Down By Law

Directors: Jim Jarmusch
Starring: Tom Waits, John Lurie, Roberto Benigni,
Year: 1986

Three men, previously unknown to each other, are arrested in New Orleans and placed in the same cell. Both Zack (Waits), a DJ, and Jack (Lurie), a pimp, have been set up, neither having committed the crime for which they have been arrested. Their cellmate Bob (Benigni), an Italian tourist who understands minimal English, was arrested for manslaughter. Zack and Jack soon come to blows and thereafter avoid speaking to each other. Bob has an irrepressible need for conversation. He hatches a plan to escape, and before long the three are on the run through the swamp surrounding the prison. The film discards jailbreak film conventions by focusing on the interaction between the three men rather than on the mechanics of the escape. A key element in the film is Robby Müller's slow-moving camerawork, which captures the architecture of New Orleans and the Louisiana bayou to which the cellmates escape.

Comments: Zhanna and Steve saw this movie on their first date.

Highly Recommended.

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Black Rain -- Shohei Imamura (family's travails in the aftermath of hiroshima bombing)

Before Sunset -- Richard Linklater (couple meets in Vienna)

Diary of a Country Priest -- Robert Bresson (an idealistic priest arrives at his first parish only to face apathetic congregation)

The Hidden Fortress -- Kurusawa

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In the Mood for Love -- Wong Kar-Wai (a man and woman move into neighboring apartments on the same day)

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