Down by Law

“The movie I’m going to start with is the movie that started me. This is Down by Law, and I’m starting with this movie not only because somewhere my name appears here as a coproducer, but because the incomparable Jim Jarmusch made this film and Jim Jarmusch was the man who first believed in me, when we were both young and making our way in New York. And I wouldn’t be in this Closet, and I wouldn’t have had the career that I had, except for Jim.”

“I first got turned onto them by Jim Jarmusch when I was looking for his old films and I found Down by Law. This was one of the films that led me to the Criterion Collection, because I was looking for Jim movies and this came out on it. And then I started just searching that whole section, back when we was able to go to our DVD video stores. But anyway, Down by Law goes in.”

“I feel like I mean this is an obvious one, Down by Law. Down by Law.”

“And I found Down by Law. I love this movie, this Jim Jarmusch. Anything Tom Waits does I'm going to watch, it's so good. And John Lurie's in this. Yes, this one too, here right here. Great one for you, one for you and one for me, our little besties Down by Law Blu-rays.”

“It says Jarmusch film Down by Law. I just really love the photography in this, it's black and white and I just think this is one of my favorite trios of actors put together in a film with Roberto Benigni and obviously Tom Waits and John Lurie.”

“This film, along with Withnail and I, Down by Law and Withnail and I are probably the two movies that I would watch when I was a teenager and it was exactly what I dreamed being an adult would be like. This slightly surreal, you can do anything but you may well end up in prison. That maybe I could fall in love with someone as cool as John Lurie or Tom Waits or indeed Roberto Benigni. I mean, 'ice cream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream.'”

“I want to take Down by Law because I didn't know who Roberto Benigni was but I saw this in an Italian version in Rome in about 1986 and I remember him being the funniest man I've ever seen. To a Roman audience he just had to walk into shot and they laugh but he never said anything... I have to have this movie.”

“Down by Law I think it was one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. I've seen it at least six times. Jarmusch is a master of straight-faced comedy and I'm a big fan of straight-faced comedy and it's something that I try to use in my own work.”

“Jim Jarmusch. I don’t have that. I don’t know it. It’s great. I love his work. Down by Law. I know of it. I’ve never seen it. Oh, this is great.”

“Down by Law is now here available as Blu-ray. I have to take it along. This is one of my all time favorites. I start laughing when I see the cover. 'Who gives a f*****g fly, so to speak? Me? I do.' I mean, I'm just quoting from the film, so I put that in the back.”

“Jim Jarmusch. Great movie starring Roberto Benigni as well as Tom Waits and John Lurie. Super vibey and definitely picks up the mantle of people like John Cassavetes and all of these incredible independent filmmakers. This is a good entryway into Jarmusch.”

“And the first one that did is this movie by Jim Jarmusch, Down by Law. "I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream," the famous Roberto Benigni line. But also this was in the early days of my obsession with Tom Waits when I was in college, that’s when I discovered Tom’s music, and he’s such a good actor. And you can tell he’s improvising these weather reports from the prison cell, and it’s just a real formative movie for me. I’m still trying to get in a Jim Jarmusch movie.”