Coffee and Cigarettes III

I urge people to see this short film if they ever get the chance. Fans of Jim Jarmusch will not be disappointed; they will be amused, chuffed and pleased with Waits and Pop sitting down and (somewhat uncomfortably) chewing the fat. Poor Iggy tries so hard to please Dr Waits.

Listen out for the mesmerising lap steel soundtrack - it goes well with the swirling mirror ball reflections on the wall. Ignore anyone who tries to dissuade you from seeing this film.

I've only recently become a fan of Tom Waits, having caught "Christmas Card from a Hooker in Minneapolis" on the radio one morning and taken months to work out the song's identity. Here, the gravel-voiced musician appears alongside Iggy Pop in the third of Jim Jarmusch's "Coffee and Cigarettes" series (released in 2003 as a feature-length compilation) – this is also my first taste of that series. This ten-minute film plays a little like a segment of Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction (1994).' The two musicians meet for coffee and cigarettes in a quiet coffeehouse, and Iggy nervously tries to engage Waits in conversation, but Waits, as cool as a cucumber, asserts his superiority with every laconic remark and calculated silence. At times, it seems as though Waits is deliberately toying with Iggy's self-esteem, casually tossing in an anecdote about a roadside tracheotomy he performed on his way there, and accusing his terrified companion of implied slander. There are plenty of awkward silences, made amusing by Waits' perpetual coolness and Iggy's mounting edginess.

It is simply a GREAT movie and no matter how many times I watch it, I'll still be loving it. Why does it have to last so little?

I like Tom Waits when he is on the screen. Here he appears in the third short film from 'Coffee and Cigarettes', the work director Jim Jarmusch started in 1986 to finish it in 2003. This one is from 1993, the same year we saw Waits in Robert Altman's 'Short Cuts'. He sits down together with another famous artist, Iggy Pop, to talk over coffee and cigarettes. And of course about coffee and cigarettes.

This is one of the more memorable episodes, not only because it stars these two musicians, but also because their conversation feels very reel. They have those uncomfortable silences where one the two, most of the time Iggy, starts talking about nothing again since he can't handle the silence. The response from Waits on most things Iggy says is great. The final line that involves a juke-box where not records of Waits are on is a nice ending for this one.

One of the segments in Jim Jarmusch's compilation of caffeine/nicotine laden scenes, Part 3 (which, coincidentally, is the third in the full-length film out this year) has Tom Waits meeting up with Iggy Pop at a low-rent bar in LA, where the jukebox plays some sweet little number. Their conversation is one of the best of the lot in the full-length film, and as itself it stands up very well (it was very deserved of it's win at Cannes) as a back & forth between two immensely talented, if slightly ego-ish, musicians in their off-time. Whether or not it's improvised, it pulls off its laughs with the sort of uncomfortableness that's rather reminiscent of a Seinfeld episode (a good one). The last line also is a keeper, as is the ending pause.