Golden Lion for a film without drama? “Father Mother Sister Brother” proves why Jarmusch is an exceptional director.
Stranger than paradise, more real than life: even Jim Jarmusch has never been so minimal.
Cinema as if thrown casually
Jim Jarmusch’s films have always thrived on reduction, on their minimalism – as if Ozu’s cinema were leaning casually against some wall in the West Village, an expression of laconicism and coolness. With “Father Mother Sister Brother”, his first film since the only mezzo-mezzo zombie comedy “The Dead Don’t Die”, he goes one step further, moving past the pose: a miniature that actually seems to have been taken from life and only in the last of the three episodes (“Father”, “Mother”, “Sister Brother”) seems to remember that it is a production and not simply an illustration.
This results in a strange, hard-to-grasp film that has everything that has always distinguished Jarmusch – this relaxed, haiku-like quality – but here it is implemented in such a way that it is not a student of Nicholas Ray who is determining what is happening, but rather someone who has never held a camera in their hands.
Three places, one bracket
The three episodes take place independently of each other, have different personnel and are set in New Jersey, Dublin and Paris. They are loosely united by their theme – the relationship between adult children and their estranged parents – as well as clever coloring and the repetition of motifs and dialogue.
“It seems like we’re color coordinated by accident – how embarrassing,” Charlotte Rampling remarked at one point, practically winking at the camera. Jarmusch winks along. And he was surprised that his experimental design won the Golden Lion of Venice.
Our rating: five stars
“Father Mother Sister Brother” opens in theaters on February 26th.
Director: Jim Jarmusch, Cast: Adam Driver, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Charlotte Rampling, Tom Waits, Mayim Bialik.
