Prison break
A screening of Jim Jarmusch’s best film
There may not be a more perfect indie film than Jim Jarmusch’s
Down by Law (1986), which screens tonight as part of the new weekly Para-Cinema series at Galapagos. Shot in sumptuous black-and-white and set in New Orleans and the backwoods of Louisiana, the movie stars legendary musicians Tom Waits and John Lurie, and a then unknown Roberto Benigni, as complete strangers forced to share a jail cell together. The petty bickering between poor-excuse-for-a-pimp Jack (Lurie) and heartbroken, washed-up DJ Zack (Waits) is hilarious, and Benigni, as a quirky, perpetually optimistic Italian man who speaks broken English, is one of cinema’s most endearing characters. As funny as the film is, though, it’s also existentially poignant—especially when the characters face a literal crossroads and have to decide whether to stay together or go their separate ways. At 7, Galapagos Art Space, 70 North 6th Street, Brooklyn, 718-782-5188, $8 KEN SWITZER