Down By Law

This screening took place on Sunday, November 13, 2011 at 8:00 pmYukon Arts Centre

Jarmusch’s beautiful and groundbreaking 1986 feature is about the interaction between three convicts (Tom Waits, Roberto Benigni, John Lurie) in a Louisiana prison. Unemployed disc jockey Zack, played by the ever entertaining Tom Waits, and pimp Jack (John Lurie) end up in prison for being too laid-back to avoid being framed for crimes they didn’t commit. They end up sharing a cell with eccentric Italian tourist Roberto, whose limited command of the English language is both entertaining and infuriating. Filmed in crisp black and white, Down by Law evocatively captures the architecture of New Orleans and the Louisiana bayou to which the cellmates escape.