Paterson

Paterson is the Jeanne Dielman of post-industrial America. Jarmusch has always been able to get to the essence of the story, whether he is shooting a western (Dead Man) or a vampire love story (Only Lovers Left Alive). In his latest film, he peeled away all of the unnecessary layers of a “slice of life” drama about the life of a working man and shot a film that flows naturally, as the protagonist, form and style are in perfect harmony. Paterson loves the poetry of William Carlos Williams and his ordinary life, giving him the certainty that he will wake up tomorrow morning next to his beloved girlfriend, eat cereal with milk and set off to drive his number 23 bus. Thanks to the fact that he spends most of the day driving on autopilot, he can occasionally switch into poetic mode and come up with a few new verses about, for example, a matchbox. ___ In the same free verses, Paterson reflects the reality around him, as if the whole film were being narrated. This does not involve a series of causally interconnected events, one following the other and leading to a set goal. Variations and contrasts are essential. When Paterson meets a girl after work, it is an unexpected encounter, and we wonder what will come of it. When he wakes up in bed alone, we are interested in knowing where Laura is. Paterson maintains a Zen-like calm, giving the impression of a man from the early 1900s (when people didn’t use mobile telephones and computers) and he has no intention of changing his routine. Conversely, Laura is action-oriented and comes up with something new every day. ___ Some motifs are not developed at all (the kidnapping of a dog, the chess tournament), while Jarmusch focuses on others only for our amusement (the tipped-over mailbox). The result is simply not as important to him as the process of creation, which is captured, in the case of Paterson’s poems, by words gradually appearing on the screen. The search is more important than whether we find something. ___ The visual rhythm, expressed in the two-tone scenery and the dresses that Laura makes, in the repetition of a limited spectrum of shot compositions and editing techniques, and in other instances of doubling (the twins, the similarity between Laura and the heroine of Island of Lost Souls), helps to transform what we see and what is outwardly so ordinary into something poetic and unique, even without the aid of symbols and stylistic ornamentation. The same logic is applied to all human life in the final conversation with the Japanese tourist. ___ You can work as a doctor or drive a bus and still be a poet. All it takes is to not strive for something at all costs, to not chase after something (because then you will just be disappointed that things didn’t turn out the way you had imagined) and accept the stimuli that the world around you has to offer. Then you will begin to discover poetry in the commonplace, the everyday, the obvious. Jarmusch managed to embody this almost Buddhist wisdom in the structure of the film and make it universally comprehensible. In its simplicity, which is reminiscent of Ozu and Bresson, Paterson is an incredibly powerful film whose message is far greater than the sum of what happens in it. 90% (01/04/2017) (less) (more)