In his new film Coffee and Cigarettes, writer/director Jim Jarmusch eavesdrops on 11 seemingly casual conversations between actors and musicians over — what else? — coffee and cigarettes. Inspired by the caffeine-fueled chats, movie critics Felicia Feaster and Curt Holman discuss the film at a popular coffee house.
Feaster: I never see movies that make me want to move back to New York, but there’s something about the ambience of Coffee and Cigarettes that does. Jarmusch is so New York. He still somehow evokes the mystique of New York, interesting people coming together, that collision of, say, the Wu-Tang Clan and Bill Murray.
Holman: I didn’t think of them as being specifically New York, I think they were more Anywhere-USA-greasy-spoon kind of places. I think the film was very much about coffee before it became dominated by Starbucks, and about cigarettes back when you could smoke with impunity anywhere. The fact that we’re now drinking our Starbucks, and I’m having a tall caramel Frappuccino, I think Jarmusch would be totally sickened by that.
Feaster: There are places that have a boho-breakfast-of-champions feel, but this ain’t it. I liked the recurring overhead shot that emphasized the chessboard dimensions of the conversations. To me, the film was very much about “coffee break” as an illustration of social relationships and power relationships. It seemed like in every situation, one person held more power than the other person.
Holman: To me, [the overhead shots were] almost like how, in the script of a speech, you might have a parenthetical pause that says, “Wait for laughter.” The shot seemed to say, “Isn’t it funny what’s going on here?”
Feaster: So you thought it was too much visual frou-frou.
Holman: Yes. And I didn’t think there was always that much going on in the vignettes. I see your point about the power relationships, but I liked the ones that seemed to be more overtly about something, like the Steve Coogan-Alfred Molina one, which I thought was screamingly funny, and a very clever little show business parody. But the one with Alex Descas and Isaach De Bankole, the point seemed to be that there was no point.
Feaster: I relate to that, the idea that a coffee date has a subtext. Sometimes you have a coffee date because you don’t want to spend that much time with a person — it’s not that much of a commitment. It’s not a meeting, it’s not a dinner. A coffee break is meant to be just a moment of liquid refreshment and conversation, but it’s often in those in-between times that you do your most interesting thinking, because you don’t have an agenda. I like that Jarmusch can have these little slices of life that don’t have to go anywhere. They can be just anecdotal little pauses.
Holman: I can appreciate that, but I can get that pretty quickly, and often I’ll want some other element to hold my interest. The first one with Steven Wright and Roberto Benigni seemed to be just them doing their usual shtick, and their jokes about coffee Popsicles and “coffee dreaming” didn’t seem to be that clever.
Feaster: I finally felt like, “Oh my God, now I have an explanation for Roberto Benigni’s manic, annoying qualities. It’s the three cups of espresso he has at a single stop!”
Holman: I thought it was funny to see Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan in this little Jim Jarmusch film now when they’re playing, respectively, Dr. Octopus in Spider-Man 2 and Phileas Fogg in Around the World in 80 Days, two big summer movies.
Feaster: I liked that particular vignette because it was definitely about fame, and the fame “barometer” of who’s more famous? Who’s hipper-famous? Who has more power? I liked the sense that they were competing as foreigners abroad. That to me related in a more overt way to the other vignettes and all of Jim Jarmusch’s films, which are very much about strangers in a strange land, shabby bohemians who don’t quite fit in the universe.
Holman: I think that’s going on, but many of them are celebrities playing themselves, basically. I don’t know if it’s reading too much into it to say that it’s commenting on their own alienation as celebrities.
Feaster: I don’t think you can ever read too much into anything.
Holman: But the movie is bookended with two different versions of “Louie Louie,” and the song is renowned for people asking, “What does it mean?” But “Louie Louie” doesn’t have to mean anything. Jarmusch might be using the song to say, if you try to read too much into this film, the joke might be on you.
Feaster: I don’t buy that. I think that’s totally up to the viewer. I don’t think anything has to have one meaning and you either get it or you don’t get it. You can find it meaningless or full of meaning. I think I found it more nuanced maybe than you did. I think you found it a little too obvious.
Holman: In some parts. The one with GZA and RZA of the Wu-Tang Clan and Bill Murray felt like that.
Feaster: I thought it was funny that these two hardcore hip-hop rappers are concerned about their health and drinking herbal tea, and this older guy is drinking coffee out of an actual pot. Suddenly, drinking coffee becomes a sign of rock & roll decadence from Bill Murray.
Holman: It was funny where Tom Waits and Iggy Pop both talk about how they’ve quit smoking, and Iggy Pop says how focused he is now. And then Tom Waits says, “Well, I can smoke one cigarette, because I quit.” And then they both smoke a cigarette.
Feaster: All those rationalizations that you make to yourself. I’ve done that.
Coffee and Cigarettes will be presented as part of this month’s Charlotte Film Society series, which begins this Friday at the Manor. The other featured titles are Monty Python’s Life of Brian (see interview with Terry Jones in this section), Prisoner of Paradise and Herod’s Law. For details, go online to http://charlottefilmsociety.com or call 704-414-2355.
This article appears in Oct 6-12, 2004.
