I finally saw the film Paterson, Jim Jarmusch's beguiling take on a very private, blue collar poet in Paterson, New Jersey. In the end, I think the film is more a paean to Patterson, New Jersey, than to the poet protagonist, but it's still one of those occasional movies that may help broaden the audience for poetry, especially outside of its academic strongholds.
I was delighted to read in the credits the poetry used in the film was by Ron Padget. His straightforward, conversational verse seemed appropriate to the subject matter, both the town and the main character (also named Paterson.)
The story hovers in a kind of dreamscape between quotidian reality of Paterson's daily life, his work, his limited social interactions beyond the bus route and his home life, and a sort of phantasy world where you can't quite tell what is real and what is not.
One of the most affecting scenes in the movie comes very near the end, when a perhaps despondent Paterson (though his moods are always veiled in stoicism) sits in a park near the Passaic Falls and is visited by a mysterious Japanese tourist, who also happens to be a visitor. The visitor seems to almost intuit Paterson's poetic ambition, and seems to restore Paterson's muse after his private notebook of poetry is apparently destroyed. In the end, we hear Paterson reciting new work in his mind.
In some ways, the film seems to be a tribute to the little bits of poetry we all encounter in our daily habitats.
