Down By Law

‘I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.’ - It was the American cult director Jim Jarmusch who made the Italian comedian Roberto Benigni a star in Europe. As an Italian tourist, he ends up in an American prison for manslaughter, from where he manages to escape through the swamps of Louisiana with his two cellmates, a would-be pimp (John Lurie) and an unsuccessful DJ (Tom Waits).

DOWN BY LAW is a film noir, repeatedly interspersed with comedy and fairy-tale twists. The motto ‘It's a sad and beautiful world’ forms the backdrop to the black and white images, which are reminiscent of the melancholy of the blues and old B-movies. Jarmusch deliberately uses these quotes to create a framework for the many mini-plots. The film is composed like a piece of music, and it is certainly no coincidence that John Lurie and Tom Waits, two musicians who were also responsible for the film score, were engaged. Then there is Robbie Müller's camera, which is always positioned very close to the characters and thus creates great density.