Thirty Years of Down by Law

• Thirty Years of Down by Law

  On this day in 1986, Jim Jarmusch’s Down by Law opened theatrically in Manhattan, shortly after kicking off the New York Film Festival. Like his previous film, Stranger Than Paradise, Jarmusch’s third feature follows the misadventures of a comically hapless trio, this time a group of eccentrics who meet each other in a Louisiana jail cell. Shot entirely on location, the film boasts haunting black-and-white cinematography by Robby Müller, who infuses each frame with a noirish, dreamlike atmosphere. Written specifically for Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Roberto Benigni, Down by Law is as much a study of its lead actors’ idiosyncratic personalities as it is a jailbird comedy. To celebrate the film’s thirtieth anniversary, we’ve dug up some rare photos that capture Jarmusch with his cast and crew on set.
  
  Above: Jarmusch and Waits on the water

   

   

   

from The Criterion Current http://ift.tt/2csgL4q