Coffee and Cigarettes is the title of three short films and a 2003 feature film by independent director Jim Jarmusch. The 2003 film consists of 11 short stories which share coffee and cigarettes as a common thread, and includes the earlier three films.
Themes
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 such 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), delirium, miscommunication, musicians, industrial music, acknowledged fame, and the idea of drinking coffee before sleeping in order to have fast dreams). In each of the segments of the film, the common motif of alternating black and white tiles can be seen in some fashion. The visual use of black and white relates to the theme of interpersonal contrasts, as each vignette features two people who disagree completely yet manage to sit amicably at the same table.
Plot segments
The eleven segments that make up the film are as follows:
Strange to Meet You
This is the original 1986 short
Coffee and Cigarettes with
Roberto Benigni and
Steven Wright having a conversation about coffee and cigarettes.
Twins
Originally the 1989 short
Coffee and Cigarettes, Memphis Version – aka
Coffee and Cigarettes II – this segment features
Joie Lee and
Cinqué Lee as the titular twins and
Steve Buscemi as the waiter who expounds on his theory on
Elvis Presley's evil twin. Cinqué Lee also appears in "Jack Shows Meg his Tesla Coil". The scene also features a recounting of the urban legend that Elvis racistly disparaged African-Americans in a magazine interview at one time.
Somewhere in California
Filmed in 1993 as the short
Coffee and Cigarettes - Somewhere in California, and won the
Short Film Palme d'Or at the
Cannes Film Festival. In this segment musicians
Iggy Pop and
Tom Waits smoke cigarettes to celebrate that they quit smoking, drink some coffee and make awkward conversation.
Those Things'll Kill Ya
Joseph Rigano and
Vinny Vella have a conversation over coffee about the dangers of smoking. The silent Vinny Vella Jr. also appears to beg his father for money, which is given in exchange for affection, which is not provided.
Renée
Renée French (played by herself) drinks coffee while looking through a gun magazine.
E.J. Rodríguez plays the waiter anxious to be of service.
No Problem
Alex Descas and
Isaach De Bankolé are a couple of friends who meet and talk over some coffee and cigarettes. Alex has no problems, or so he answers to Isaach's repeated questioning. At the end of the scene, Alex takes out a pair of dice and rolls three sets of doubles.
It could be assumed that
Alex Descas has an excessive gambling problem but to him it is not a problem because of what he can roll. Notice he doesn't roll the dice in front of his friend.
Cousins
Cate Blanchett plays herself and a fictional and non-famous cousin named Shelly, whom she meets over some coffee in the lounge of a hotel. There is no smoking in the lounge as the waiter, played by
Mike Hogan, informs Shelly (but not until Cate is gone). Shelly tells Cate about her boyfriend, Lee, who is in a band. She describes the music style as hard industrial, similar to the band Iggy describes. Cate tells Shelly she looks forward to meeting "Lou" someday.
Jack Shows Meg His Tesla Coil
Features
Jack and
Meg White of the band
The White Stripes having some coffee and cigarettes. They play themselves, although the scene seems to perpetuate the band's former pretense that they are indeed siblings. Jack shows Meg his
Tesla coil that he says he built himself and waxes intellectual on the achievements of
Nikola Tesla. In the beginning, Jack seems upset that Meg doesn't share his excitement, and it takes Meg some coaxing to get Jack to agree to show Meg his
Tesla Coil. He introduces the line, "Nikola Tesla perceived the earth to be a conductor of acoustical resonance." Intrigued by this concept, Meg repeats the phrase and clinks her coffee cup at the end of the segment to produce a ringing noise, and she looks pensively out into the distance before a cut to black. Cinqué Lee plays a waiter in this segment. In the end, the coil breaks, and Meg and the Waiter offer suggestions as to why it might be broken. Finally Meg says something that Jack seems to agree to, and he leaves to "go home and check it out". This particular vignette is full of White Stripes motifs such as childhood innocence, Nikola Tesla, their 'sibling relationship', and a little red wagon.
Early during the segment, "Down on the Street" by The Stooges (Iggy Pop's best-known band) is played in the background. The song is from the album Fun House, which Jack has noted to be 'the best rock'n'roll record ever made."
Cousins?
British actors
Alfred Molina and
Steve Coogan have a conversation over some tea. (Coogan offers Molina a French cigarette, but Molina "saves" his for later.) Molina compliments Coogan's designer jacket but notes that it will make him hot in the 85 degree Los Angeles heat. Molina works up to presenting his evidence that the two are distant cousins. Coogan rebuffs Molina until Katy Hansz asks Steve Coogan for an autograph, and Coogan won't give out his phone number to Molina. Then when Alfred Molina gets a call from his friend
Spike Jonze, Coogan tries to make amends, but it is too late, and he regrets missing the chance to make the connection. Although they say they are in LA, the segment was actually shot in Brooklyn at Galapagos, Williamsburg.
Delirium
Hip-hop artists (and cousins)
GZA and
RZA of the
Wu-Tang Clan drink naturally caffeine-free
herbal tea and have a conversation with the waiter,
Bill Murray, about the dangers of caffeine and nicotine. During this conversation GZA makes a reference to how he would drink lots of coffee before going to bed so his dreams would "whip by" similar to the camera-shots at the
Indy 500, very similar to the same reference that Steven Wright did in the first segment. Murray requests that GZA and RZA keep his identity secret, while GZA and RZA inform Murray about nontraditional methods to relieve his smoker's hack.
Champagne
William "Bill" Rice and
Taylor Mead spend their coffee break having a nostalgic conversation, whilst
Janet Baker singing "Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen" from
Mahler's
Rückert-Lieder appears from nowhere. William Rice repeats Jack White's line, "Nikola Tesla perceived the earth as a conductor of acoustical resonance." It is possible to interpret the relevance of this line to the constant recurrent themes throughout the seemingly unconnected segments.
References
External links
Official site
An Indian regional anthology film with Cafe as a common running thread
Category:2003 films
Category:2000s comedy films
Category:American films
Category:Films directed by Jim Jarmusch
Category:Films shot in Super 16
Category:Anthology films
Category:Short Film Palme d'Or winners
Category:Black-and-white films
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