Coffee and Cigarettes

Benigni (of La Vita a Bella and grandstanding Oscar acceptance speech fame) and Steven Wright (of all those great quotes cult-fame) sit out a mini-marathon of coffee and cigarettes over a few minutes. It's in black and white, and has a bit of a timeless quality to it - it was filmed in the 80s, but could have been made yesterday.

Basically, the two introduce themselves to each other, stumble over a conversation involving coffee, cigarettes, dreaming and the Indy 500. Finally, the conversation comes to an upcoming dental appointment and the punchline. Steven Wright is left with a faintly bemused look on his face and that's it.

It's a good little short, but outside of it being part of last year's "Coffee and Cigarettes" film (a collation of several shorts involving Bill Murray, Tom Waits, Cate Blanchett and a few others) it's a bit of a curio. Interesting to see Benigni ten years before his breakthrough. If you like this, check out "Down By Law", which is a feature-length Jarmusch film, also in cultish b&w.

Roberto Benigni, over ten years before his great 'La Vita è Bella', sits down with Steven Wright to talk over coffee and cigarettes. In fact, their conversation is mainly about coffee and cigarettes.

Roberto is drinking his coffee (he drinks it like he has ten already) while waiting for Steven. When he appears they both light a cigarette have a lot of sugar in their coffee and start talking about it like they are just learning how to speak. After this a couple of things happen, they have to stand up for it, leading to the final moments that involve a dentist.

I liked this short film up to a certain point. If it would have played longer I guess it was going to be boring. The small things that happen are funny, but only in a "smile"-way. The final moments are quite good and they make sure you will leave this short film with a smile as well. Not great, but good enough.

Roberto is sitting at the table in the very run down looking cafe. He is smoking a cigarette, and there are five cups of coffee in front of him. When he drinks, it looks like he had five cups already. Steven arrives, they shake hands. Steven sits down (Roberto keeps calling him Steve, and Steven keeps correcting him). They mainly talk about coffee and cigarettes. Steven comes up with an idea about coffee popsicles for children. Their conversation is so random, their relationship is bizarre and awkward, yet there is definite chemistry between them. It feels like the two great comedians just sat down and started to improvise without fully understanding each other. Suddenly Jim Jarmusch arrived together with his cinematographer Tom DiCillo, and the scene was set.

'Strange to Meet You' was the first one in Jim Jarmusch's 'Coffee and Cigarettes' movies (all three were incorporated into 2003 feature film) that was originally commissioned for the Saturday Night Live. The film doesn't have any laugh out loud moments, but it stays amusing throughout. The script seems pretty loose, allowing the actors to play with each other, and simply being creative as their conversation moves seemingly nowhere. The camera never pans, but it keeps changing shots. The film is just six minutes long (or short), and it is over soon after you start to get more interested. But I guess if it would have been longer, then it would have started to bore.

11 self-contained short stories in black and white (like human relationships) that take place over a cup of coffee, revealing the superficial relationships between people and 'exposing' hidden characters, behaviors, comical or tragic situations, interesting or indifferent information depending on each person's interests.

-Embarrassment, nervousness, typical conversations, without deep emotion.

-Does the insignificant outcome of the meetings hide the depth of the film?

-Excellent performances by so many top actors and some happy surprises also. It is worth seeing to make your own decision and your rating.

...and what's as fascinating and cool as it is a little disappointing is that the laughs are more of amusement than of the laugh-out-loud sort. While there isn't a whole lot to Wright and Benigni's conversation, what is great about the vignette is how the two find a rhythm, play off each other as though they were the pros of Who's Line Is It Anyway, and it works. The choice and progression of shots is also well timed by Jarmusch with interesting bits of composition via filmmaker Tom DiCillo. The letdown is that the laughs aren't as great as they could've been. Of course Wright is one of the most under-stated of all comics, and Benigni is notorious for being off-the-wall even in his serious movies, though maybe for me something was missing, that a certain bit of un-ease was with them. However, this doesn't stop the short from being a nice little marker on the careers of Benigni, Wright, and Jarmusch, and it's a very good kick-off in the full-length version of the director's latest brew.