Your conversation with Jarmusch is a fantastic read, Rob. Really good stuff. I'm now embarrassed to admit that I've never seen any of his films. Any suggestions for where I should start?

I'm also embarrassed to admit that I never connected Errata Rob David with Paste Rob Davis.

Hey Darren, thanks very much. I'm not very good at guiding conversations, but Jarmusch was generous with time and topics.

I think his second feature, Stranger Than Paradise, is a great place to see where he began. (He made an earlier feature in college, where Nicholas Ray was his mentor, but Stranger Than Paradise is what ignited his career.) He has jokingly described the film as a "semi-neorealist black-comedy in the style of an imaginary Eastern-European film director obsessed with Ozu and familiar with the 1950?s American television show ?The Honeymooners?." He doesn't really mean that (in fact the quote is from the press notes that he wrote for the film), but it's a neat little movie, anyway.

If you like that, his next film, Down By Law is similar in spirit and lots of fun. In fact, after 4 or 5 films it seemed like he'd kind of hacked out a narrow path for his work — always interesting, no longer surprising — but then came Dead Man which retained his sense of humor and pacing but was also far more serious and complex than anything he'd done before, and it had a visual beauty that he hadn't really attempted previously. Rosenbaum wrote one of those BFI books about it. Harvey Weinstein, who bought the rights to distribute the finished film sight unseen, hated it when he finally saw it and assumed that since he'd paid millions for it he could get Jarmusch to recut it. Nope. So Miramax didn't promote it. Here are Jarmusch's thoughts on that.

Anyway, you should check him out. I'm eager to see what he's doing next. I know he's working on two features, both of them in color (he has made roughly the same number of black and white films as color ones), one of them starring Bill Murray.

By the way, I, too, haven't reconciled the Errata Robert Davis with the Paste Robert Davis, but I'm working on it. It's funny how things go in circles. I found your site a while back (before you had a blog?) when I was looking for commentary on Good Men, Good Women. Your site has always been an inspiration. So classy. Then I came to find you over at Doug's filmjourney. Weird.

Thanks for mentioning that the Scorsese documentary is available. I cut out the review in the NY Times a hundred years ago to remind me to keep an eye out.

Now, why am I only lukewarm towards Fellini? I love Antonioni and De Sica. What's my problem with the acclaimed king of them all? I'm seriously looking for an opinion because my Fellini unhappiness disturbs me a bit, as if my critical bearings are off.

I'm honestly a bit ambivalent toward Fellini, myself, and I think it's one reason I haven't sought out more of his work. I think when he's on, he's really great. 8 1/2, for example, although I usually prefer him in smaller doses. I think I associate him with artifice and superficiality, even though he comments on it as much as he revels in it.

But, if I recall, Scorsese not only puts 8 1/2 in the context of Fellini's career but also pays particular attention to his early work, which I haven't seen at all. He even suggests that one early film was an influence on his own Mean Streets (!). It made me think I should work harder at seeing more of Fellini's stuff.

Scorsese spends a good chunk of time on Antonioni, and he points out something I'd never noticed: in L'Avventura, Antonioni made the character that everyone thought would be the lead disappear into thin air, and the same year, in Psycho, Hitchcock did likewise. As bold and adventurous as that was for a Hollywood movie, even Hitchcock explained where she went. :-)

The ambivalence over Fellini is not so unusual; I for one don't really care for anything that he made after 8 1/2, when his films became really carnivalesque (rather than just showing a fondness for the circus). Scorsese also seems to be showing more affection for Fellini's earlier, more neorealist (although more "polished") themed films. I believe that my first Fellini was actually Satyricon, and it really was quite a turn off and didn't pique my interest at all. It was only after I saw La Strada that I thought he was worth a second look. Anyway, Nights of Cabiria remains my favorite Fellini if you're looking for suggestions. ;)

Interesting about L'Avventura and Psycho! Let's pretend it was an "influence" rather than "an out and out theft."

And thank you for the suggestions for further viewing. I would be happy to hear more. I liked 8 1/2 with some reservations, thought Fellini's Roma was pretty good for what it was, but couldn't get past the first half hour of Satyricon, which I thought was dreadful--the self-regard that Fellini mostly sent up in 8 1/2 turned into self-infatuation in Satyricon. I really want to see La Dolce Vita, but last I knew it wasn't available on DVD yet. Perhaps this state of affairs has changed?

Oh, I think L'Avventura and Psycho were released at roughly the same time (if IMDB is to be believed, they premiered the same month in 1960), so I think it was just a very interesting coincidence. If anything, it demonstrates how Hitchcock's discovery as a serious artist was probably long overdue. He was as adventurous as the European filmmakers of the day (month), despite being popular.

I also like Fellini's short Toby Dammit, 45 condensed minutes of what I like about Fellini, but it's crucial to see it with the original multi-lingual soundtrack rather than the all-dubbed-into-English one.

A revival print of La Dolce Vita is making the rounds. Maybe that will lead to a DVD. I missed the revival of Nights of Cabiria, unfortunately. I've never seen that one.

La Dolce Vita is supposed to be coming out in 2 DVD set in September. It should be an improvement over the UK issue (which looks pretty good, but this one is supposed to be restored).