Things you probably already know about me:
- I like poetry – not just the words, but the poetry of circumstance, scenery, synchronicity, people
- I like to make reference to William Carlos Williams poems, especially in my Instagram feed
- I value gentleness and am on a quiet crusade to revolutionise the world thusly.
So you’ll not be surprised to learn that Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson is my new favourite movie.
It’s a poem in itself structured with stanzas like days of the week, repetition that imbues deeper meaning with each encounter, a homage to the poetry of lives being lived without judgement or drama. There’s ambiguity, subtlety and I’m sure it would reward re-watching, just as there’s always more to be gleaned from re-visiting a good poem.
Paterson drives the bus in Paterson, New Jersey – the home of WCW and Allen Ginsberg. Lines of poetry pace through his head as he walks to work and he writes them in his notebook sitting at the wheel in the morning. It’s a quietly persistent art form that exists in his every day – the conversations he overhears, the familiar scenes of his home town – contrasted perhaps by his quirky and lovely Laura who expresses her artistry by staying home painting the curtains, the walls, decorating cupcakes and buying a “Harlequin” guitar to match her aesthetic. The bold black and white is hard to miss, but she’s just as gentle and poetic as Paterson and the sweetness of their relationship is one of the most heartening aspects of this film.
I totally believe poetry is the antidote to a high-conflict society, where everything makes us mad and nothing is ever good enough. The calm world of Paterson reminds us, but doesn’t indulge that we have been conditioned to expect drama and conflict in movies and in life; secrets being kept, relationships falling apart, tempers flaring (spoiler: the bus doesn’t burst into flames). Life doesn’t have to be like that. Instead we can simply do our jobs, be kind to each other, walk the dog and look at the world through a poet’s eyes. How lucky is that?
I loved it too! While the poetry he writes is very different to mine, I felt like the movie showed the process that goes on in my head when I’m composing a poem, and I totally agree that it is also poem-like itself, with the little units of repetition, the symbols (not all explained, like the twins!). Yay for quiet gentleness. Yay for quietly doing something you love because you love it.
Yes!! Yay Helen 🙂 x