“It’s a sad and beautiful world”, says the Italian tourist Roberto when he bumps into a drunken Zack late at night in a backstreet. It is one of the memorable moments from Down by Law (1986) by the American director Jim Jarmusch. It is also a quote that essentially sums up Jarmusch’s work; in his films, he paints a sad, melancholic world that simultaneously possesses a beauty all of its own.
Ever since his graduation film Permanent Vacation (1980), Jarmusch has employed a cinematic language characterised by stories with minimal plot, usually told at a very leisurely pace, with the greatest emphasis on character development. Often, these centre on (sometimes highly eccentric) outsiders who comment, in their own unique way, on what they encounter in America. Without expressing any particular viewpoint, Jarmusch shows how things turn out for people who aren’t exactly having it easy, and he does so with plenty of deadpan humour; his films are as funny as they are melancholic.
And he has made a new film: Father Mother Sister Brother, a story told in three parts about family relationships that aren’t always entirely clear. To mark the release of this film, Rialto is bringing six of his previous films back to the big screen: Stranger Than Paradise, Down by Law, Mystery Train, Night on Earth, Dead Man and Coffee and Cigarettes, six films with which Jarmusch has left an indelible mark on American independent cinema.