyway, and with these I could work very loosely: once I knew who’d be in them, I’d meet with them, then just write something days or even the night before shooting. Some actors stayed close to the script, others diverged quite a bit. But the atmosphere was always playful. And the real fun was finding who I could trick into doing these absurd things.’

Still, the absurdity has its own consistency: thematic motifs include the pitfalls of fame, the uses and abuses of caffeine and nicotine, and the tendency of musicians to have sideline interests in science and medicine. Asked about this last one, Jarmusch laughs. ‘Yeah. We were making a White Stripes video so Meg and Jack White passed by my office, and when he saw I had books on the inventor Nikola Tesla, his eyes widened; he was fascinated by him too. But this is the really funny coincidence: Tom Waits had improvised some stuff with Iggy about being a doctor. Then, one night years later, I was with RZA, who got a call from a friend whose children were sick. So we called by her apartment, and RZA was like: “Yo, you gotta take ’em off the citrus, no dairy, do this ’n’ that, call me tomorrow!” When we left I said, “What – are you their doctor?” And he said, “I been studyin’ alternative medicine from books for a coupla years now; I know ’bout herbs an’ stuff so they always call me.” So that found its way into the film.’

And the new movie? ‘I don’t like to say too much while making a film, but it’s a sad comedy written for Bill Murray and set in suburban or smalltown America. It has Jessica Lange, Tilda Swinton, Jeffrey Wright and, believe it or not, Sharon Stone. It’s a really great experience, but I’m already exhausted. I remember Dennis Hopper saying: “You know, it’s as hard to make a bad film as a good one. Making films is just hard.” And each time I forget how it’s going to be.’

‘Coffee and Cigarettes’ opens on October 22.
View this [Official site and trailer]