Someone have Jim Jarmusch, like the best Director?

Is my favourite director, and I want to now if there are another person who think the same

Not the best (that’s a hard thing for me to say about anyone) but he is in my top 10. Only Coffee and Cigarettes gives me any hesitation—simply because it is so wildly uneven. Mystery Train made me fall in love with film in a way that seemed, well, grown-up (I was 19 when it came out).

Yeah, he’s my favorite director, too. Bela Tarr is a close second. What puts Jarmusch over the top for me is his handling of the people he works with, giving everyone an equal amount of respect; and how he retains the rights to all his films, have final cut and owning the prints of his films. I’d really like to know how he gets investors for his films.
His “Golden Rules”, published in MovieMaker magazine, is wonderful: http://www.moviemaker.com/directing/article/jim_jarmusch_2972/
I agree with what he says, I still check those rules every now and then for reference when I’m making films.

I like his films a lot but I wouldn’t call him my favorite director. My favorites are Dead Man and Mystery Train. My least favorite is Cigarettes & Coffee some sections of which are quite dull.

Jim Jarmusch? What a guy!

I’ve only seen two Jarmusch movies, Stranger Than Paradise and Permanent Vacation, and they were both great. Why does Permanent Vacation have such a low star rating?

@carlo thanks for that Golden Rules link…

1) Dead Man
2) Down By Law
3) Strangers Than Paradise
4) Coffe And Cigarretes
5) Broken Flowers
6) Permanet Vacations
7) Night On Earth

This would be my ordering, with the top 4 being 9 or 10 out of 10.

1. Down By Law
2. Mystery Train
3. Ghost Dog
4. Stranger Than Paradise
5. Dead Man
6. Coffee and Cigarettes/Night On Earth/Permanent Vacation/Broken Flowers

Jarmusch is somehow able to write these exciting scripts and turn them into melancholy films with the most intriguing characters. I’m hoping The Limits of Control will be a return to form.

yeah, Carlo—I liked that link, esp. JJ’s latest rule.

Don’t mention it, Andy and Richard, isn’t this what the Auteurs is for? To educate ourselves about cinema and to share what we know with others, right?

1) Stranger Than Paradise (this is actually number 1 in my all time favorite films, this was the film that convinced me that if was possible to go out and make your own film, without the need for a huge budget)
2) Down By Law (His coolest and showed parts of New Orleans like I’d never seen before on film)
3) Night On Earth (This was actually what I felt was his most moving film)
4) Dead Man (I loved how this showed the Native American point of view)
5) Mystery Train (Lighting a ciggie with your foot? Effortless.)
6) Ghost Dog (features a great score by the RZA and great performances all around. Rapping Aging Italian Gangster and watching nothing but Cartoons rule!)
7) Broken Flowers (I enjoyed Jeffrey Wright’s character, wish there was more of him. I also enjoyed that the film was kind of like a “quest”)
8) Coffee and Cigarettes (Yeah, it is pretty uneven, but my favorite parts involve Steven Wright, Bill Murray, GZA, RZA, Alfred Molina, Steve Coogan and Taylor Mead)
9) Year of the Horse (The whole discussion on the bus about God’s mysterious ways is classic)
10) Permanent Vacation (see below)

Justin, I can’t speak for the rest, but for me the reason I don’t rate Permanent Vacation as highly as his other films is because I don’t feel that that film had the charm that was evident from Stranger Than Paradise onwards. It was his first feature, and it’s forgivable, and there were times when I did feel that it lapsed into pretension, and I just felt that Chris Parker’s character was particularly interesting or likable. I probably would’ve wanted to know more about his mother, his girlfriend, or even the sax player. I did read Luc Sante’s excellent essay about the film included on the Criterion DVD and I did appreciate that it captured that part of New York during its time, it’s just that Jarmusch’s later films just had more maturity and polish than that early work.

yeah Carlo, I’d love Down By Law, for the New Orleans and Luissiana places.

Coffee and Cigarettes also has that great moment where Tom Waits says to Iggy Pop: “Yeah, you like the coffee down there at the IHOP?” Sublime!

I am glad you asked this, because Jim Jarmusch is one director that not only I find his movies highly secondary as I do not understand how can anyone put him as a favorite director. The most perplexing thing is that his characters are so void of anything remotely human that I always have the impression of seeing a 2 hour long commercial. Absolutely no one feels anything.

I must say that reading from what has been written here, I still do not understand what is there to like. I get the feeling that his admirers tend to be more impressed with the style than with the substance.

Coffee and Cigarettes: This one is a joke. A truly 2-hour long commercial.

Dead Man: Catastrophic marriage between Dances with the Wolves and art-house theater. Again, no one feels anything and no one says anything.

Night on Earth: Okay, I moderately enjoyed this one. The scene in Italy was quite funny and at least I got to see nice images of cities I like.

Ghost Dog: The soundtrack is great but the movie is more of the same. The characters are devoid of anything human and the movie takes boredom to a new level. I get the impression that Mickey Mouse is more complex than these guys.

Stranger than Paradise: I guess this was the one that started it all. Great photography, cartoonish characters, boring people and John Lurie. What could go wrong?

Broken Flowers: This is the one I hate the least. I was actually happily surprised to see some hints of life in it. Maybe we are starting to see light at the end of this long, long, long stylish, meaningless, and boring tunnel.

Andre, how are they like commercials? In a commercial, don’t we get exaggerated emotions—so broadly delivered there is no nuance or possibility of misinterpreting? Also, the movies are far from slick. Jarmusch’s characters tend to have this reserve that often entails an attempt (by the characters themselves) to figure out what they are feeling. It’s as if he strips away the obligatory affect most of us perform for social reasons and leaves the much more complex need to read others and one’s self in terms of gradations. They seem extremely human to me. There’s a Keatonesque sensibility, actually. And of course the presence of Roberto begnini i some of them makes up for flatness since he’s so over the top emotionally.

Richard, my comment was that Jarmusch films cause me the same reaction when I watch commercials: no scene lasts with me more than the seconds it is being played and no scene affects more than seeing a shampoo being advertised. I find his characters so void that I always get the same numbness on every frame. I agree that there might be some constrained emotions being underplayed, but if that is so they are pretty hard to read. In Stranger than Paradise I cannot recall a scene where John Lurie shows anything more than a strangers curiosity for his cousin. In the end he seems to go after her to budapest but he might as well have not, i.e., either outcome would be possible considering their indifferent relationship. This sense that displays of affection in this movie are not consonant with what is seen is what most puts me off.