Every season has an end
Words disappear
Words once so clear
Only echoes
Passing through the night
The lines on my face
The fingers once traced
Fading reflections
Of what was....
Thoughts rearrange
Familiar, now strange
All my schemes
Drifting on the wind
Spring brings the rain
With winter comes pain
Every season has an end
I』ll try
To see through disguise
For the clouds were there
Blocking out the sun
The sun...
Thoughts rearrange
Familiar, now strange
All my schemes
Drifting on the wind
Spring brings the rain
With winter comes pain
Every season has an end
There’s an end...
With the background music of Ethionpian Jazz, begins this movie, the lyrics are very clearly sung, pictures showing an unidentified woman puts a pink-envolope letter into a mailbox. Then a trip of searching starts. After I finished this movie, I realized that from the beginning to the end, the director, Jim Jarmusch didn't mean to reveal this mystery. We, together with Don Johnson, who used to live a Don-Juan life, were fooled by the director, or we maysay, the never-sure-who-they-are mother, or ex-girlfriend and a "hypothetic" son. The answer remained a may-be in the end. The color pink could be worn or used by any woman. The woman could possibly be Laura, still wearing the pearls sent by Don and keeping the picture he took for her. The answer could possibly be Carmen, who WAS a passionate lawyer, and now IS a communicator between pets and keepers and has a magical mind-reading cat named WINSTON, which is the same with Don's neighbor. Another possible nominee is Penny, who seems very miserable, but guarded by two loyal ganster-like male friends, because Don happened to find a pink typewriter deserted outside her broken house.
Nay, these clues doesn't mean anything., even the pink ribbon on the "suspect" British-accent young man's bag can be a coincidence. But the director is trying to drive Don and the audience crazy, leading him and us to realize the deep yearning for a family, or someone to connect with., so that we don't have to sit pathetically during the holiday or weekend, being alone in the living room, looking back at our early ludicrous life, thinking for a compensation. We can't imagine what a Don Juan our protagonist used to be, and obviously he is not a Don Juan now. From his bahavior we know that he means to settle down, though he was not willing to admit this at the very beginning.
Generally speaking, solving a mystery or a problem is a virtue of a good good film, unless there are significant necessasities for an open ending. Apparently, Jim Jarmusch has a reason for this open ending, but the question is, does it appear to be necessary for the audience? As for me, I think there is, because the purpose of Jarmusch is not on solving the mystery of the unidentified mother and son, but the problems inside a middle-aged ex-Don Juan's heart. He emphasized it through the background video on the TV, Don Juan, pointing out that being a Don Juan wasn't so pleasant as it appears to everybody. Don loves his current girlfriend, but he just desn't know how to show it, so he hates to be called Don Juan. He was not a coward to face his past and his resposibilties. So he started the journey, accepting the kindness of his over-enthusiatic neighbour, who seems to be his only loyal friend. He knows, however, that the trip was not for finding back the past, but for moving on with the present and waiting patiently for the future, his future, though he wasn't sure what that is. That's why, in the end, he said to the young man, who he thought may possibly be his son, as a so-called "philosophical tip",:
The past is gone. I know that. The future isn't here yet, whatever it is going to be. So all there is, is this, the present.
Jarmusch, a veteran director of phylosophical movies, this time still wants to discuss with us the philosophy of facing the truth of our life. He put his humor into this movie. When I hear the cat is coincicently also called Winston, I know it's a joke, a cold joke (ironing the silliness of Winston, a detective who is a little bit paranoid). This movie is full of cold jokes, all the coincidences are cold jokes, all the pinks, the same style sports suits of different colors on 3 different persons (Don, young man and a stranger in a car passing by in the last scene.) It would be very interesting if you take a plunge into the study of those coincidence, of course they are not just for fun. A cold joke always links an irony with an insight. Some comments say that Jarmusch is very proficient with using music in movies. That's true. His use of Ethiopian music does achieve several effects. As far as I can tell, there are at least 4 functions:
1. Since Winston is an Ethionpian-American, and he has a lovely and traditional family, the music reflects the director's approval for traditional value for families.
2. The foreign music produce a tone of absurdity, which is the color of this movie, leading us to a seemingly paranoid inner world, or inner state every one might experience in certain circumstances.
3. Ethiopian jazz seems to be perfectly fit for road trip. The drumming produce a feeling of "one the way".
4. The Ethionpain CD sounds a little bit drowsy. What is the impression Don gives us, living a drowsy life, aimless and a little bit hopeless.
In the end, the voice who started the movie sings the familiar tune again:
Words disappear
Words once so clear
Only echoes
Passing through the night
The lines on my face
The fingers once traced
Fading reflections
Of what was....
Thoughts rearrange
Familiar, now strange
All my schemes
Drifting on the wind
Spring brings the rain
With winter comes pain
Every season has an end
I』ll try
To see through disguise
For the clouds were there
Blocking out the sun
The sun...
Thoughts rearrange
Familiar, now strange
All my schemes
Drifting on the wind
Spring brings the rain
With winter comes pain
Every season has an end
There’s an end...
When our life is in a mess, be patient, and try to reveal the deep truth. Then take a drowsy trip to somewhere. Maybe we would find out what to do next. The past mysteries might not be solved, but it's there for a reason. Every season has an end, the drowsy vacation, the lonliness, the drifting, everything has an end, an end.