Down By Law (film)
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Down By Law (film)
''Down by Law'' is a 1986 American black-and-white independent film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch and starring Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Roberto Benigni. The film centers on the arrest, incarceration, and escape from jail of three men. It discards jailbreak film conventions by focusing on the interaction between the convicts rather than on the mechanics of the escape. A key element in the film is Robby Müller's slow-moving camerawork, which captures the architecture of New Orleans and the Louisiana bayou to which the cellmates escape. Plot summary Three men, previously unknown to each other, are arrested in New Orleans and placed in the same cell. Both Zack (Waits), a disc jockey, and Jack (Lurie), a pimp, have been set up, neither having committed the crime for which they have been arrested. Their cellmate Bob (Benigni, in his first international role), an Italian tourist who understands minimal English, was imprisoned for accidental manslaughter. Zack and Jack soo ...
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Jim Jarmusch
James Robert Jarmusch (; born January 22, 1953) is an American film director and screenwriter. He has been a major proponent of independent cinema since the 1980s, directing films including '' Stranger Than Paradise'' (1984), '' Down by Law'' (1986), ''Mystery Train'' (1989), ''Dead Man'' (1995), '' Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai'' (1999), ''Coffee and Cigarettes'' (2003), '' Broken Flowers'' (2005), ''Only Lovers Left Alive'' (2013), '' Paterson'' (2016), and '' The Dead Don't Die'' (2019). ''Stranger Than Paradise'' was added to the National Film Registry in December 2002. As a musician Jarmusch has composed music for his films and released three albums with Jozef van Wissem. Early life Jarmusch was born in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, the middle of three children of middle-class suburbanites. His mother, of German and Irish descent, had been a reviewer of film and theatre for the ''Akron Beacon Journal'' before marrying his father, a businessman of Czech and German descent who wo ...
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Manslaughter
Manslaughter is a common law legal term for homicide considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is sometimes said to have first been made by the ancient Athenian lawmaker Draco in the 7th century BC. The definition of manslaughter differs among legal jurisdictions. Types Voluntary In voluntary manslaughter, the offender had intent to kill or seriously harm, but acted "in the moment" under circumstances that could cause a reasonable person to become emotionally or mentally disturbed. There are mitigating circumstances that reduce culpability, such as when the defendant kills only with an intent to cause serious bodily harm. Voluntary manslaughter in some jurisdictions is a lesser included offense of murder. The traditional mitigating factor was provocation; however, others have been added in various jurisdictions. The most common type of voluntary manslaughter occurs when a defendant is provoked to commit homicide. This i ...
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Film Noir
Film noir (; ) is a cinematic term used primarily to describe stylish Hollywood crime dramas, particularly those that emphasize cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of American ''film noir''. Film noir of this era is associated with a low-key, black-and-white visual style that has roots in German Expressionist cinematography. Many of the prototypical stories and much of the attitude of classic noir derive from the hardboiled school of crime fiction that emerged in the United States during the Great Depression. The term ''film noir'', French for 'black film' (literal) or 'dark film' (closer meaning), was first applied to Hollywood films by French critic Nino Frank in 1946, but was unrecognized by most American film industry professionals of that era. Frank is believed to have been inspired by the French literary publishing imprint Série noire, founded in 1945. Cinema historians and critics defined the category ...
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Pulp Magazine
Pulp magazines (also referred to as "the pulps") were inexpensive fiction magazines that were published from 1896 to the late 1950s. The term "pulp" derives from the cheap wood pulp paper on which the magazines were printed. In contrast, magazines printed on higher-quality paper were called "glossies" or "slicks". The typical pulp magazine had 128 pages; it was wide by high, and thick, with ragged, untrimmed edges. The pulps gave rise to the term pulp fiction in reference to run-of-the-mill, low-quality literature. Pulps were the successors to the penny dreadfuls, dime novels, and short-fiction magazines of the 19th century. Although many respected writers wrote for pulps, the magazines were best known for their lurid, exploitative, and sensational subject matter, even though this was but a small part of what existed in the pulps. Successors of pulps include paperback books, digest magazines, and men's adventure magazines. Modern superhero comic books are sometimes considere ...
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Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert became the first film critic to win the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Neil Steinberg of the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' said Ebert "was without question the nation's most prominent and influential film critic," and Kenneth Turan of the ''Los Angeles Times'' called him "the best-known film critic in America." Ebert was known for his intimate, Midwestern writing voice and critical views informed by values of populism and humanism. Writing in a prose style intended to be entertaining and direct, he made sophisticated cinematic and analytical ideas more accessible to non-specialist audiences. While a populist, Ebert frequently endorsed foreign and independent films he believed would be appreciated by mainstream viewers, which often resulted in such film ...
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The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid digital subscribers. It also is a producer of popular podcasts such as '' The Daily''. Founded in 1851 by Henry Jarvis Raymond and George Jones, it was initially published by Raymond, Jones & Company. The ''Times'' has won 132 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any newspaper, and has long been regarded as a national " newspaper of record". For print it is ranked 18th in the world by circulation and 3rd in the U.S. The paper is owned by the New York Times Company, which is publicly traded. It has been governed by the Sulzberger family since 1896, through a dual-class share structure after its shares became publicly traded. A. G. Sulzberger, the paper's publisher and the company's chairman, is the fifth generation of the family to head the pa ...
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Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang. Although the name "Rotten Tomatoes" connects to the practice of audiences throwing rotten tomatoes in disapproval of a poor stage performance, the original inspiration comes from a scene featuring tomatoes in the Canadian film ''Léolo'' (1992). Since January 2010, Rotten Tomatoes has been owned by Flixster, which was in turn acquired by Warner Bros in 2011. In February 2016, Rotten Tomatoes and its parent site Flixster were sold to Comcast's Fandango. Warner Bros. retained a minority stake in the merged entities, including Fandango. History Rotten Tomatoes was launched on August 12, 1998, as a spare-time project by Senh Duong. His objective in creating Rotten Tomatoes was "to create a site where people can get access to reviews from ...
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Pascale Ogier
Pascale Marguerite Cécile Claude Colette Nicolas (26 October 1958 – 25 October 1984), better known as Pascale Ogier, was a French actress. She won the Volpi Cup, and posthumously received a César Award nomination for her role in the 1984 film ''Full Moon in Paris''. Biography Ogier was born as Pascale Marguerite Cécile Claude Colette Nicolas in Paris on 26 October 1958. She was the daughter of actress Bulle Ogier and musician Gilles Nicolas. Ogier also chose an acting career, first with appearances on stage. In 1982, she and her mother co-wrote the screenplay and starred in director Jacques Rivette's film '' Le Pont du Nord''. For her performance in director Éric Rohmer's film ''Full Moon in Paris'', Ogier was nominated for a César Award for Best Actress at the 10th César Awards and won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the 41st Venice International Film Festival. Shortly afterwards, on the day before she was to celebrate her 26th birthday, Ogier died of a heart atta ...
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1986 Cannes Film Festival
The 39th Cannes Film Festival was held from 8 to 19 May 1986. The Palme d'Or went to '' The Mission'' by Roland Joffé. The festival opened with ''Pirates'', directed by Roman Polanski and closed with ''El Amor brujo'', directed by Carlos Saura. Juries Main competition The following people were appointed as the Jury of the 1986 feature film competition: *Sydney Pollack, American director, producer, and actor (Jury President) *Alexandre Mnouchkine, French producer *Alexandre Trauner, Hungarian-French production designer *Charles Aznavour, French-Armenian singer-songwriter *Danièle Thompson, French director and screenwriter *István Szabó, Hungarian director and screenwriter *Lino Brocka, Filipino director and screenwriter *Philip French, English film critic and producer *Sônia Braga, Brazilian actress *Tonino Delli Colli, Italian cinematographer Camera d'Or The following people were appointed as the Jury of the 1986 Camera d'Or: * Anne Fichelle * Christophe Ghristi (cinephil ...
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The Way Of The Samurai
''Way of the Samurai'', known in Japan as , is a PlayStation 2 action-adventure game developed by Acquire and released in 2002. Set in 19th century Japan, the player takes on the role of a rōnin who wanders into a remote village and becomes involved in a conflict between rival clans. A notable feature of the game is the branching storyline, which allows player decisions to radically alter the course of the story. An updated version titled was released in Japan in 2003. It was based on the western versions of the game, and as such, it included the non-sword weapons, bugfixes, the exit for ending the game early, hard mode, and horizontal text of those versions. The game was followed by three sequels. ''Way of the Samurai'' was also released on PlayStation Portable under the name on September 18, 2008 in Japan, prior to the release of ''Way of the Samurai 3''. Plot The story of ''Way of the Samurai'' takes place in 1878, after the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate and the start of ...
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Dead Man
''Dead Man'' is a 1995 American acid western film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch. It stars Johnny Depp, Gary Farmer, Billy Bob Thornton, Iggy Pop, Crispin Glover, John Hurt, Michael Wincott, Lance Henriksen, Gabriel Byrne, Mili Avital, and Robert Mitchum. The movie, set in the late- 1800s, follows William Blake, a meek accountant on the run after murdering a man. He has a chance encounter with enigmatic Native American spirit-guide "Nobody", who believes Blake is the reincarnation of the visionary English poet William Blake. The film is shot entirely in monochrome. Neil Young composed the guitar-dominated soundtrack with portions he improvised while watching the movie footage. Many have considered it a premier postmodern Western. It has been compared to Cormac McCarthy's novel ''Blood Meridian''. Plot William Blake (Johnny Depp), an accountant from Cleveland, Ohio, rides by train to the frontier company town of Machine to take up a promised accounting job in the town's me ...
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Mystery Train (film)
''Mystery Train'' is a 1989 comedy-drama anthology film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch and set in Memphis, Tennessee. The film is a triptych of stories involving foreign protagonists, unfolding over the course of the same night. "Far from Yokohama" features a Japanese couple ( Youki Kudoh and Masatoshi Nagase) on a cultural pilgrimage, "A Ghost" focuses on an Italian widow (Nicoletta Braschi) stranded in the city overnight, and "Lost in Space" follows the misadventures of a newly single and unemployed Englishman (Joe Strummer) and his reluctant companions (Rick Aviles and Steve Buscemi). The narratives are linked by a run-down flophouse overseen by a night clerk ( Screamin' Jay Hawkins) and his disheveled bellboy (Cinqué Lee), the use of Elvis Presley's song " Blue Moon", and a gunshot. The starting point for the script was the ensemble cast of friends and previous collaborators Jarmusch had conceived characters for, while the tripartite formal structure of the film w ...
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