/ Film Class #30 / Paterson (2016) / Jim Jarmusch

in #film7 years ago



Jim Jarmusch, inspired by the work of William Carlos Williams, in his latest film Paterson (2016), brings us a passage from the life of an average bus driver from the average environment in which he lives in a unique way. Paterson (New Jersey) is the name of the city in which the driver of the name Paterson (Adam Driver) lives, who in his free time writes poetry. The protagonist drives on the bus line 23, on the bus stands the inscription Paterson, and he is thrilled with the poetic action of W.C. Williams, especially his long poem named Paterson.

Jarmusch shows us a week in the life of everything bearing this name. The bus driver wakes up in 6:10 am, beside his beautiful wife Laura (embodied by the great Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, whose career is questioned by Donald Trump's current farce), then goes to work, and before the start of working hours, he writes the verses that he made that morning.

During his shift, he listens to people talking about everyday things, beautifying situations, and raising their ego, portraying themselves to the world as much more than they really are. He takes his break at the Great Falls National Historical Park complex where he completes his daily poem at lunch. During that time, Laurea rearranged their house. When he returns from the work, Laura makes him walk their English bulldog Marvin and thw two of them go to a local pub (which for a wonderful miracle is not named Paterson) for beer. And that's it, every day of the week follows this simple pattern.



All this can sound uninteresting at first, there is much that Jarmusch manages to fit into this story. To begin with, there is a whole man / city metaphor W.C. Williams, whom the director sets through a series of details in the film. At the very surface, it's possible to notice the merging of Paterson, where the city and people have made a significant contribution to the US military, know the secrets of their fellow citizens who do not notice him, although he plays an important role in their lives.

Of course, the depth of each of the four original episodes of the poem is evident in the film. We start from building a central character in the first day, then we encounter a modern replica of the protagonist in the image of a girl who also deals with writing poetry. After that, our viewer's view is that Paterson is trying to express his environment and, of course, a great ending. Williams finishes imagining "like a river beneath the waterfall, summing up the previous episodes - showing everything a man can achieve in his lifetime," and Jarmusch literally succeeds in transmitting it to his viewers.



What is brilliant in the film is a visual comedy, done partly through the equalization of scenery and objects of the plot, partly through the slow construction of a story. Jarmusch's postage box, which Paterson attempts to correct every day after returning from work, so that he might again be greeted mysteriously on the following day, an example of the slow construction that Jacques Tati would be proud of.

Although the American Film Academy did not recognize the potential this film possesses, Paterson is certainly one of the best films from the past year. Unlike other "slice of regular life" movies that tried to implement real-life situations (taking bull bull in Neon Bull) or people (Mister Universo where everyone is in front of the camera are indeed circus employees), this film makes us believe in the credibility of the characters and a situation without much experimentation. Jim Jarmusch has proven that the audience is still eagerly waiting for his new work and looking at them with pleasure, so we are still hoping that his next film will not have to wait for three or four years.

note: this is my translation from croatian to english from article 'Čovjek je grad: Paterson', from Ziher hr, by A.Fatic

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