"Down by Law" The "close relationship" of Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Roberto Benigni in black and white

"Down by Law" synopsis

The setting is New Orleans. Zac, a thug, and Jack, a radio DJ, are both caught in a stupid trap and end up in the same prison cell. A mysterious Italian traveler, Roberto, joins them, and the three escapees end up somewhere unknown...

Index

• Jarmusch's popularity at the Subaru Theater in Yurakucho
• fantastic monochrome image
• Unique nuances created by Waits, Lurie and Benigni
• An unfading charm

Jarmusch's popularity at the Subaru Theater in Yurakucho

In October 2019, Subaruza, a movie theater in Yurakucho, closed its doors. The predecessor, Marunouchi Subaruza, was opened in 1946 and became Japan's first roadshow venue, but it was later destroyed by fire. It restarted in 1966 as Subaru-za in Yurakucho (at first it was a Nikkatsu first-run theater, and from 1967 it became a Western-film first-run theater). It was a theater with a long history, 73 years since its predecessor and 53 years since its second season.

It was not a large theater at all, with a capacity of about 300 seats, but because of that, many films that would be difficult to perform at other theaters were screened (by the way, the number one movie in the theater's all-time attendance rankings is `` Easy Rider '') (69)).

Particularly until the mid-1980s, it played the role of a mini-theater, and many innovative works distributed by France Films were shown, such as `` The Tin Drum '' (1979) and `` 1900 '' (1976).

Among these, two films directed by Jim Jarmusch, `` Stranger Than Paradise '' (1984) and ``Down by Law'' (1986), have a somewhat unique position. .

"Down by Law" (c)1986 BLACK SNAKE Inc.

These two movies are sometimes talked about as synonymous with mini-theater movies, but they were actually shown at this small, historic Roadshow Hall.

Looking back at Subaru's long history, 1986 was the year of Jim Jarmusch. Stranger Than Paradise was released in April and ran for three and a half months (14 weeks), attracting a young audience at the time. Then, in November, ``Down by Law'' was released and had a long run of 4 and a half months (18 weeks). In other words, two Jarmusch works were hung for eight months in a 12-month period.

Looking back now, isn't this a bit amazing? By the way, ``Down by Law'' was also in the Top 10 Box Office of all time for Subaru Theater, which was announced before the theater closed (10th place).

It is featured as one of the noteworthy phenomena in the mook ``Subaru-za's History: A Short History of 40 Years'' (published in 1987), created by Subaru Kogyo, which ran the Subaru-za. To quote one sentence: ``Stranger Than Paradise'' and ``Down by Law'' captured on screen the mysterious tension and humor before words could be expressed, and elicited sympathetic laughter from young people. (...) They belong to a very recent period that is still too vivid to be considered as history.

Jarmusch's two early films were welcomed into this theater as films with a special personality.

fantastic monochrome image