"Rather than finding a story that I want to tell and then adding the details, I collect the details and then try to construct a puzzle of story. I have a theme and a kind of mood and the characters but not a plotline that runs straight through"
Jim Jarmusch is a filmmaker interested in what goes on in the margins of life. He is not concerned about the “whats” or the “whys” of people’s actions like most filmmakers, but rather in how they got there. “I realized a couple of years ago that I get lost sometimes watching films because my mind drifts away”. It is the time between jump cuts that are the basis for many of Jarmusch’s films. He is interested in documenting the mundane events that most people take for granted and shows that they too are filled with fascinating moments. His films are populated by characters who seem to have no real direction in life, who just happen to stumble into adventures – much like real life itself.
Before dropping out of New York University, Jarmusch learnt many about technical aspects of film that would serve him later on, but he had to relearn how to work with actors. Like his idol John Cassavetes, Jarmusch is a very actor-oriented director. He creates the characters first, often with a specific actor in mind, and then “the plot kind of suggests itself around the character” (5). Before any filming takes place the actors rehearse scenes that are never filmed, but are done in order to convey more personality in the character when the cameras roll. This process results in believable, three-dimensional characters complete with their own idiosyncrasies and nuances.
While he does avoid major Hollywood studios, Jarmusch has no problem collaborating with well known actors. His first experiment was with Night On Earth (1992), which featured famous movie stars, Winona Ryder, Gena Rowlands, and Rosie Perez. Jarmusch returned to the structure he used so well in Mystery Train, but expanded its scope. Night On Earth is broken up into five stories that all occur at the same time but in different cities all over the world with the action restricted to taxi cab rides. Jarmusch uses these encounters as springboards for interesting, often hilarious, sometimes tragic discussions ranging from acting in movies to circus clowns to sex with farm animals.
The impetus for making Night On Earth stemmed from Jarmusch’s interest in the little moments of life that most of us take for granted.
If you think about taking a taxi, it’s something insignificant in your daily life; in a film when someone takes a taxi, you see them get in, then there’s a cut, then you see them get out. So in a way the content of this film is made up of things that would usually be taken out (9).
Night On Earth not only transforms this potentially mundane exercise into something special, but it also manages to avoid the hackneyed cliche of the world weary cabbie to present touching insights into the human condition with situations that run the entire emotional spectrum.
Night On Earth‘s structure would be a precursor to Pulp Fiction (Quentin Tarantino, 1994) which also played around with several simultaneously occurring stories and a large cast of characters but with more commercial sensibilities. That film’s success not only coincided with a lull in Jarmusch’s output, but also signaled a changing of the guard in the American independent scene. Jarmusch’s methodically paced, dry-witted comedies were no longer in vogue, having been replaced by a louder, flashier wave of new filmmakers with overt pop culture sensibilities.
Pictures from 'Night on Earth'
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