Director Dissection with Seanc and Rauldc

Stranger Than Paradise -

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This may be the most disappointing film ever for me. I was so ready for a film after everything i'd heard about this and after how much i loved/liked both Dead Man and Ghost Dog. It's so so dull though, i get the point of everything and got the low-key jokes and just the subtle humour and sadness in the overall situation throughout but it was mind numbingly boring. Maybe it will work for me at a later date but for now i found this mostly very dull and at times difficult to sit through.

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

Just my second Jarmusch after Dead Man and i've completely adored both, got to see more from him. I read this is a homage to Le Samourai (one of my favourite films) and this is definitely evident but it also had plenty of Jarmusch's own touches with the humour and just general oddness. The film had certain cliches that at first bothered me; Ghost Dog being so gentle, well read, meditative, an animal lover (practically at one with them actually), etc with little personal life to speak of definitely is familiar territory for badass movie hitmen and the mafia were extremely typical; exactly how you expect them to be portrayed. It became clear early on that Jarmusch completely recognized these things and he made it evident that the film wasn't taking itself seriously which is why it worked so well, two similar scenes in particular show this well; Louie's meeting scene with the others were we find out about the hit on Ghost Dog, he is trying to convey this ridiculous story of a hitman called Ghost Dog who gets in contact with him by pigeon; Sonny repeating everything he was being told as it got more and more unbelievable made it clear in a funny way that the film is aware this is extremely silly and the other being the scene where Ghost Dog confronts Louie, again in a similar fashion Louie clearly ridicules the idea of Ghost Dog following samurai codes. These sorts of scenes allowed me to take this as it was a fun, silly homage to certain tropes rather than a serious crime film and thanks to this it worked wonders. As i said the mafia were typical, they were caricatures, no actual defining traits to separate them from the hundreds of other similar characters there are out there, but what they were was extremely funny. Just about every scene with any of them was hilarious, those two aforementioned scenes maybe being my favourite, this humour did well to counteract the more moody, serious Ghost Dog scenes for me. Ghost Dog himself was fantastic too, i loved the blending of two cultures, his conversation with the little girl and more than anything how cool he was. Jef Costello might be the most cool character in film for me and i like how Jarmusch took his own unique approach to that sort of character. Loved the soundtrack too, great film.