Jim Jarmusch

I always start with characters rather than with a plot, which many critics would say is very obvious from the lack of plot in my films - although I think they do have plots - but the plot is not of primary importance to me, the characters are.
- Jim Jarmusch

When I was asked I'd ever spent some real time 'watching Jarmusch', I crinkled my nose and said, 'not really". I was implored to watch his works, and I must say that although not one of my all-time favorites, Jarmusch manages to instil a certain resonance in me with the situations his characters face. He isn't about overwhelming odds brought on by unstoppable government machinations, he's about mild drama and storytelling on a scale that is you and me, and even though some settings involve Mob families or the Wild West, you always have a sense that the challenges are surmountable, that the characters go places with a hope to overcome, whether it's something simple like enjoying a vacation, or as complex as escaping prison. Perhaps that what makes him so deep: his characters are real.

FILMOGRAPHY:

Permanent Vacation (1980)

Stranger Than Paradise (1984)

Down By Law (1986)

Mystery Train (1989)

Night On Earth (1991)

Dead Man (1995)

Year Of The Horse (1997)

Ghost Dog: Way Of The Samurai (1999)

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)

Broken Flowers (2005)