# Coffee And Cigarettes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 28, 2008, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-cigarettes/474771 "2008-11-28T06:01:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2008, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-cigarettes/474771/1 "2008-11-28T06:01:39Z")
I searched for an earlier thread, but all I found was [this one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=259949) from 2003. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fan of Jim Jarmusch’s films. For various reasons, I never catch them on the big screen, so I have some on DVD. I bought _Coffee And Cigarettes_ three years ago. That’s right. Three years (less a month and a half). At first, I was working on an indie film and didn’t have time to watch it. Then I got a new job and left home for a year. Then I never seemed to be in the mood to watch it. Everyone who mentioned it said it was crap. Boring. Tonight I finally popped it into the DVD player. Well… I liked it. First, B&W photography is beautiful. Second, Jarmush has nice shots. Third, the dialog is great. It’s the sort of mundane things people say when they’re hanging out. I like that. And the actors pull it off well. I liked the segment called ‘Cousins?’ the best. That’s the one that got the biggest laugh out of me. (I won’t spoil it.) IMDb lists 16 titles that he directed. _Coffee And Cigarettes_ is listed four times, and _Stranger Than Paradise_ is listed twice. So call it 12 films. I have _Stranger Than Paradise_, _Down By Law_, _Mystery Train_ (Yay! Screamin’ Jay Hawkins!), _Night On Earth_ (which is actually the first Jarmusch film I saw – Wait, did I see that one on the big screen? I think I did.), _Dead Man_, _Ghost Dog_, and _Coffee And Cigarettes_. (I also have _Leningrad Cowboys Go America_, in which Jarmusch appeared as a used car dealer.) So I still have to see _Permanent Vacation_, _Year Of The Horse_, _Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet_ (segment), _Broken Flowers_, and the yet-to-be-released _The Limits Of Control_. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2008, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-cigarettes/474771/2 "2008-12-02T20:59:03Z")
I looked for _Permanent Vacation_. Turns out it’s on the Criterion Collection’s _Stranger Than Paradise_ two-disc DVD set. Of course my 9-year-old copy isn’t the Criterion one. I have a couple of people in mind to pass the old copy to, for inspiration. But not until my new copy arrives. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-cigarettes/474771/3 "2008-12-03T19:38:08Z")
Fantastic movie! I need to see it again soon - I’ll probably stick it on my Tivo list and see if it comes up. Saw it back in the theater when it first came out and sat behind possibly the two stupidest women in history who made baffled remarks the whole time. At the point when the “Tesla coil” was wheeled out they tittered “oh tee hee - Tesla coil!” then three minutes later: “Wait - is that a real thing?” :smack: :rolleyes: etc. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-cigarettes/474771/4 "2008-12-03T21:51:20Z")
I went to this and I think I was the only person, or maybe one of two or three people in the audience. It’s the only time I had a movie stop and melt through. I liked it OK as far as I had gotten but felt no need to see the rest of it, I was so not caught up in it. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-cigarettes/474771/5 "2008-12-03T21:55:53Z")
Tell me - if I hated the living hell out of _Dead Man_, will I or will I not like this movie? It’s an important question, as it’s coming up two movies hence on my boyfriend’s Netflix queue. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/coffee-and-cigarettes/474771/6 "2008-12-03T23:14:21Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > if I hated the living hell out of _Dead Man_… Hahaha! What an absurd premise! 😛 (Yes, I really liked _Dead Man_.) _Coffee And Cigarettes_ is a series of eleven vignettes. The common theme is two people meeting over coffee and cigarettes and talking about things. Here’s what Wiki has to say: > [@](#): > > The film is composed of a comic series of short vignettes shot in black and white built on one another to create a cumulative effect, as the characters discuss things as diverse as caffeine popsicles, Paris in the 1920s, and the use of nicotine as an insecticide — all the while sitting around drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. The theme of the film is absorption in the obsessions, joys, and addictions of life, and there are many common threads between vignettes (such as the Tesla coil, medical knowledge, the suggestion that coffee and cigarettes don’t make for a healthy meal (generally lunch), cousins, The Lees (Cinqué, Joie, and a mention of Spike), musicians, industrial music, acknowledged fame, and even the idea of drinking coffee before sleeping in order to have fast dreams). In each of the segments of the film, the common theme of alternating black and white tiles can be seen in some fashion. I think they use ‘comic’ loosely. That is, you might think of it as a series of live action comic strips rather than a collection of comedies. (I did get some laughs out of it though.) I tend to hang out (when I hang out) with people similar to ones who often appear in Jarmusch films, so I appreciate his films on that level. I also like the way he sets up his shots and scenes, and that he uses B&W a lot. I like that his characters say things that make you do a double-take, because that’s how people talk. I like how he comes up with slightly unusual situations. Like in the _Jack Shows Meg His Tesla Coil_ segment. I mean, you have this guy who invites a girl to meet him at a coffee shop so she can show him the Tesla coil he made. Will you like it? I don’t know.