Jim JarmuschFilmography

Explicit Ills

Crew: Executive Producer

Actors: Paul Dano, Rosario Dawson, Naomie Harris, Lou Taylor Pucci, Frankie Shaw, Tariq Trotter

Synopsis: The beauty of hope and the power of unity form the foundation of this tale of youthful love, drugs, and poverty in the City of Brotherly Love. Seven-year-old Babo suffers from asthma, and lives with his mother in a dangerous section of North Philly. In an attempt to impress a girl who's well out Read More

Blank City

40 x 15

Synopsis: Director Olivier Jahan offers an glimpse into The Director's Fortnight, a sidebar of the Cannes Film Festival conceived by a group of filmmakers known as the Société des Réalisateurs de Films who sought to counter the academism of the main part of the world-renowned festival. Pierre-Henri Deleau Read More

Joe Strummer: The Future is Unwritten

Actors: Mick Jones, Nicky "Topper" Headon, Terry Chimes, Iain Gillies, Joe Strummer

Synopsis: Filmmaker Julien Temple takes a look beyond the guise of the late, anti-establishment icon Joe Strummer to offer a warm portrait of the self-described "mouthy little git" who was born John Mellor and was destined to become the frontman for one of the most influential punk bands ever. A complex Read More

Broken Flowers

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Bill Murray, Jeffrey Wright, Sharon Stone, Frances Conroy, Jessica Lange, Tilda Swinton, Julie Delpy

Synopsis: A man sets out to find the son he didn't know he had and winds up getting answers to some questions he never asked in this comedy drama from director Jim Jarmusch. Don Johnston (Bill Murray) is an emotionally blank middle-aged man who has never married and lives a quiet, comfortable life thanks to Read More

Punk: Attitude

Synopsis: Director Don Letts' documentary Punk: Attitude examines the politics, fashion, and music of this pop culture trend. He interviews and shares performance footage from a variety of famous musical acts including "Black Flag, Jello Biafra, Legs McNeil, The Ramones, and proto-punks The Stooges and New Read More

Excavating Taylor Mead

Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession

Synopsis: The Z Channel wasn't America's first premium cable outlet specializing in feature films, and it wasn't the most commercially successful, but few, if any, had as strong an impact on the film industry or a more influential list of customers. Based in California and blanketing sections of the state Read More

Rockets Redglare!

Synopsis: Luis Fernandez de la Reguera directs the documentary Rockets Redglare!, a portrait of the New York personality from his early days around '50s hustlers to the East Village crowd of the '80s to his tragic death in 2001. Born Michael Morra in 1949, Rockets Redglare is a creative personality Read More

Coffee and Cigarettes

Crew: Director, Editor, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Roberto Benigni, Steven Wright, Joie Lee, Cinqué Lee, Steve Buscemi

Synopsis: Jim Jarmusch's black-and-white feature Coffee and Cigarettes contains three vignettes originally released as short films along with separate yet somewhat related sketches. As the title suggests, most of the vignettes involve famous people smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee. The first, "Coffee Read More

Chaplin Today: A King in New York

Hollywood High

Synopsis: This exhaustively researched cable-TV documentary traces the history of drug movies, from camp classics like Reefer Madness to more serious and sober examinations like Requiem for a Dream. Top-heavy with clips from such once-shocking groundbreakers as The Man With the Golden Arm, the "head" flicks Read More

Ten Minutes Older: The Trumpet

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Markku Peltola, Kati Outinen, Marko Haavisto Ja Poutahaukat, Ana Sofia Liano, Pelayo Suarez

Synopsis: Seven internationally respected filmmakers offer different perspectives on time and fate -- some witty, some somber -- in this omnibus film, with the stories linked by performances from jazz great Hugh Masekela. Dogs Have No Hell by Aki Kaurismaki follows one man's unusual journey as he celebrates Read More

Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Forest Whitaker, John Tormey, Cliff Gorman, Henry Silva, Isaach de Bankolé, Frank Minucci

Synopsis: A surreal crime drama told as only Jim Jarmusch could, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai stars Forest Whitaker as Ghost Dog, a hit man living in an unidentified but run-down city in what license plates call "The Industrialized State." Known for his gift of being able to come and go without people Read More

FilmFest, Vol. 3

Synopsis: Bring the world's most popular film festivals home with this interactive video magazine that travels far north for the Toronto International Film Festival before heading to Chile to attend the Santiago Short Film Fest - all the while speaking with some of the most compelling filmmakers and Read More

Divine Trash

Actors: John Waters, Jeanine Basinger, Steve Buscemi, Ken Jacobs

Synopsis: A documentary profile of filmmaker John Waters, Divine Trash focuses on the bad-taste pioneer's early years, especially his 1972 breakthrough Pink Flamingos, which turned the director of Mondo Trasho and Multiple Maniacs into the king of midnight movies thanks to word of mouth about the film's Read More

R.I.P. Rest in Pieces: A Portrait of Joe Coleman

Actors: Joe Coleman

Synopsis: With the fervor of an evangelist, New York painter and performance artist Joe Coleman preaches an apocalyptic message about the necessity of disease, deviation, destruction and corruption in controlling human populations. His paintings explore death in its most graphic and ugly forms in hopes of Read More

Year of the Horse: Neil Young and Crazy Horse Live

Crew: Cinematographer, Director

Actors: Neil Young

Synopsis: Independent film hero Jim Jarmusch followed Neil Young & Crazy Horse during their 1996 world tour and captured it on handheld Super-8. Spliced with archival footage shot by Young and with current interviews from all band members and Young's father, the result is not so much an overview of the Read More

Cannes Man

Actors: Seymour Cassel, Francesco Quinn, Rebecca Broussard

Synopsis: While at the Cannes Film Festival, producer Sy Learner (Seymour Cassel) makes a bet that he can turn any nobody into a star. A cabbie from New York named Frank (Francesco Quinn) becomes his test case as Sy tries to get Frank noticed amidst the stars and glitter of Cannes. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Read More

The Typewriter, the Rifle, and the Movie Camera

Synopsis: The Typewriter, the Rifle, and the Movie Camera recounts the three stages of filmmaker Samuel Fuller's remarkable career -- from his beginnings as Arthur Brisbane's copy boy, to his experience as a rifleman in World War II, to his success as a "B" movie writer/director. Tim Robbins narrates the Read More

Dead Man

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Lance Henriksen, Michael Wincott, Robert Mitchum

Synopsis: A dark, bitter commentary on modern American life cloaked in the form of a surrealist western, Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man stars Johnny Depp as William Blake, a newly-orphaned accountant who leaves his home in Cleveland to accept a job in the frontier town of Machine. Upon his arrival, Blake is told Read More

Blue in the Face

Actors: Harvey Keitel, Lou Reed, Roseanne, Michael J. Fox, Jim Jarmusch

Synopsis: Director Wayne Wang and screenwriter Paul Auster had enough storylines and characters left over from their charming comedy Smoke to make another film, so they shot Blue In The Face immediately after Smoke was completed. The film once again centers on the Brooklyn Cigar Store and manager Auggie (Harvey Keitel Read More

Iron Horsemen

Actors: Dominic Gould, Laura Favali, Kari Väänänen, Nicky Tesco, Matti Pellonpää

Synopsis: This European film, shot entirely in rural Finland, parodies American biker movies from the 1960's. It tells the strange and convoluted story of acid-head, biker Bad Trip who belonged to a motorcycle gang known as the Cannibals. Trip is on the run from his former gang after he is caught stealing Read More

Tigrero: A Film That Was Never Made

Actors: Samuel Fuller, Jim Jarmusch

Synopsis: The unique film set within a Karaja village in Brazil's Mato Grosso, Jim Jarmusch listens while Sam Fuller describes the 1950's "Tigrero" movie that he was unable to make. It also profiles the Karaja people. The non-film "Tigrero" had a fascinating history. The name was purchased off a novel by Read More

In the Soup

Actors: Steve Buscemi, Seymour Cassel, Jennifer Beals, Pat Moya, Will Patton

Synopsis: Alexandre Rockwell's quirky autobiographical comedy stars Steve Buscemi as Adolpho Rollo, a would-be screenwriter who is obsessed with getting his 500-page script "Unconditional Surrender" produced. Desperate for money, he places an ad for financial backing, which is answered by con man Joe (Seymour Cassel Read More

Night on Earth

Crew: Director, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Gena Rowlands, Winona Ryder, Rosie Perez, Giancarlo Esposito, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Roberto Benigni, Lisanne Falk, Béatrice Dalle

Synopsis: Jim Jarmusch's deadpan comedy-of-the-night is a collection of five vignettes taking place in the enclosed space of a cab ride, each occurring simultaneously in five different cities and five different time zones -- Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki. The Los Angeles episode Read More

Fishing with John [TV Series]

Actors: Willem Dafoe, Matt Dillon, Dennis Hopper, Jim Jarmusch, John Lurie, Tom Waits

Synopsis: Musician and independent film personality John Lurie hardly seems like the sort of guy who would host a TV show about fishing. But then again, Fishing With John was hardly a typical nature program; Lurie and guests such as Tom Waits, Dennis Hopper, and Matt Dillon take to the water in search of Read More

Fishing with John, Episode 1: Montauk with Jim Jarmusch

Synopsis: Fishing will never quite be the same after this series, in which some pretty famous anglers share their luck with an eccentric fisherman named John. Traveling to exotic locations, they take on the local flora and fauna in an adventurous and humor-filled series, narrated by Robb Webb. In this Read More

Leningrad Cowboys Go America

Actors: Matti Pellonpää, Kari Väänänen, Sakke Jarvenpaa

Synopsis: The odd comedies of Finnish director Aki Kaurismaki may be an acquired taste, but it is one which more and more people are getting. The story concerns the exploits of an extremely inept but dedicated troupe of accordian musicians, "The Leningrad Cowboys," whose sheer awfulness puts SCTV's Read More

Helsinki Napoli All Night Long

Actors: Kari Väänänen, Roberta Manfredi, Nino Manfredi, Jean-Pierre Castaldi, Margi Clarke

Synopsis: Alex (Kari Vaananen) is a Finnish cabbie working in Berlin with plenty of problems in this comedy with film noir touches. With two dead men and a suitcase filled with hundred dollar bills, he has difficulty disposing of the bodies. He is chased by the top crime boss (Samuel Fuller) and his crony (Eddie Constantine Read More

The Golden Boat

Actors: Michael Kirby, Jim Jarmusch

Synopsis: The Golden Boat, the first American production from internationally acclaimed director Raul Ruiz, is a dry-humored, surreal tale set in downtown Manhattan. Young writer Israel Williams (Federico Muchnik) encounters a wounded man on the street. Though he has been stabbed several times over, the man Read More

Mystery Train

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Masatoshi Nagase, Youki Kudoh, Nicoletta Braschi, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Elizabeth Bracco, Cinqué Lee, Joe Strummer, Rufus Thomas

Synopsis: Written and directed by the ever-unpredictable Jim Jarmusch, Mystery Train is comprised of three short anecdotes involving foreign tourists in Tennessee. Each story is set in a fleabag Memphis hotel which has been redressed as a "tribute" to Elvis Presley. Story #1 involves two Japanese tourists Read More

American Autobahn

Synopsis: This German-made movie directed by Andre Degas is about a journalist who gets involved with the underworld when he witnesses a murder. He tries to get away from the whole mob scene and heads back to California, but now they're after him. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Straight to Hell

Actors: Sy Richardson, Joe Strummer, Dick Rude, Courtney Love, Dennis Hopper

Synopsis: This bizarre comedy spoof on spaghetti westerns was made in a hurry on location in Almeria, Spain. Simms (Joe Strummer), Willy (Dick Rude), and Norwood (Sy Richardson) are inept hitmen who decide to rob a bank. They encounter the MacMahon's (The Pogues), a quintet of caffeine-addicted gunslingers Read More

Down by Law

Crew: Director, Screenwriter

Actors: Tom Waits, John Lurie, Roberto Benigni, Nicoletta Braschi, Ellen Barkin

Synopsis: Jim Jarmusch follows his groundbreaking Stranger Than Paradise with another rambling, character-driven film with a twisted sense of humor. Set in a seedy New Orleans summer, Down By Law details the meeting of three unlikely convicts and their just as unlikely escape. Zack (Tom Waits) is an Read More

Coffee and Cigarettes

Crew: Director, Editor

Sleepwalk

Crew: Cinematographer

Actors: Suzanne Fletcher, Ann Magnuson, Dexter Lee, Tony Todd

Synopsis: Mysterious and suspenseful, with a touch of the supernatural thrown in, this first feature by director Sara Driver follows Nicole (Suzanne Fletcher), a woman who works at a computer all day, through an odd and menacing series of events. Nicole has been translating an old Chinese manuscript, and Read More

Stranger Than Paradise

Crew: Director, Editor, Screenwriter

Actors: John Lurie, Eszter Balint, Richard Edson, Cecillia Stark, Danny Rosen

Synopsis: Although Jim Jarmusch made his directorial debut with Permanent Vacation (1982), Stranger than Paradise (1984) marked his breakthrough as a major American filmmaker. One of the most deadpan comedies ever committed to film, Stranger than Paradise suggests a Buster Keaton film written by Samuel Read More

Burroughs

Crew: Sound/Sound Designer

Actors: William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg

Synopsis: This biographical documentary on author and eccentric William S. Burroughs (Naked Lunch), founder of the Beat Generation literary movement along with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg, is roughly divided into two segments. The first part has some witty scenes as the camera follows the author around Read More

Fräulein Berlin

Actors: Ulrike S., Helke Sander, Norman Jewison, Dorothea Moritz

Synopsis: In this latest of a long string of underground films, Lothar Lambert has chosen to parody himself and the underground film industry, flying Ulrike S. to New York and Toronto for sequences in which she talks to the well-established movie director Norman Jewison (Moonstruck, Agnes of God) about Read More

Permanent Vacation

Crew: Composer (Music Score), Director, Editor, Producer, Screenwriter

Actors: Leila Gastil, Maria Duval, Ruth Bolton, Richard Boes

Synopsis: Jim Jarmusch made his directorial debut with this episodic profile of one troubled hipster trying to make sense of his life. Aloysius Parker (Christopher Parker), known to his friends as "Allie," is a young man with a damaged family background (his mother is in a mental institution and his father Read More

Underground USA

Crew: Sound/Sound Designer

Actors: Patti Astor, Eric Mitchell, Rene Ricard, Tom Wright, Jackie Curtis

Synopsis: The "underground" of the title refers not to crime but to the half-hidden world of two-bit hustlers, "artistic" poseurs, aberrant lifestyles and shattered dreams. Small-time Manhattan opportunist Eric Mitchell latches onto Patti Astor, a once-popular movie star fallen into penury. He briefly lifts Read More