The beauty of Jim Jarmusch’s Paterson, and how I relate to it
Jim Jarmusch’s 2016 poetic comedy drama stars Adam Driver as the titular character, an aspiring poet who drives a bus, living with his girlfriend Laura, played by Golshifteh Farahani, and her dog in the town of, if you can believe it, Paterson. The film follows a week in Paterson’s life, the mundane activities he undergoes, his ups and downs, and his love for writing poetry.
It seems like a film about nothing, and in many ways, people may describe it as such, however this is a massive disservice to the beauty of the film. Paterson delivers an insight into life that not only flows like a harmonic and calm melody, but that there is beauty in the mundane, and the things we take for granted. The poetry that Paterson writes and narrates, actually written by real-life poet Ron Padgett, gives us a sense of the characters view of the world, and heightens how we as the audience perceive the world around him. After watching the film, for a period of time, I guarantee it will affect how you look at the world, or life, and how it is interpreted.
(SPOILER ALERT)
There is a scene in the film where Paterson’s notebook, full of his original poetry, is ripped up by his girlfriend’s Dog. He has not backed up his work, and it is all lost. Naturally, he is devastated, going through a mini crisis where he gives up on his writing. Perhaps he feels as though he has wasted his time now that it has all gone, or maybe he feels his best work is behind him. One thing is clear though, and that is the personal and emotional attachment he had to his work, something which any creator or art can relate to.
I have something similar that happened to me. Not nearly as dramatic, but I thought it was worth discussing. Recently I acquired a new mobile phone. When buying the phone, the employee serving me asked if I would like to transfer the content of my old phone over to the new. I said, “just the contacts, messages and images please”, forgetting I had a notepad document full of original film ideas and short stories. There was 31 pieces of work in the document, some of which I still cannot remember months later. As you can imagine, all of this work, which I carelessly did not back-up, was lost.
When I realised, and this only occurred when I clicked into the notepad to add a new story or idea, that the document was lost, a hot flush overcame me. My mood, which was that of a happy Christmas shopper, dropped severely. Frantically I tried searching through the setting, trying to auto back-ups, hoping that my work would be saved. But there was nothing.
As pathetic as it may sound, it took me a few days to accept what had happened. I avoided thinking about it for a period as it caused me a level of creative distress. In this moment, I remembered Paterson. I remembered how, near the end of the film, after having a conversation with another poet, he is looking at a waterfall and a poem of his own comes to mind, which he begins to write in a new notebook.
My interpretation, and it may be different for everyone, in some ways I hope it is, is that an artist is what he is because of his or her own mind. It also shows how even though he has lost his prior work, his mind continues to be inspired by the world and create. He will never not have work, he will never lose all of his creations, because they are never ending, and that is because his mind is the art.
I remembered this, and realised that I will just continue. The world, or other factors, inspired me before and they will inspire me again. Also, my memory is not terrible, so I did manage to remember what I would call the 5 main ideas, which is something.
Paterson is not only one of the most beautiful films I have seen, but it reminds the audience about the valuable lessons of persistence, patience, and about not giving up. And that is at the very least commendable.
Jim Jarmusch has made a film about poetry, about the poetic nature of life, and about being inspired by the world around you, and frankly I love that.