Product Details

• Actors: Bill Murray, Tom Waits, Roberto Benigni, RZA, Cate Blanchett
• Directors: Jim Jarmusch
• Writers: Jim Jarmusch
• Producers: Birgit Staudt, Demetra J. MacBride, Gretchen McGowan, Jason Kliot, Jim Stark
• Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English, French
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: September 21, 2004
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (94 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0002I83YU
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #220,798 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Now here is a movie that's practically perfect for DVD. Shot over many years with eccentric actors, Jim Jarmusch's collection of black-and-white vignettes is as uneven as a collection of music videos (without songs). Even with the dull spots and the drop-dead-hip ambiance, there's something touching about this parade of frazzled people holding on to their coffee and cigarettes like life rafts--especially in the final sequence with Taylor Mead. There are some severely misconceived pieces, but the best are a treat: Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan in a hilarious Hollywood encounter, Tom Waits and Iggy Pop getting off on the wrong foot in a funky diner, and Cate Blanchett doing a dual role as herself and a jealous cousin. Bill Murray can't save one underwritten piece, but Jack and Meg White are amusing in an absurdist blackout. Use the Scene Selection menu, and revel in the fetishizing of java and butts. --Robert Horton

From The New Yorker

Cinematic doodles from the writer-director Jim Jarmusch. The movie, seventeen years in the making, consists of a series of black-and-white vignettes involving caffeine and nicotine. While those two substances complement each other, Jarmusch, ever the hip mad scientist, throws together odd combinations of actors and singers. Some pairings-like the laconic comic Steven Wright and the Italian yo-yo Roberto Benigni-turn out to be duds, but other encounters-like the one between the hip-hoppers RZA and GZA and a woozy Bill Murray-have a singular, irreproducible chemistry. Jarmusch doesn't have any grand theme; he's just playing around. Steve Coogan (of "24 Hour Party People" fame) and Alfred Molina parody the awkward Hollywood meeting of a rising star and a fading veteran. And best of all is Cate Blanchett, who, thanks to camera trickery, plays both halves of a conversation between a starlet and her resentful, bohemian cousin-she alternates between the slatternly and the prim with only a wig and body language. Finally, the former Warhol associate Taylor Mead gives the film a wonderful valedictory moment when he mysteriously hears Mahler's "I Have Lost Track of the World." -Michael Agger
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Jarmusch brings the audience addictive Nicotine and Caffeine, October 12, 2004

By 

Kim Anehall "www.cinematica.org" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Coffee and Cigarettes (DVD)

Coffee and Cigarettes was initiated in 1986 when Jim Jarmusch shot the first skit in black and white with Roberto Benigni as Bob and Steven Wright as Steven. The second scene was shot in 1989 with the twins, Cinqué Lee and Joie Lee, and the waiter Steve Buscemi where they discuss Elvis and the oppression of African-American musicians. The third piece was filmed in 1993 with Tom Waits and Iggy Pop meeting in a Californian bar where the two get together. This suggests that Jarmusch has been working on this idea for some years and there is much more to it than what meets the eye. The culmination of Coffee and Cigarettes came when all the 11 skits were put together in a film in 2003 for the audience to experience and ponder.

Self medicated existential philosophy, awkward dialogues with moments of silence, human connection, and health conscience characters drive the story of Coffee and Cigarettes where Jim Jarmusch displays 11 disjointed vignettes all set in different milieus. What ties the 11 incoherent skits together are the coffee and the cigarettes as they function as a brief opportunity for human connection away from time and responsibilities. The characters continue to inhale the nicotine and consume the caffeine during their meetings in order to stay alert and rid any slight hint of social anxiety. Yet, all the characters remain uncomfortable with one another as silence and meaningless conversation seems to fill their time cramped lives. This creates a socially symbolic oxymoron where the coffee and cigarettes are suppose to function as the key to human connection, but instead these two social drugs for self-treatment of anxiety and sleepiness become an impenetrable unfriendly wall.

There are several highlights in Coffee and Cigarettes as the film has a brilliant cast that occasionally seems to improvise. In addition, the characters in the film often play themselves in an invented situation, which enhances the authentic atmosphere around the characters as they sit down around a small table for coffee and cigarettes. Cate Blanchett's dual performance is dazzling as she presents a rich, famous and successful performer and her envious poor cousin. The connection between Alfred Molina and Steve Coogan brings the viewer gleeful vengeance as the two are apparently distant relatives. All the skits offer humor, insight, and some irony as they continue to inhale their nicotine and drink their caffeine leading to a terrific cinematic experience.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars not for the faint of brain, July 7, 2005

By 

TheSeventhSon "Brian" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Coffee and Cigarettes (DVD)

let me say, that i loved this movie. i loved it as a whole. i did not "love" every part of it. I think the part with Tom Waits & Iggy Pop is brilliantly awkward. I think Cate Blanchett can do no wrong. I enjoyed seeing someone else who feels that Nikola Tesla was awesomely bizarre (thanks Jack). I mean, don't get me wrong, some vignettes dragged, but others more than made up for it. When a scene was dragging on me, i just drifted off and enjoyed the cinematography. This movie is very much a "different" experience. With the kinda free-flow dialouge that makes movies by Robert Altman and Richard Linklater so endearing. And a shoulder shrugging hipness that makes Quentin Tarantino and Wes Anderson some of my personal favorites. This movie reminds me that Jim Jarmusch is a curious observer, just like me, and that he isn't just an aloof director, but that he experiences the pieces much like we do. He's our friend or guide, like in a Walt Whitman poem. But then again, i suppose this movie isn't for everyone. There is no plot to follow, and its not a particularly "flashy" film. It's not even terrible experimental in terms of concept. But i am glad that this is the case, cos oft times that type of stuff borders on pretention when in the wrong hands. The only really "challenge" this film poses, is the challenge of the way you choose to participate in it. I would enjoy seeing more of this kind of filmmaking cos i think it is a welcome change of pace from the "falsh/bang" of hollywood. Or maybe i just really like coffee....

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars YES!!, August 20, 2004

By 

A. Hartley (ny) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Coffee and Cigarettes (DVD)

YES!! what a beautiful, wonderful, funny movie!! definatly for jarmusch fans..if you need alot of stupid hollywood action and romance, dont see this movie. anyways...roberto beningi gave the most hilarious performance i have ever seen(yes i think even funnier than dbl)...and of course TOM (not freakin steve EA Solinas) waits and iggy pop were hilarious...and it was awesome how the same conversation came up later in rza and gza's conversation!! only jim jarmusch can take 18 years of film and make it fit together so beautifully!! yes! this film is alot like other jarmusch films, like night on earth and mystery train..made up of short clips...the one strange thing i noticed about coffee and cigarettes is that it was all in english...but this was just as mind blowing as jarmuschs other films...if you like jarmusch see this..i CANT WAIT FOR THE DVD TO COME OUT !!