Talking about everything and nothing

Paul F. Agusta, Contributor, Jakarta, pfa0109@yahoo.com

Two guys sitting in a dingy coffee shop talking about caffeine, Popsicles and trips to the dentist may sound completely uninteresting, if not slightly weird.

Yet, if these people were the renowned comedians Roberto Benigni and Steven Wright, and if the man in the corner recording the session on film was internationally recognized filmmaker Jim Jarmusch, the whole effect would surely be much more intriguing.

And, thus opens Jim Jarmusch's 17-year paean to his addictions to caffeine and nicotine, titled simply Coffee and Cigarettes.

The film consists of 11 segments, shot between 1987 and 2003 and involving actors, musicians and assorted familiar names that include Tom Waits, Iggy Pop, Alfred Molina, Steve Buscemi, Bill Murray and rappers GZA and RZA of the Wu Tang Clan.

Coffee and Cigarettes examines the ordinary pace of our daily lives from an unusual angle. Jarmusch shows just how engrossing the little inconsequential things in our lives could be, if we really paid attention.

Shot in black-and-white, with minimal variations to camera angles, the conversations tackle various subjects, such as fame, Paris in the 1920s, family relations, delirium and the perfect color and temperature of coffee.

One of the most memorable of these segments is Somewhere in California, in which we see eccentric musical genius Tom Waits explain his side job as a roadside surgeon to Iggy Pop.

Waits has kept the punk icon, Iggy, waiting, due to a stint working as a doctor along a freeway on his way to the coffee shop:

The really horrible accident just ahead caused Waits to slam on the brakes and pull over to the side of the road to see if there was anything he could do to help.

Little did the good Samaritan realize that he would soon be delivering a baby for one accident victim and performing an emergency tracheotomy with a ballpoint on another.

The "Doctor Waits" saga, the second segment in the series, sets the pattern for the increasing absurdity of each ensuing conversation.

Never intending originally to show these shorts in a feature- length collection, Jarmusch had been making these miniature love/hate odes to the mundane and ubiquitous addictions of mankind between feature film projects throughout the years.

One day he realized, however, that he had more than enough footage to string together a feature-length film on a topic that was an integral part of his life, and very close to his heart and lungs.

This particular project was also being urged upon him by colleagues and fans, who knew about his passion for making short films.

He was well aware that both coffee and cigarettes were essential tools for his creative process and the creative process of the many other gifted people with whom he interacted, both professionally and personally.

He therefore decided to share, with a wider circle, the intimate details of human interaction that occur within the ordinary, everyday ritual of imbibing a cup of coffee while smoking a cigarette with friends.

The conversations that he recorded are all about nothing and yet about almost everything in human existence. This is particularly obvious in the segment, Champagne, featuring a conversation between Taylor Mead and Bill Rice, two elderly men rehashing recollections, or perhaps fantasies, of Paris in the 1920s and New York in the late 1970s.

Jarmusch deliberately uses caressingly close shots of the men to induce a deep sense of intimacy, reflective of the relationship between these two old friends.

As the conversation progresses, it is obvious that, in their minds, the cups they are holding have become champagne flutes, transporting them and audiences to an entirely different world, far removed from the cluttered basement room in which they sit.

Whether or not you are a smoker, or whether you prefer tea to coffee, this film is bound to involve and entertain you in a heartwarming way.