Boring conversations made a boring movie

he show us boring conversations and boring people in a very boring way

I really don't think these people are boring. What's a boring person anyway? I believe that every person is interesting in his/her own way. But still, are Tom Waits and Iggy Pop, or Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan (the most brilliant part of the film) so boring. Are the two old men in the last segment boring (William Rice and Taylor Mead)? I really don't think so. The only segment I consider weak is Renée. I really can't understand why so many people consider this film boring (or bad). Especially the last three segments (Cousins?, Delirium and Champagne) are simply brilliant.

What I marvel at while watching Coffee and Cigarettes is the simplicity and the inherent calmness of this film. This film, just like so many others by Jarmusch, is about the small things in life. Like Night on Earth it focuses on the situations (e.g. cab rides) that are cut out of other films. Just take a look at some quotes from Jarmusch:

"The beauty of life is in small details, not in big events."

"I am interested in the non-dramatic moments in life. I'm not at all attracted to making films that are about drama. A few years back, I saw a biopic about a famous American abstract expressionist artist. And you know what? It really horrified me. All they did was reduce his life to the big dramatic moments you could pick out of any biography. If that's supposed to be a portrait of somebody, I just don't get it. It's so reductive. It just seems all wrong to me."

I appreciate his films for all these reasons.

Even if you didn't like Coffee and Cigarettes, you can't say it's a bad film. These films may seem arbitrary, but if you pay attention to the little details, you realize they are not. Coffee and Cigarettes is largely built around themes and variations of these. Just take the set design for example. One constant theme is the chess board design of the table (which looks great in my opinion, especially in black and white). It is repeated throughout the film. However, after a couple of segments, they start to make variations of that theme. Take the segment Cousins for example (with Cate Blanchett). In this segment, the wallpaper in the background has a similar design and the cups too have a similar design, the table is different though. The same applies to the dialog: the first few films set up the theme, the following ones repeat and variate these (like they drink tea instead of coffee, or just one of the two characters smoke, or they don't smoke at all...). I think these minor things make this film a real gem. And you can't deny that Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan are brilliant in this film.

Many of the segments rely on knowing the actors too. If you don't know who Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, Steve Buscemi, Roberto Benigni, The White Stripes, GZA, RZA and Bill Murray are, it's only half as good.

I personally think this film is way underrated and one of Jarmusch's best.

Im Kino gewesen. Geweint. ---Franz Kafka

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Not every movie can be fast and the furious, you know. So why don't you just go watch that instead?

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