Jarmusch in his Own Words
PATERSON is a quiet story, its central characters without any real dramatic conflict. Its structure is simple, following just seven days in the lives of its subjects.
PATERSON is intended as a celebration of the poetry of details, variations and daily interactions and a kind of antidote to dark, heavily dramatic or action-oriented cinema. It’s a film one should just allow to float past them—like images seen from the window of a public bus, moving like a mechanical gondola through a small, forgotten city.
Suddenly, the world seemed momentarily perfect
PATERSON suggests that being open to the smaller things in life can provide unexpectedly large satisfactions. “I had a really wonderful car ride when I was going to Cannes because there was a lot of traffic and it was a Saturday afternoon,” says Jarmusch. “The driver took the back streets all the way to the airport because it was too crowded on the highway. I could have been worried about being late, but I was very calm. I just looked out the window at children chasing each other and people fixing things on their houses or shopping for groceries. Suddenly, the world seemed momentarily perfect. Just from the little things.”
