PATERSON

US, 2015, 113 minutes, Colour.
Adam Driver, Goldshifteh Farhani, Barry Shabaka Henley,
Directed by Jim Jarmusch.

Most of us have never spent a day in Paterson, New Jersey, let alone a week. This film offers the occasion to make up for this never-had opportunity. This is precisely the framework of the film, seven days in Paterson.

Yes, there is quite an amount of routine, day by day, but this does not make it any the less interesting and entertaining. Actually, as the week goes on, we look forward to what each day will bring, anything new, variations on the old.

Patterson is also the name of the central character, a local bus driver, played at his best by Adam Driver. (He won the Best Actor award from the Los Angeles Critics.) He is a very good man, loyal to his work, engaged in the route his bus takes as well as the variety of passengers that he picks up and lets off. And, there are his colleagues at work, especially one pessimistic one whose domestic woes he listens to.

At home, there is his wife, who loves him, who sees him off and then she gets involved in a variety of activities at home, curtains, baking – and all with an emphasis, a high emphasis, on black and white, various designs, the contrast… She is played by Goldshifteh Farahani.

And Paterson has a dog, an English bulldog that he takes for its walk every night – or the dog takes him often enough. It is along the same streets, always ending up at the local pub for a drink, a chat, talk with the bartender, ward off the flirtatious drinker – and, later in the week, a disturbance by a man with a gun, with Paterson able to control him and be hailed as the local street hero.

However, what has not been mentioned yet is one of the most important things about him – he is a poet. He loves writing poetry. We might think that some of it is fairly mundane, but he takes opportunities in his spare moments, sitting at the wheel of the bus before he goes en route, at home, at his desk – and he has one special admiring fan, his wife.

One of the anguishing episodes of the film is his losing all his work because of his dog – but, he does lament for a bit, but is a hopeful man, encounters a little girl who has written a poem about a waterfall, encounters a Japanese poet – and is encouraged to begin again.

And that is what the end of the film does, each day has been captioned and, after the episodes of the weekend and the loss of the poems as well as the encounters, the title comes up on the screen: Monday.

This has to be one of the nicest, in the best sense of the word, films of the year that should have a wide appeal (except perhaps for too impatient diehard action fans!).

1. Paterson the character, Paterson the city? A New Jersey character? His story, a story of the city?

2. The city of Paterson, Main Street, the suburban streets, homes, shops, the bus route, Paterson’s daily walk? The bar? Interiors? The waterfall? An audience visit to the city of Paterson, experiencing it, knowing it? The musical score?

3. The importance of poetry, poems written by an ordinary man, poetry in verse? His experience, love of poetry, love of writing, the joy in his problems, the seemingly mundane subjects and yet his personal investment in them? Writing at home, his room, the desk, writing before taking the bus out, writing at the waterfall? His wife, her appreciation, wanting him to copy them? His notebook? The encounter with the young girl, her poem, Waterfall? The dog destroying his notebook, the experience of the loss of the book, his wife’s comfort? Meeting with a Japanese man? Creating again?

4. The structure of the film: the seven days of the week, going through the week, ending on Monday again? The ritual of waking, in bed with his wife, the two, looking at his watch, the consistency of the time of getting up, kissing his wife, the breakfast cereal? His rituals, route, walking to work, the bus station, the vignettes of the day, the range of characters, the same different? The fadeout scenes and close-ups for each day of the week?

5. The audience getting to know Paterson, his wife, the people in the bar, Marie and Everett, Doc and his wife? The dramas of life, especially in the bar?

6. The focus on Marvin, the bulldog, appearance, walks, growling sounds, sitting and staying, in the armchair, the run of the house, food, the savage reaction in destroying the notebook? The consequences?

7. The pessimist co-worker at the bus station? The range of passengers, Paterson listening, the conversations, the anarchists and their discussion, ordinary people, types, people getting on and off, the boys and the talk? The breakdown, the group on the footpath, reactions?

8. Paterson’s wife, a focus on black and white, the, the curtains, dresses, the icing on the cupcakes? Paterson’s response to his wife, endearing, enduring? Their urging him to photocopy the poems and his delaying to the weekend? The Brussels sprouts and cheddar pie and his drinking the water? Being at home all day, diligent? The cakes for the farmers’ market, sales, her taking her husband out on the town, dinner and the film, the horror touch in the past, the highlife? Her wanting the guitar, the cost, ordering it, the conversations about it, her learning to play, singing?

9. Paterson and his walk every night, with Marvin, going to the bar, the dog sitting or staying? Doc and his stories? Paterson, the beers? Marie, chatting, Everett and his reaction, the reference to Romeo and Juliet, Everett and acting, his declaration of love, Marie not interested, producing the gun, Paterson’s heroics, the toy gun? Doc and the complaints of his wife and her demands? Paterson meeting Everett in the street, friendly conversation? The other customers? The men in the car passing by and asking whether Marvin was a English bulldog?

10. Paterson’s meeting the little girl, her poetry?

11. Paterson after the loss of his poems, going to the falls, sitting and watching, the Japanese tourist, his poems, Japanese, Paterson denying that he was a poet, the Japanese man and his notebook, the gift of the empty book – and for Paterson to start again?

12. An audience appreciating being in Paterson, getting to know Paterson and his wife, and Monday morning again?