It would be very easy to find fault with Broken Flowers. It's too slow, nothing really happens, the main character is one-dimensional. Robert McKee would no doubt be apopleptic with rage. And they're all fair criticisms. The movie is slow, the protagonist is a closed book, nothing much does happen.
This is of course all done very deliberately by Jim Jarmusch. Like that teacher you didn't like in high school, he asks you to do more work than you're used…
There are certainly glimpses of what Bergman would later go on to become in this film, but there are also a whole lot of scenes that don't really work all that well. And it's not helped by Bengt Eklund's anemic performance as the love interest.
What do you say about films like this? They evoke so many deep emotions in you that are hard (if not impossible) to put into words and leave you shellshocked. This is what good art can do to a person.
I always get a kick out of films and books that manage to do a lot with very little, and this is certainly one of those films. I mean, if you boil this down it's just a guy driving around…
I just absolutely love this film. I think part of the reason why it works so well (and paradoxically why it's one of Fellini's least-known films) is that Cabiria herself isn't immediately likeable. She's boastful and rude and bad-tempered, and a chatterbox to boot. So you kind of have to put a little bit of effort in (or at least I had to) before you start to feel any real empathy for her. But when she finally does win you…
