ESSAYS

Life is sad and beautiful: Jim Jarmusch’s films as an example of American independent cinema

The text that follows provides a comprehensive review on feature-length films by Jim Jarmusch shoot in the 1980s and 1990s, or rather all his feature-length films with the exception of Broken Flowers (2005) – Permanent Vacation (1980), Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Down by Law (1986), Mystery Train (1989), Night on Earth (1991), Dead Man (1995) and Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai (1999). The principal thesis is that Jarmusch’s films are an example of American independent film of the time and the author comments on them in the context of Jarmusch’s European and, broader, non-American, influences, pop-culture citations and Jarmusch’s stylistic selections, as a step away from the American film classical pattern as established by Bordwell.

Rajko Petković