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Coffee and Cigarettes (2004) - how do YOU watch an anthology?

 


“Coffee and Cigarettes” is an anthology. Anthology is a fancy word for assortment or album or compilation. My favorite synonym is miscellany which means ‘a mixture of things’. That is probably the most appropriate way to describe this film.


So how do you consume a mixture of things that are related in style, but otherwise can be chewed on as separate pieces. Same way you used to listen to a new album, I think. Does anyone listen to albums anymore? I watched it straight through, but I think watching each of the 11 scenes in increments of 7 or 8 minutes probably works as well. If I go back to it, that is what I will do. There are elements of the sets and cinematography tying them together. There are lines of dialog that are unrelated to each other from one scene to the next, but they make a loose repeating pattern as well.


This movie is a compilation of 11 scenes with two or three characters each having a conversation while they smoke and drink coffee. It is black and white. That is it.


I watched it for a several reasons - 

  • Roberto Benigni & Steven Wright do a scene which is straight out of Abbott and Costello. Very fun to watch these craftsmen work.

  • Spike Lee’s siblings Joie and Cinqué are in it. Cinqué is the only actor that shows up in two different scenes, although he is not playing the same character. I like Spike and his family's acting work.

  • Iggy Pop and Tom Waits do a scene together which won an award in Cannes in 1993. I don’t normally think much of film festival awards, but in this case, they knew what they were judging. I will watch just about anything with Iggy Pop or Tom Waits*, but to get them together was a cool thing.


On top of that, I found a younger Cate Blanchette. I guess she appeared ‘twice’ as different characters also, but in her case it was the same scene as she played herself and her cousin. Bill Murray shows up with the Wu Tang Clan; I am not sure how many other times you will get to say that.


The takeaway for me from these pieces of work is the sense that people can hang out and be civil and conversational, even if in cases that didn’t happen for any noble purpose. In some cases, they are thrust upon one another, in some they are making each other squirm, some they are looking out for each other or just sharing 6 minutes of their lives. In all cases, they are being social and communal in a way that people yearn for** and doesn’t happen so much anymore. I should stop watching movies and go talk to people.



* I will also watch just about anything with Henry Rollins. I need to think of a fourth to carve into my Mount Rushmore of people really known as musicians but that show up as compelling actors.

** It is certainly an attractive trope of LOTS of movie and TV - I am looking at you “Friends” and “Cheers” and a jillion other movie or TV set pieces.

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