Coffee and Cigarettes

Mélange d'excellence et de moyenneté à peine remarquable, où dominent les histoires mettant en vedette des acteurs célèbres : Cate Blanchett / Cate Blanchett, Alfred Molina / Steve Coogan, Iggy Pop / Tom Waits, Bill Murray / GZA & RZA. Ils possèdent tous la touche caractéristique de Jarmusch, mais les autres films ne font que s'étirer péniblement pour atteindre la durée d'un long métrage. Seule la dernière épisode "non-actrice" sur les ouvriers vaut encore la peine. (02/06/2005)

Three times excellent, three times good, three times barely average and twice unbearable. A disappointing record for a filmmaker of Jarmusch's stature. Unfortunately. (16/07/2008)

When Paterson premiered in movie theaters, I was experiencing a small biographical withdrawal and desperately looked around to satisfy my "craving" for a movie theater. Although the reviews, comments, and professional reviews were great, based on my own experience, Jarmusch belongs to a group of creators where this way of gathering information and forming an image of the film doesn't work because the director's cult distorts qualified debate. Personally, I divide Jarmusch's work into two groups. The first includes Dead Man or Night on Earth, and the second Only Lovers Left Alive. The second group openly bores me and evokes indifference; I would rather place Coffee and Cigarettes in the second group. The first two stories set my expectations at a freezing point. I wanted to give up, but fortunately, I knew that there would be better stories, like the dialogue of the sisters in the charming double role of Cate Blanchett. This dialogue is often used as an acting exercise in art schools. However, there are fewer of the more interesting stories and they cannot lift the whole to an average level. Jarmusch often works with banality and stereotype, but not in any innovative way. It's rather tiresome, and shallow, sometimes based solely on the presence of a celebrity, other times on a single joke that is stretched to several minutes and cannot fill the space. Several of the stories that have a point have essentially banal messages. That Jarmusch's numerous fan club probably considers it a discovery of America and so on, and is also fascinated by the static form based on repetition, is a different matter. Jarmusch often works with minimalism but here it sometimes borders on insulting the viewer. The only interesting thing about his movie for me is that he filmed a tobacco-infused film at the same time when tobacco was being rapidly pushed out of public spaces in the USA. Regardless of whether Jarmusch intended the film as a nostalgic reflection of past times or an artistic protest against the loss of a certain freedom and experience, I do not share his stance. Overall impression: 45%. (15/05/2017)

I don't smoke, and I've had coffee twice in my life (once out of youthful indiscretion, the second time just out of indiscretion), but fortunately it was no great handicap when watching Coffee and Cigarettes. Jim Jarmusch wrote some excellent short stories with Iggy Pop, Tom Waits, Cate Blanchett (twice), Alfred Molina, Steve Coogan and Bill Murray, interspersed them with endearing antics like Tesla's Transformer and Elvis' evil twin, and another original piece, this time full of caffeine and nicotine, was born. I can't say that any of the stories were uninteresting or somehow excessive. Still, I found the film a few minutes longer than necessary for absolute satisfaction. (11/05/2014)

Quite a nice demonstration for us from Jarmusch on how not to do dialogue. Some of the sketches are great, but some are complete crap. However, with a cigarette and coffee in hand, I have to give 4 stars. (22/04/2010)

I have wanted to see this film since it came out a year ago. Well, I finally managed to watch it now and I could finally find out if Jim Jarmusch will be able to impress me with another film besides "Broken Flowers". Jarmusch made three stories for the film during the 80s and 90s, then added more to them and ultimately created this unique episodic film, which mainly focuses on dialogues, something I quite enjoy. Roberto Benigni and Steven Wright have an interesting start and end with an absurd twist, which is somewhat similar to the next story with Steve Buscemi, which didn't resonate with me as much, although the idea with Elvis is interesting. Tom Waits is my great favorite and his voice is simply amazing. He perfectly matches with Iggy Pop, and Jarmusch shows that he can direct almost anyone. Cate Blanchett's story is artistically interesting. RZA and GZA then show that they are definitely not just background figures when Bill Murray is around. A tremendously uneven film that won't appeal to everyone. But as I say, I quite like conversational works. (18/02/2014)