A Japanese teenage couple on a pilgrimage to Presley’s grave and Sun studios; an Italian taking her husband’s coffin back to Rome, forced to share a room with a garrulous American fleeing her boyfriend; and an English ‘Elvis’, out of work, luck in love and his head as he cruises round town with a black friend, a brother-in-law, and a gun… Three oddball tales centered on a single seedy Memphis hotel, gorgeously shot by the great Robby Muller, and featuring a memorably spare, atmospheric score by John Lurie. This may be the most accessible and purely enjoyable of Jarmusch’s movies (and surely planted a few seeds in Quentin Tarantino’s mind).
Also showing: Down By Law. Screening in VIFF: Father, Mother, Sister, Brother.
Jim Jarmusch
Joe Strummer, Masatoshi Nagase, Youki Kudoh, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, Cinque Lee, Nicoletta Braschi, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits
USA
1989
In English and Japanese with English subtitles
Book Tickets
Tuesday September 09
Thursday September 11
Monday September 15
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Credits
Screenwriter
Jim Jarmusch
Cinematography
Robby Muller
Editor
Melody London
Original Music
John Lurie
Also Playing
Father Mother Sister Brother
Jim Jarmusch returns to the anthology format he mastered in earlier films with this triptych of tales involving parents (Tom Waits and Charlotte Rampling) and their grown children (among them, Adam Driver, Vicky Krieps and Cate Blanchette).
Image: © Vague Notion
Down By Law
In this slowburn comedy from Jim Jarmusch, Tom Waits and John Lurie are surly jailbirds who share a cramped cell with Roberto Benigni's Italian tourist, with transformative results. Jarmusch is back at VIFF this year with Father, Mother, Sister, Brother.
Boyhood
A dozen years in the making, Richard Linklater's masterpiece chronicles the evolution of a boy into a young man, from six to 18. It is the ultimate coming-of-age movie, and one of the most audacious cinematic feats of the decade.
School of Rock
With not one, but two new Richard Linklater movies at VIFF this year (Nouvelle Vague and Blue Moon), we thought it would be fun to revisit a choice cut from his rich back catalogue: the best Black and White movie ever made, School of Rock.