#521: JARMUSCH, Jim: Mystery Train (1989)
JARMUSCH, Jim (United States)
Commentary
None.
Q&A
Excerpts
On-set photos
Mystery Train [1989]
Spine #521
Blu-ray
Blu-ray
Aloof teenage Japanese tourists, a frazzled Italian widow, and a disgruntled British immigrant all converge in the city of dreams — which, in Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train, is Memphis. Made with its director's customary precision and wit, this triptych of stories pays playful tribute to the home of Stax Records, Sun Studio, Graceland, Carl Perkins, and, of course, the King, who presides over the film like a spirit. Mystery Train is one of Jarmusch's very best movies, a boozy and beautiful pilgrimage to an iconic American ghost town and a paean to the music it gave the world.
110 minutes
Color
Color
Monaural
in English and Japanese
1:77:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2010
Director/Writer
Jim Jarmusch was 36 when he wrote and directed Mystery Train.
Other Jarmusch films in the Collection:
#400: Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
#166: Down By Law (1986)
#401: Night On Earth (1991)
#919: Dead Man (1995)
#1057: Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai (1999)
The Film
Other Jarmusch films in the Collection:
#400: Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
#166: Down By Law (1986)
#401: Night On Earth (1991)
#919: Dead Man (1995)
#1057: Ghost Dog: The Way Of The Samurai (1999)
The Film
Divided into three chapters (“Far From Yokohama,” “A Ghost,” and “Lost in Space”), Jarmusch employs a much-used cinematic device to pull it all together. But he does it so well, so naturally that when the end credits roll you don’t feel the least bit hoodwinked by a clever auteur so much as delighted and satisfied at a tale well-told, with the bits and pieces of the cinematic chain link still rattling around in your brain …
Far From Yokohama
Jun (Masatoshi Nagase) and Mitzuko (Youki Kudoh) arrive in Memphis by train. They have only two destinations on their agenda: Sun Studio and Graceland.
We also meet the night clerk (Screamin’ Jay Hawkins) and the bellboy (Cinqué Lee) of the seedy hotel where the weary tourists decide to decamp. These two will figure in all three stories.
A Ghost
Luisa (Nicoletta Braschi) is sending her dead husband’s coffin back to Rome. [IRL, her hubby is the great Roberto Benigni — Jarmusch insists the deceased is not him!]
She is suckered by a variety of Americans while she roams Memphis, waiting for her return flight home — a news vendor, who sells her a dozen magazines she’ll never read (Sy Richardson); a man in a diner on the prowl, with a good ghost story at the ready (Tom Noonan), and a down-and-out motormouthed waif with whom she shares a room at the hotel (Elizabeth Bracco).
Of course, she sees the ghost of Elvis.
Lost in Space
Johnny (Joe Strummer) is related to several other characters in the film, Will Robinson (Rick Aviles) [danger, Will Robinson, danger!] and Charlie (Steve Buscemi) round out the trio, who finish the tryptich with grandiose action cinema, and …
Two more important props: Robbie Müller (DP, this was Jarmusch’s first color film with a real budget, and you can see his Ozu-like use of red all over the place!) and John Lurie, whose incidental music underscores the visuals perfectly.
… oh yeah, that’s Tom Waits as the radio announcer …
… roll credits.
Film Rating (0-60):
The Booklet
Twenty-six page booklet featuring essays by writers Dennis Lim and Peter Guralnick.
56
The ExtrasThe Booklet
Twenty-six page booklet featuring essays by writers Dennis Lim and Peter Guralnick.
Lim:
“Mystery Train is a puzzle movie as humanist manifesto. Not just attuned to the formal pleasures of synchronicity and repetition, it’s founded on the most basic facts of human commonality and difference: our lives are filled with shared experiences that we nonetheless feel and understand in disparate ways.”
Guralnick:
“What seems so extraordinary to me about Mystery Train, watching it again twenty years after its deadpan arrival, is not just how fresh and vivid — how utterly timeless — it remains but the extent to which it truly embraces both the myth and the reality of Memphis.”
Commentary
None.
Q&A
With Jarmusch in which he responds to questions sent in by fans.
Because he hates doing commentaries. For 70 minutes, he answers questions about various subjects, like philosophy:
“Oscar Wilde: ‘Life is far too important to be taken seriously.’ and
Mike Tyson: ‘Everybody’s got a plan, until they get punched in the face.’”
Excerpts
From the 2001 documentary Screamin’ Jay Hawkins: I Put a Spell on Me.
A few clips of his performances, candid interviews, and a lot of Jarmusch stories already told in the Q&A …
Documentary
Documentary
On the film’s locations and the rich social and musical history of Memphis.
On-set photos
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