Paterson

‘Paterson’ is about a bus driver, called ‘Paterson’, living in Paterson US. It follows a week in his life, Monday to Sunday as he lives his peaceful days, ferrying passengers, waking up next to his eclectic but deeply loving girlfriend and writing poetry into his little notebook.

Paterson, as the film mentions, was the place the poet William Carlos Williams lived and wrote about, a clear homage to his work. Paterson even reads ‘This Is Just to Say’ to his girlfriend in one scene.

Nothing happens in the film, reminiscent of my favourite film of all time, Perfect Days. They are like cousin movies, both shrines on the altar of attention; the value in slowing down and noticing the beauty within the mundane.

The film is steeped with Zen Buddhist undertones (or I suppose that is my lens through which I see the film). For example, his notebook that he diligently writes in is chewed up and destroyed by their Rottweiler. The next morning, his girlfriend consoles him. Paterson replies “It’s ok… it’s like writing on water”.

And aptly, in the ending scene he is given a new notebook by a Japanese man travelling to Paterson to experience William Carlos William’s home. The final shots are him beginning to write again into the blank pages of the notebook’. Beginners mind.

I love the distinct absence of technology in the film. For example, none of the passengers on the bus are looking at phones. No one is blaring music in public, or living in separate realities cacooned by headphones. It’s instead mundane conversation. Two men awkwardly talking about failed romantic advances. Two teenagers talking about anarchy, his co-worker talking about his problems at home.

Paterson refuses to own a phone. The bar owner refuses to put up a TV.

It’s a testament to paying attention. Beauty in the ordinary. Something which our fractured digital landscape does not cultivate.

The movie is contained entirely within this poem by William Carlos Williams (my favourite one).

The Red Wheelbarrow