Rachael Mahan

Dr. Tsai

DNCE 3373.50

13 September 2018

Coffee and Cigarettes Viewing Response

This movie was quite different for me. It was a style out of the ordinary of what I

normally watch not only because I tend to prefer romance, drama, horror, or comedy, but also

because it didn’t follow a single-story line. Although I wasn’t a huge fan of this film, it was still

interesting to step out of my comfort zone and view something I wouldn’t have if it weren’t for

this class.

I didn’t really have anything to compare this film to because it is the first of this style that

I have watched before. We also didn’t have any extra readings this week to compare the film

with. One thing this film did bring to mind was an acting experience. One commercial I was in

when I was very young was called for a stress medication called relaxane. In this commercial I

was told to misbehave as much as possible so they could catch it on film and show the “mom’s”

stress level. I was reminded of this experience because I remember shooting the same scene over

and over again, so it made me laugh a little bit to think about the actors in this film just sitting

around chatting and being filmed while drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes all day long. It

made me wonder if they were actually smoking or if it was some kind of movie magic since it

was repeatedly mentioned by different characters that it isn’t healthy to have just coffee and

cigarettes.
 I think one thing that the director was trying to bring to light in this film is that everything

is okay in moderation, but if all a person does is drink coffee and smoke cigarettes rather than

eating lunch every day, it can be very unhealthy can cause numerous problems for them. This

may not be true and it may just be that I was trying to read into it too much and found this lesson

because of the fact that I am a nursing major and have also had multiple family members die of

lung cancer or heart disease. If this was what the writer/director was trying to make the lesson of

the film, then I definitely agree with it.

One specific scene that really stood out in my mind was the scene of the two men that

both claimed they had stopped smoking which is what made it okay for them to have a cigarette.

This scene can also add on to the lesson mentioned in the previous paragraph because I’ve heard

numerous people say they that have stopped smoking or are trying to stop, yet they still have at

least one cigarette (usually a lot more) per day. My grandma is one person that I thought of

because she has told us for years that she knows smoking is bad for her and she is trying to quit,

but she still smokes the same amount now that she did 3 or 4 years ago when she first started

telling us she was going to quit.

Overall, I honestly wasn’t a huge fan of this movie, but I am glad I stepped out of my

comfort zone and had the opportunity to experience a new form of film that I hadn’t seen before.

This film did teach a valuable lesson about consuming things in moderation, and I also believe it

taught viewers that it is perfectly acceptable to meet new people when you are out for coffee or

lunch by yourself. One of the first scenes included a man meeting a total stranger, but they

seemed to become friends by the end of this scene and I think this taught a good lesson of

showing kindness to strangers because you may make a new friend in the end.
 Works Cited

Jarmusch, Jim. “Coffee and Cigarettes.” YouTube, YouTube, 25 Feb. 2017,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBgJ7OrybVk.