Broken Flowers

Don Johnston, a former Don Juan, has made a small fortune in computers and wants a quiet retirement. The trip is not his idea: his busybody neighbour Winston, a mystery novel enthusiast, tracks down 5 addresses, hands Don the maps and the flight bookings and talks him into going. He reaches 4 of the women. The last of them died before the film begins, and all he can leave her is flowers on a grave. Jim Jarmusch ran the letter trick on the set as well. He had each of the 4 leading actresses write a pink letter in character, and the one used on screen is a composite of those 4. Bill Murray asked that the shoot stay close to his house; Jarmusch agreed and said the limitation helped. On the DVD extra the clapperboards still read Dead Flowers. The score comes from the Ethiopian jazz composer Mulatu Astatke, and the film is dedicated to the French director Jean Eustache. At Cannes it won the Grand Prix, the step below the Palme d’Or, which went to the Dardenne brothers. A good fit if you are here for the few minutes spent on each doorstep rather than for an answer. Not for viewers who want to be told who the son is; the ending was left open deliberately.