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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)

Coffee and Cigarettes (2003)

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Released 1-Feb-2005

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Main Menu Audio
Theatrical Trailer
Gallery-Photo
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 2003
Running Time 92:25
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 4 Directed By Jim Jarmusch
Studio
Distributor
Smokescreen Inc
Warner Home Video
Starring Roberto Benigni
Steven Wright
Joie Lee
Cinqué Lee
Steve Buscemi
Iggy Pop
Tom Waits
Joseph Rigano
Vinny Vella
Vinny Vella Jr.
Renee French
E.J. Rodriguez
Alex Descas
Case ?
RPI $24.95 Music Tom Waits


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.78:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    It has been my pleasure to review many great art house films while writing for this site. Being a huge fan of Jim Jarmusch (whose credits include the amazing Dead Man and Ghost Dog: Way Of The Samurai), I jumped at the chance to review this inventive artist’s most recent film Coffee And Cigarettes.

    Unlike a feature film, Coffee And Cigarettes is a series of short films built around the theme of drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes. It is to a collection of short stories what a 2 hour movie is to a novel. While it lacks the depth of Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, it has similar themes running through it, ranging from social commentary to the power of storytelling.

    I find this film very hard to describe without a point of reference, and having no real plot to discuss it is difficult to even give an outline. Accordingly, this review is going to be somewhat short. What I can say is that if you are a fan of Jarmusch, you will most likely enjoy this film. It exhibits a lot of his trademarks, but plays up the comedy a lot more than the deeper aspects of humanity. But it’s a very sly sense of humour, and those of you who aren’t used to Jarmusch’s wit may find this film boring or pointless. However, some of these short tales really had me in tears.

    Coffee And Cigarettes is not for everybody, but those of you who do enjoy an offbeat comedy should really look into this. Subdued, low key fun, but hilarious if you are in the mood.

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Transfer Quality

Video

    Filmed in gloriously slick black and white (a return to Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise days), this transfer is excellent. It is, however, fairly obvious by the quality of the original which of these were in the original short film collection, and which were added later in order to make this up to a feature film.

    Transferred here in 1.78:1 16x9 enhanced, which is close to its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio, definition is excellent. Lines are smooth and move well. You can make out the fine detail on people's clothing and their faces, which is important given that a lot of this is shot in a close up, or close quarter way.

    Shadow detail is also excellent, which is a good thing, although some of these vignettes are slightly better than others - again a key indicator of which were part of the original short film collection, and those that were done more recently.

    Colour is a non-issue here, but in terms of black and white, the greys are well balanced, the blacks nice, deep, pure blacks, and the whites clear and luminescent.

    Transfer artefacts were extremely minimal, and I noticed nothing noteworthy. Some minor background aliasing is about the worst you can expect. But even this is something you will have to get up close and go looking for (and I reviewed this on a pretty big screen).

    There are some film artefacts, again generally only on the original shorts, and even then only minor flecks of dirt and the like.

    Annoyingly, there are no subtitles. My deaf friends were upset. Do better Warner Home Video.

    This is a single-layered disc.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Audio is available in English 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround only.

    Being an entirely dialogue driven film, dialogue is by far the most important part of the soundtrack. Thankfully, it has been very well reproduced here, and you will have no difficulty understanding these people, barring some of the unusual accents.

    Other than dialogue, though, there is very little else to comment on. Surrounds are fairly non-existent.

    The only thing worthy of note is the music, which is sparse, but when used, it is very effective.

    There is very minimal subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Menus

    All menus are presented in 1.33:1, non-16x9 enhanced. The main menu has a 2.0 Dolby Stereo audio track with snippets from the film.

Theatrical Trailer (2:07)

    Presented 1.78:1 letterbox, 2.0 Dolby Stereo.

Still Gallery

    Presented in 1.33:1, Full Frame, there are 6 silent stills from the movie here.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    The R1 release is distributed through MGM and puts the R4 release to shame. According to Widescreen Review, it ncludes:

    Given the calibre of R1 transfers of late, that make NTSC look smooth and clean, I see no reason to favour the local release, unless you can find it dirt cheap here.

Summary

    Coffee And Cigarettes is quintessential Jarmusch - quirky, fun, and yet with a layer or two of deeper meaning hiding down there if you are willing to go look.

    Video is very good, although variable.

    The soundtrack is good for what it is, but this is definitely not a demo disc.

    The extras are very light on and basically a waste of space.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Edward McKenzie (I am Jack's raging bio...)
Tuesday, August 23, 2005
Review Equipment
DVDMomitsu V880N Deluxe, using DVI output
DisplayHewlett Packard ep7120 DLP Projector with 80" Widescreen HDTV Projector Screen. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials. This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Video Essentials/Digital Video Essentials.
AmplificationMarantz SR7000
SpeakersDigital Accoustics Emerald 703G - Centre, Front Left & Right, Rear Left & Right Satellites, Subwoofer

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