Man drives and smiles. Review of ”Paterson”
In one of his interviews, director friend Jim Jarmusch , hoarse-voiced muse of smoky bars and experimental rock legend Tom Waits, said that he likes to stay in cheap motels because they are"somehow more human"< / i>. They remember your name (even if you are not Jarmusch and not Waits ), and if you want to have a snack at three in the morning, you can go down to the porter and he will share with you a sandwich. It’s impossible to imagine such a thing in some Hilton."Somewhat more human"happens not only in small hotels, but also in small towns like Paterson, New Jersey, where the humble bus driver lives, also Paterson (Adam Driver), with his adorable girlfriend Laura (Golshift Farahani) and grumpy dog Marvin . The Paterson -city is one of those places where everyone knows each other, where you can live your whole life working the same job, visiting the same bar and buying groceries in the same stores. The Paterson driver is one of those people who will share their sandwich with you without any doubts or a second thought. "Paterson" -film is"triumph of poetry of little things, subtle interconnections of everything with everything in the fabric of everyday life."  The protagonist of the new movie Jim Jarmusch looks like on an absolutely happy person. He lives in complete harmony with himself and the world around him, and the world reciprocates: as a bus driver Paterson he composes touching poems in the spirit of his beloved William Carlos Williams. In his notebook, ordinary objects like matches turn into a metaphor for that delightful second when you “lit” your girlfriend, and now nothing will be the same. The usual conversations of passengers on the bus delight him like a sweet child, and dangerous (in fact, not very) incidents in the bar induce him to show sudden heroism, which then makes the driver-poet feel somehow awkward.Some modern viewers know Jarmusch as the same indie director in whose films everyone just walks and talks, and nothing else happens. In Paterson , at first glance, everything is according to the canon - day after day, the hero of Driver drives a bus, diligently writes poems in a secret notebook, walks the dog and does not at all worry that life its boring and monotonous. Everything with him is by definition good, good as a given, and neither street hooligans, nor an eternally aching colleague, nor questions from a friend about what will happen if his beloved ever leaves him, nor extravagance, can bring him out of this state of inspired serenity. the whims of the beloved herself. Looking at this, even some festival critics thought that Paterson - cinema without drama and intelligible plot twists. This is not entirely true.  In a series of life's troubles and troubles, which the director throws up to his serenely happy hero, lies the main conflict of the tape - for those viewers to whom this conflict is so necessary. With each new collision of the enlightened poet with the harsh world, we think:“Something must break him! Something should unbalance him and make him behave like all normal people - get angry, offended, indignant, buy a smartphone in the end ”. But when asked about the possible departure of his beloved, Paterson answers "incorrectly", and not even to the one who asked him, but to himself - in another poem. And this was the poet's answer: if you leave me, I will simply rip out my heart and walk like that. Do not be angry, offended, indignant, but walk without a heart. People like Paterson ,  Our enthusiastic eccentric comes to the real test, of course, in the finale. And the way he experiences it, with what irony, calmness and humble acceptance Paterson overcomes this blow of fate, there is a great merit of the director. Throughout his career, Jarmusch painstakingly researched the souls of all sorts of eccentrics, losers and marginalized. In the eyes of some Michael Bay, Jim himself is not a very successful filmmaker (not a single explosion in films, where does that fit?), But, as we can see, not Jarmusch, nor for Paterson , external success is not a determining factor in the presence of harmony in the soul. Jim still makes films on his own and not at all about what is considered important, but about beauty in the eyes of the beholder, the ubiquity and accessibility of the beautiful, be it a blue-headed match, a local waterfall, or a creamy cupcake pattern.  If Paterson hadn't turned out to be such a heartfelt, subtle and in some places hilarious hymn to pure innocent happiness, the director could be accused of narcissism. If Paterson himself did not look so inspired and satisfied, one could say that poetry helps him to cope with the wretchedness of life. But a man who gently kisses his beloved every morning (either in the ear or in the spatula - he has a wide choice) admires her beauty, emphasized by the glare of the sun, reads poems to her every day and smiles at her every evening at dinner - such a person is with the environment wretchedness in no opposition. He is outside of her.  In portraying ecstatic eccentrics, Jarmusch , the main romantic of American indie cinema, is more successful than anyone, because he is in the subject. He and his friend Tom Waits and themselves, despite their venerable age, remained people with a bright soul, for whom half a sandwich is a poetic image of a cozy feeling at home, a feeling that everything is wonderful. For the history of American independent cinema, Paterson will not be the best film of Jarmusch , but at the moment it is his most gentle, most sensual and naive project in a good way. He is able to awaken in the viewer an acute thirst for beauty, including spiritual. Look "Paterson" and look around - there are many more people who look at the world through the eyes of a poet than you can imagine, it is incredibly interesting to communicate with them and it is very pleasant to be around. You may even remember that you yourself were once such a person ...  Driver looks like a "driver" as if the sensational series about the life of modern girls, films of the masters of Hollywood about monks and the far, distant galaxy itself were for him only a scrupulous search for the road to Paterson. And it is clear that Jim invited Adam to his tape not because that star of The Force Awakens (this director did not watch Star Wars at all and is not going to). In addition to the obvious acting merit, Driver has the ideal texture to embody this image - he is a little clubfoot, lop-eared, he has huge feet (which, probably, actually helps to drive the bus better), and also surprisingly alive facial expressions. His most important weapon in this film is a radiant smile from ear to ear. Paterson steers and smiles serenely at the conversations of passengers (the famous Jarmushev talks about nothing), chatting with Laura and all glows like a polished samovar, because next to him such a tangible lives and breathes beauty, and, of course, his mouth spreads to his ears when this beauty gently chirps to him about his heroism and poetic gift.when this beauty gently chirps to him about his heroism and poetic gift. when this beauty gently chirps to him about his heroism and poetic gift. There is almost no music in the film, at least as an important component of the plot, but the music of the words that pop up on the screen and simultaneously sound off-screen is mesmerizing. The poems of Paterson (in fact, 74-year-old Oklahoma poet Ron Padgett) are laconic, not very easy for fans of classical poetry to perceive, but if you listen and catch the wave that the hero of Driver , it is impossible not to fall in love with them. In this regard, it is interesting to note that large, successful in all senses directors try to speak out in their multimillion-dollar blockbusters as loudly, wordy and pathetic as possible, and to Jarmusch , in order to convey to us this or that image or thought, sometimes there are only enough interjections like"Hmmm"or"Aha!". So life itself, in order to be beautiful, does not have to be filled with events, success or any significance. The Topic of Article: Man drives and smiles. Review of ”Paterson”. |
