"Paterson", or place of poetry

Alexander Genis: For more than twenty years, the Academy of American poets every April has been arranging a festival of poetry, which has become the largest literary festival in the world. Millions participate in it - among them teachers and schoolchildren, librarians and publishers, and of course poets and their readers.

Rejoicing this tradition, “Ach” is not the first time joining these celebrations. So in this April, in each of our programs there is a place for an episode associated with poetry.

We will start with a subtle chamber film about the poet - “Paterson”, about which we are talking with the host of our film, director Andrei Zadansky.

Andrei Zadansky: “Paterson” is similar and not similar to the previous films of Jarmusha. It is similar to a leisurely pace-rhythm, a slowly arising history. It is the emerging, for the contours of what we have to find out, deliberately blurred and not defined. History seems to pop up, but not from the water, but from the flow of secondary accidents or nothing meaningful details. The film is not like the author’s frankness, nudity, if you like.

“Paterson” - a film about the poet and about poetry - has very accurate geographical, historical and literary roots. Paterson is a town in New Jersey, not far from New York, 20-30 minutes through the George Washington bridge. The town is known for its industrial past. He was famous for the production of silk (at one time Paterson was even called the "silk city") and locomotives. All this was once. Now about 150 thousand people live there, among its population there are a lot of immigrants from Muslim countries, which is doubly interesting now. Even in Paterson there is a river Passek, which winds through the state of New Jersey, and there is a waterfall, less well-known than Niagar, of course, but nevertheless, an impressive waterfall. This is a geographical and historical source of the film.

In Paterson, he lived at the end of the 19th and first half of the twentieth century William Carlos Williams, the largest American poet, Latin American origin, and a doctor by profession. One of the most famous poems by William Carlos Williams is also called “Paterson”, it is considered an exemplary epic modernist collage. Williams had a fundamental impact on Allen Ginzberg, and on a whole school of New York poets. It is no coincidence that the verses of Allen Ginzberg entered the collage of the poems "Paterson". This is a literary and historical source of the film, so to speak, poetic geniuses that live both in Paterson itself and in the minds of our main character.

Alexander Genis: Here we must also add that Williams was an ally and rival of the largest modernist poets of the twentieth century, especially the Ezra Pound. And his poem “Paterson” was conceived as the antithesis “Cantos” Ezra Pound, as well as the opponent of Eliot's famous poem “Fillar Earth”. That is, we are talking about the largest achievements of Anglo -American poetry of the twentieth century. Williams, who knew all the above, and with the pound he seems to have studied even in the same class.

Andrey Zadansky: They had a difficult relationship.

Alexander Genis: They were rivals, but they knew about each other and followed each other. But it is important that Williams's poems were very different from another modernist poetry. His main idea was in direct poetry without metaphors, without a historical context. He wanted to write poetry so that they were modern. This was an idea and a pound, only he went to this in a completely different way.

In short, Paterson in American literature is a monument of literature, and not just in industry. I have been to Paterson more than once, it is really a city of silk barons, there are luxurious mansions that are already falling apart. Now it is really a very wretched city, but once it was a symbol of the American industry. That is why Williams chose him in heroes. This is a very American venture. Williams knew Paterson very well, and he left a monument to this city in American culture.

Andrey Zadansky: That's it. Jarmush takes the next step, again, why are we talking about the context for so long? Because Jarmush makes a very conceptual film. Our main character in the film is also the name of Paterson, he is married, he has a wife Laura. Doesn't you say anything to the name?

Alexander Genis: Muse of Petrarch.

Andrey Zadansky: True. However, Paterson is a simple bus driver, a very good driver, neat, accurate and caring, I would even say an impeccable bus driver. And Paterson writes poetry, he is a poet. He begins to fold the lines at home at breakfast. The source of inspiration is such a trifle as a matchbox. He writes poetry before the start of his route, writes at lunchtime, when he sits on a bench in the park before the second largest waterfall in North America, writes at home, in a small closet where books and instruments lie.

A significant part and may be the most interesting part of the film is the birth or, more precisely, the addition of poems. Jarmush lays out the appearance of a poem into the components - the first line, the second, a pause on the work day of the bus driver, a new stanza: the first, second, third, then again a pause, an overheard conversation by accident on the bus, then the third, fourth and so the whole poem. So the poem by Jarmusha turns into an intrigue, in the expectation of what will happen next, what it leads to. It seems that it is not a cinematic action - the appearance of a poem, it turns out to be exclusively cinematic: expectation - resolution.

Alexander Genis: Which, of course, is amazing, because watching poetry is composed is the same as watching how the paint dries. Moreover, the verses of the hero of our film are as simple as the verses of his idol Williams, in which the most famous poem is called “Red Call”, and the chicken coop describes another poem. That is, Williams wrote about the simplest things, there was no exotic. At the same time, the process of the birth of words, on the one hand, it is fascinating, on the other hand - how to show it on Ekarna?

Andrey Zadansky: Jarmush did it. And in this slow unhurried film, where the relationship of Paterson and his wife Laura becomes not so much the main story as the second, distracting from poetry. It is the second storyline and the third character of the film - Bulldog Marvin - prepare the culmination of the film and the denouement. I do not want to say anything else, I only admit that in the end I coughed with delight. In the final of the film there is a statement of authorship in the cinema, and in art, and in poetry, and this impressively impresses me. The one who watched or watches the film will be as fascinated by this picture as I will forever remember the “aha” that sounds in the finale. The English “yeah” sounds almost the same as Russian, and means the same. And this is “aha” at the end of the film is unforgettable.

Alexander Genis: We must add that the verses in the film are written by the famous American poet, beloved poet Jarmusha. His name is Ron Padgett. He is an old man, he is 74 years old, he is a long -celebrity. These poems resemble Japanese hokka, they, like Williams’s poems, are very direct, there is no context, they beat directly on the target. But there is a poem by Jarmush himself. For Jarmusha, this is extremely important, because, firstly, this is his favorite poet, and secondly, this is a film that he had been working on for 20 years. That is, this is clearly the author’s statement, a kind of confession.

Andrey Zagdansky: Yes, confession. The film was prepared for work 20 years ago. The one poem that Jarmush himself wrote does not give authorship not to the hero of the film, but a small charming girl, which may be a poet, or maybe not. Maybe today she was visited by such inspiration, she wrote these absolutely wonderful lines, to which he returns several times in the film. This is fundamentally important for understanding the film. Because ultimately you come out after this film as a poet.

Alexander Genis: Jarmush Master of Small Cinema. Many years ago, I was at the New York Film Festival at a meeting with Jarmush, he told his favorite story. After the first successes, he was invited by Laurentis, the famous producer. Jarmush says: "I went to his office, and he has more a desk than my apartment." Laurentis asks him: “When will you make a real movie?” To what Jarmush replied: "When will you make a real movie?" What kind of movie is this real or not?

Andrey Zadansky: This is an absolutely real movie. It can be rhythmically slightly stretched. I went out after the film not only in a good mood, but with physical confirmation of a good mood - I was scared to eat. Several times I noticed that after a good film there was an acute feeling of hunger. This is the triumph of life: the body wants its own too.