The original text @ Singing Tiger is written in the middle reading app
Jarmusch belongs to the kind of director whose personal style is consistent with the style of his work, Quan does not talk about his life, only looks at his appearance and dress, from youth to middle age has not changed much, has always been a thin figure and black clothes and silver hair, and a face full of uninhibited anger and green looks, do not know will think that this is a rock singer. His films are biased towards cool tones, from the subject matter, story, photography, music to give people a sense of desolation and alienation, even the 2013 filmed with love-related «Only Love Immortality» is also full of melancholy decadence of the bones, a vampire couple who have lived for hundreds of years are bored with everything, there is a way that there is nothing new under the sun, they can say that there is nothing new under the moon. But the American angry youth's 2016 film "Patterson" is a little different, it seems to be much warmer than the previous movie, I don't know if it is the result of his new understanding of the world's affairs.
American director Jim Jarmusch
«Paterson», as always, has no complicated twists and turns, that is, it tells the life of a bus driver named Patterson in a small town called "Patterson" in New Jersey, USA, specifically his life as an ordinary person and his life as a poet, a time and space, two layers of life.
As an ordinary person, his life is bland, or rather boring, he gets up at the same time every day, goes to work at the same time, listens to the same colleague complain about the trivialities of life, leaves work at the same time, walks the dog at the same time, and goes into the same bar to drink the same kind of wine.
But life as a poet is full of joy, he writes poetry all the time, writes in the book when he has free time, writes in his heart when he has no free time, all the details of life and phenological street scenes are the materials for his poetry, and he never feels boring in the world of poetry.
The director shows us in a simple and level-headed way what a purest poet is: he lives in poetry, he is immersed in poetry all day long, he writes poetry not only for fame and fortune, it does not even matter whether he publishes it or not, poetry is the expression of his perception of the world, poetry is his way of life.
Bus driver Patterson
As an ordinary person Patterson, his wife Laura is the bright color of his life. She is beautiful, lively, virtuous, and loves her husband very much, including poems about loving him. And her "little hustle" of thinking about wrong all day long adds a lot of fun to her stereotypical husband.
But as the poet Patterson, Laura became his backdrop. Although she "tossed" in the material level, one moment making muffin cakes to sell, the next time buying an expensive guitar to prepare to learn, the next moment wanting to engage in black and white art design and paint black and white patterns from skirts to snacks, etc., her spiritual level is actually quite dull and mediocre, and the gorgeous noise of her appearance is not as good as her husband's simple and unpretentious poetry.
Patterson and Laura
The film's name is clearly not arbitrary. Although Patterson is only a small town in New Jersey as a place name, it was once the inspiration of the famous American poet William Carlos Williams, whose masterpiece is called "Patterson". Director Jarmusch is an admirer of the poet, so his film actually pays tribute to the poet, he makes the location of the film in Patterson, let the protagonist's name be Patterson, let the protagonist be a poet who loves Williams's poetry, and also recite Williams's famous poem «Notes»:
I ate it
Put in
In the fridge
plum
they
Probably you
Keep it
Breakfast was eaten
Excuse me
They're so delicious
So sweet
So cool
I've always been a little strange that the style of Jamusch's pieces is so cold and beautiful, when it comes to the people who influenced him, how could he worship Ozu Yasujiro? How can you like Hou Xiaoxian's life flow movie? Also including how could you have liked Williams's completely colloquial poetry? It wasn't until I watched this «Patterson» that I understood a little, although except for his film, which is somewhat warm and other are relatively cold, but what he inherits from those directors is mainly the attitude and way of chewing the world from the details of life, advocating the truth and nature of not being vain. This kind of authenticity can be expressed in such a warm and plain film as "Patterson", or it can be expressed in a film as cold and colorful as "Only Love Immortality", and "Alien" presents the soul of the American "Western Spirit".
So watching his film is to pay special attention to details, like this «Patterson», it is full of countless details that can be carefully savored, in order to leave some surprises for friends who have not seen it and want to see this film, I will not list them one by one.
This movie also has a particularly interesting mystery, that is, which of those shots is objective reality? What are Patterson's subjective or exaggerated imaginations? Or what is the physical life of bus driver Patterson? What is the spiritual life of the poet Patterson? The director does not distinguish and explain particularly clearly, and the audience can guess, taste, and see the wisdom of the benevolent. Some of the comments I saw, from the overall connotation to the details of the meaning, everyone's understanding can be completely different, it seems that what I see is not the same movie, which is particularly interesting.
In particular, I would like to say that the actor Adam Dreifer who plays Patterson is simply the best candidate to play the bus driver poet, and it is difficult for an actor to show the protagonist's state of being both conformist, unfazed, and at ease, and curious, delighted, and tireless in writing poetry, only through eyes, expressions, body language and indescribable personal temperament.
Jarmusch and the co-star at the Cannes Film Festival
Towards the end of the film, Patterson's poetry is ruined by a special "partner" of his, who is a little frustrated, but not too concerned, and life goes on, and the poems will keep flowing.
(Image from the Internet)