TSPDT

Key Production Countries: USA, Germany, France, Japan
Key Genres: Comedy, Road Movie, Urban Comedy, Drama, Buddy Film, Crime, Crime Drama, Comedy Drama, Documentary, Music
Key Collaborators: Jay Rabinowitz (Editor), Frederick Elmes (Cinematographer), Robby Müller (Cinematographer), Alfonso Gonçalves (Editor), Melody London (Editor), Isaach De Bankole (Leading Character Actor), John Lurie (Composer/Leading Character Actor), Bill Murray (Character Actor), Tilda Swinton (Character Actress), Iggy Pop (Character Actor), Steve Buscemi (Character Actor), Carter Logan (Producer)

"The key to Jarmusch’s success is a well-defined and thoughtfully conceived stylistic approach and a coherent circle of interests. The focal point of all Jarmusch’s work is the apparent contradiction that exists between the popular perception of the American Dream and what that dream actually holds for the individual who doesn’t quite fit in. This contradiction is explored through the interaction of a characteristic ensemble of characters... Like other emerging filmmakers of his generation, such as Spike Lee, Jim Jarmusch approaches the American way of life with a sense of hip cynicism. A product of contemporary American film school savvy, Jarmusch incorporates a sense of film history, style, and awareness in his filmmaking approach. The tradition which he has chosen to follow, the one which offers him the most freedom, is that established by filmmakers such as Chabrol, Godard, and Truffaut in the 1950s and 1960s." - Rob Winning (updated by Rob Edelman) (International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, 2000)

"Blighted landscapes, both urban and rural, form the backcloths to his stories, in which alienated protagonists stare glumly out of the screen until their nemesis, or their destiny arrives. Innovative but rarely entertaining, Jarmusch's films form the back of beyond of American life: a slice of life, yes, but one quite alien to ordinary people." - David Quinlan (Quinlan's Film Directors, 1999)

"Jarmusch's elliptical, dedramatised, episodic narrative style is symptomatic of his restlessly experimental interest in the method and structure of cinematic storytelling. Crucially, however, this interest in formalism - which makes him unlikely to ever join the Hollywood mainstream - is balanced by subtle wit, the warmth he clearly feels for his characters and a bemused, intelligent interest in the unfamiliar backroads of American life, so that he remains one of the most accessible, original and influential of that country's independent film-makers." - Geoff Andrew (The Director's Vision, 1999)

"Dryly deadpan, stylishly minimalist, and effortlessly cool, the films of American indie pioneer Jim Jarmusch are so idiosyncratic that they practically constitute a genre unto themselves. Forging his singular sensibility amid the creative ferment of New York’s downtown scene, Jarmusch emerged as one of the most original voices of the 1980s independent-film boom with his breakout road movie Stranger Than Paradise, which established his fascination with outsiders on enigmatic journeys to nowhere in particular." - The Criterion Channel

"Jarmusch has a rare feeling for urban desolation, for loneliness, and the sweet, whimsical overlap of chance and companionship. It is gentle, offbeat, and poignant - but does it make whole films? And does it really make a marriage of Jarmusch's leaning toward raw pop culture and SoHo modishness?" - David Thomson (The New Biographical Dictionary of Film, 2002)

"With his shock of white hair and droll demeanor, Jim Jarmusch has long been one of the most recognizable faces of U.S. independent cinema. Yet the director himself has often pointed to fellow filmmakers such as Yasujiro Ozu and Jean-Pierre Melville as primary influences in addition to such domestic icons as Samuel Fuller. Indeed, Jarmusch's films reflect a pan-global mindset that deftly merges the pop cultural highs and lows of international cinema, with life in general." - Joshua Klein (501 Movie Directors, 2007)

"Something of a loner himself, Jarmusch revels in the idiosyncrasies of alienation, and enjoys dropping visual and verbal quotes from his favourite directors inside the fabric of his films." - Mario Reading (The Movie Companion, 2006)

"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