Jim Jarmusch
Daunbailo'

We must certainly acknowledge that director Jim Jarmush, a surrealist countercurrent in American cinema, succeeds where few others do when creating feature films of this artistic magnitude. " Daunbailo' " or " Down by law " in its American version is the third feature film by this visionary artist, oscillating between the sad and the surreal, the comic and the dramatic, played on an original thematic thread that is never incoherent in its plot.

Three small-time criminals framed for crimes "much greater than themselves" meet in prison. Different stories of theirs, different characters: the first, Zack (an excellent Tom Waits, also the composer of the soundtrack), a talented but professionally inconsistent disk-jockey, caught during "a small job" for some local boss; the second, Jack (John Lurie, also contributing to the soundtrack) is a pimp framed by the police; the third is Roberto, shortened by himself to "Bob" (Roberto Benigni), a skillful swindler who, after being discovered, felt attacked and killed a man. They manage to escape from prison together and find themselves fugitives in the woods, forced to live that situation together; after a series of quarrels and squabbles, the two Americans realize that their paths must part as soon as possible to regain full freedom. An essential appearance by Nicoletta Braschi who reunites with Roberto in the poignant finale.

The black and white skillfully exploited by the American director results in a much more hermetic rendering of the images, essential and at the same time redundant. The sequences of imprisonment are steeped in solitude and nonsense, noteworthy is Benigni's contribution, giving a wonderfully unique touch to his character, undoubtedly the most successful; with his appearance, he adds color to the other two characters, removing that shell of roughness that tormented them both before and after the arrest.

The film is a splendid fable for adults, intelligent and never banal, divinely shot by a director of enormous talent, a small pearl that leaves a certain bitterness, like all fables, but opens many avenues for reflection.