Sleeper Cell: Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)

Jim Jarmusch

As is obvious from this picture, and from one viewing of Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, Jim Jarmusch is too cool for school. He‚Äôs a walking breathing art-house who doesn‚Äôt need to try to make quirky movies ‚Äì he opens his mouth and talks in close-ups and awkward lighting. Coffee and Cigarettes is the culmination of a running story idea he started in 1986 with the production of a six minute short named “Coffee and Cigarettes” starring comedian Steven Wright and Italian filmmaker Roberto Benigni (more than a decade before Life is Beautiful made him an international star). ¬†Then in 1989 Jarmusch made “Coffee and Cigarettes II” starring real life twins (and brother and sister to Spike Lee) Joie Lee and Cinque Lee. And in 1993 he completed the trilogy with “Coffee and Cigarettes III” with rock icons Iggy Pop and Tom Waits. 10 years later, Jarmusch returns to the idea, and creates 8 more vignettes to round out the collection, and releases all 11 as a feature film called Coffee and Cigarettes. And in case the actor names didn‚Äôt cue it up for you, this is a comedy. And when no one says anything at all for 15 seconds or more, it‚Äôs ok to feel uncomfortable. And it‚Äôll happen a lot. The discomfort is magnified because all but 1 of the actors plays a character named after them. So Steven Wright plays ‚ÄúSteven,‚Äù Rza plays ‚ÄúRza‚Äù and so on ‚Äì and it helps to blur the line in more than one of the segments. The film opens up with Iggy Pop’s version of “Louie Louie” and black on white and then white on black and then black on white etc… credits. It’s a black and white art-house movie, and they’ve got to clue you in on that from the beginning.
So, 1 at a time:

Iggy and Tom

Strange to Meet You
The 1986 short inserted as the beginning vignette Roberto Benigni meets Steven Wright for coffee and cigarettes at a local café and introduce us to the motifs of overhead shots of the diner table and awkward dialogue as they talk (both in stilted English) about the dentist and dreaming fast.

Twins
The 1989 short in chronological order featuring Joie Lee and Cinque Lee as the good and evil twin respectively along with the Elvis Pressley adoring waiter, played by Steve Buscemi. The three talking unwillingly with each other about Elvis conspiracies.

Somewhere in California
The final of the first three short films is one of the funniest of the whole show, putting Iggy Pop and Tom Waits in a dive chit-chatting about music and quitting smoking, while constantly misinterpreting what the other is saying.

Top 5 Actors as Themselves in a Fictional Movie
(The I Can Pronounce “Being” as 1 Syllable If¬†I Want to Haiku Edition)

Sweet Libby Shue

5 ‚Äì “No man, you‚Äôre famous” ‚Äì
Tom Petty delivers it
all in The Postman

4 – Floor seven and a
half. Malkovich Malkovich
Being John Malkovich

3 – Terry Gilliam
dead of heart attack: Monty
Python’s Holy Grail

2 – Charlton Heston knew
a girl who lived on Gordon
Street in Wayne’s World 2.

1 ‚Äì “Ali with an ‘i’”
Sweet Libby Shue nurses Steve
Coogan: Hamlet 2.

 

Meg and Jack

Jack Shows Meg his Tesla Coil
Jack White and Meg White of the White Stripes (they’re a rock and roll band) are having… coffee and cigarettes, and Jack has a Tesla Coil. Cinque Lee returns as a waiter here, and Jack explains the science of the coil and a brief overview of Nikola Tesla (who was played expertly by Ziggy Stardust in The Prestige, which really should have been a better movie). And did you know Nikola Tesla perceived the earth as a conductor of acoustical resonance? It’s a beautiful idea.

Cousins?
Even funnier than the one with Iggy and Tom, Alfred Molina hosts Steve Coogan in an L.A. coffee shop (for tea) to drop a bombshell: they’re related! Alfred is the nicest (if not a little creepy) guy in the world, and Steve Coogan’s douchebag act is so damn convincing sometimes. I know, it doesn’t sound like fertile comedy fodder, but haven’t you SEEN Hamlet 2? And didn’t Alfred Molina’s acting in Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark convey his brilliant timing?

Delirium
I swear we’re almost done. This is number 10 right? And totally worth the damn wait. Wu-Tang steadfasts GZA the Genius and RZA a.k.a. Bobby Digital discuss herbal remedies while drinking decaffeinated tea when they notice their waiter is Bill Murray, who’s either hiding incognito, or is losing his mind. 

Raphael is Cool... But Rude

A Note About Psychosis: Folie a Deux
A “folie a deux” is an extremely rare psychiatric occurrence where a particular hallucination or delusion is actually transmitted from one person to another. This is either possible if an already delusional person has a strong enough personality to actually influence the thoughts of another weaker personality. The madness of the first is just accepted by the second. The madness in these cases can usually be dissolved by separation of the two and reasonable medication. In a second situation, two independently delusional people share a psychosis that is usually ignited by one of the two, and because the other is already predisposed towards delusional beliefs, will come to share the delusion (see also drug-induced psychosis as in the military experimentation with the hallucinogen BZ or 3-quinuclidinyl bezilate ‚Äì see also a fictionalized account of BZ in Jacob‚Äôs Ladder starring Tim Robbins and Danny Aiello)

Champagne
Here‚Äôs where Jarmusch gets tricky on you. You‚Äôve been laughing mildly throughout, and softened up for a comedic finale, when he pitches you two veterans of the New York Modern Art Scene, Bill Rice and Taylor Mead on a coffee break at work. Bill likes his coffee coffee, and Taylor pretends he‚Äôs drinking champagne. You can almost imagine it‚Äôs Paris in the 1920s so much so that the two share a temporary folie a deux and hear the singing of opera superstar Janet Baker performing ‚ÄúIch bin der Welt abhanden gekommen” from Gustav Mahler‚Äôs 5 song collection, Ruckert-Lieder, and with the 2 minutes of break he has left, Taylor wants to just take a nap. Peacefully.

I love this “movie” because there’s no bothering to compose any kind of overarching narrative. The vignettes exist unto themselves even while featuring a few callbacks here and there to previous episodes. It’s like a book of short stories, and watching this movie this most recent time really reminded me of James Joyce’s Dubliners – not in any real academic sense, but more in the idea that there’s a collection of stories all centering around a specific topic that even though fairly unconnected, move with a flow that shows them to be part of the whole.

GZA The Genius, RZA a.k.a. Bobby Digital and Bill Murray

Recent posts by Zack

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