Down by Law

Claire Denis, Assistant Director

“DJ Zack (Tom Waits) and pimp Jack (John Lurie) have the hep con blues. Framed for crimes they would be too slack to commit, they land in a shared cell in Orleans Parish Prison. Then Roberto (Roberto Benigni) comes along. This inexplicable, irrepressible naïf, an Italian magpie of American idioms, transports Jarmusch’s self-described ‘neo-Beat noir comedy’ into the realm of fractured fairy tale. Soon Jack, Zack, and Bob are off on a picaresque jailbreak journey, drifting in circles through the bayou toward a happy ending ‘like in a book for children’…kind of. Lensed in gorgeous black and white by Robby Müller.”

— Juliet Clark, BAMPFA

Film Details

Country: USA
Language: English
Year: 1986
Running time: 107 min
Format: 35mm
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Screenwriter: Jim Jarmusch
Producer: Alan Kleinberg
Cinematographer: Robby Müller
Editor: Melody London
Source: Janus Films

Films and schedules may be subject to change.

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