Down by Law (1986)

Down by Law: Directed by Jim Jarmusch. With Tom Waits, John Lurie, Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi. Two men are framed and sent to jail, where they meet a murderer who helps them escape and leave the state.

“Wow, what a movie. Far away from Hollywood, Jim Jarmusch creates a world where you donu0026#39;t need drama, pathos and action to fascinate the watcher. Because fascinating is exactly what this movie is. A plot in the classical sense is almost completely missing; the scenes, in their simplicity sometimes reminding of theater, follow each other without ever creating real suspense; neither griping action nor complex dialogues are there to excite the spectator. And still, with ease Jarmusch fills more than a hundred minutes with a story you wonu0026#39;t take your eyes off. It is hard to tell what the atmosphere of the movie is really based on, the characters, the setting, entirely in black and white, the music – probably all of it. Again, like in Jarmuschu0026#39;s later movie u0026quot;Dead manu0026quot;, speed is an important factor: everything moves slowly, without haste, as there is no dramatic climax you could hurry towards; yet, boring is a word that certainly doesnu0026#39;t fit this piece of cineastic art. On the other hand, though some of the scenes seem quite surrealistic, it is not a really artistic movie breaking with all the traditional concepts of filmmaking; it is more a movie in classic shape with an unconventional story, not trying to shock, to confuse or even to make you think so much; this movie doesnu0026#39;t need all this to get your complete attention. You could probably speculate a lot about the meaning of the movie; to me, this seems highly unnecessary. Just let it unfold its atmosphere. Judge yourselves, but I was excited in a very special way by every scene of this motion picture, giving me one of my best cineastic experiences of the recent time.”