Jim Jarmusch's 'Most Personal' Faves

Jim Jarmusch's next movie, Paterson, premiered last week at the Cannes Film Festival. The story of a poet and bus driver named Paterson who lives in Paterson, NJ, played by Adam Driver, it riffs on William Carlos Williams's epic mantra "No ideas but in things." Jarmusch speaks with Rory O'Connor about his newest film at Film Stage.

Legendary American independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch has been a frequent visitor to the Cannes Film Festival ever since winning the Camera d’Or for Stranger Than Paradise in 1984. He took the Grand Jury prize in 2005 for Broken Flowers but has never managed to nab the Big One. His latest film, Paterson, which premiered last week in competition here, is the story of a bus driver (played by Adam Driver) named Paterson who lives in Paterson NJ, walks his wife’s bulldog, Marvin, and writes poems in his spare time. We sat down with the great silver-haired Son of Lee Marvin to talk hip-hop, Tilda Swinton, and the poetry of everyday things.

Some critics have called this your most personal film. How do would you respond to a statement like that?
I don’t know. With our last film, Only Lovers Left Alive, everyone said “Aha! His most personal film!” I don’t know. I remember that with Broken Flowers. “Finally, his most personal film.” They’re all personal to me or not. I don’t know how to respond. I just follow my instincts. So I have a really hard time comparing the things I’ve done. [...]

It’s as if Paterson is structured like a poem, with the daily routines and days of the week like a series of stanzas, and then the various patterns and repetition. Was this your intention?
Yes, maybe in a way. You know, I love variation and repetition in poetry, in music and in art. So I love repeated things, variations, whether it’s in Bach or Andy Warhol. In the film I wanted to make this little structure to be a metaphor for life, that every day is a variation on the day before or the day coming up. They’re just variations.

Is it the poetry of everyday things?
Yes. William Carlos Williams said “no ideas but in things,” which Method Man quotes. I didn’t tell him to do that. He wrote that rap and he included William Carlos Williams. That means to say that you start with the imperial world and things come from the small details of life.

Can't wait to see it! Read more at Film Stage.