Jim Jarmusch prepares for screenings at the New York Film Festival

Jim Jarmusch to present Paterson and Gimme Danger with Iggy Pop at the New York Film Festival Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze

In 2013, Jim Jarmusch presented Only Lovers Left Alive with Tilda Swinton at the 51st New York Film Festival. This year he returns with Special Event screenings of Gimme Danger on Iggy Pop and The Stooges, and Paterson, starring Adam Driver, Golshifteh Farahani and Cannes Palm Dog winner Nellie with a touch of Mystery Train, Ron Padgett and Moonrise Kingdom.

Soupy Sales's impact, Lucille Ball in Vincente Minnelli's The Long, Long Trailer, what Abdul Fakir of the Four Tops and Mary Weiss of The Shangri-Las have in common, John Wayne in a James Kerr animation driving around in a Cadillac - this is a wild, fast-paced ride, edited by Affonso Gonçalves and Adam Kurnitz. Nico, Andy Warhol, David Bowie, the famous dog collar, inspiration from "Egyptian iconography" - all that's cool finds its way into Gimme Danger one way or another. Jarmusch leaves hardly a career stone unturned.

Gimme Danger

Gimme Danger

Immensely playful and packed with an avalanche of references, Gimme Danger is a pointillist portrait of Iggy Pop unlike any other. An interview by Jarmusch with the tan, blond, blue-eyed, icon - sitting in a regal chair next to a scull, barefoot, picking his feet, is the backbone of the documentary. Every name dropped is accompanied by visual and musical clips. If they don't exist, they are made and animated for the occasion. Jarmusch himself we see briefly at the very start when he calls The Stooges "the greatest band ever" to move on quickly to their darkest time. "In 1973 we were dirt," the consensus goes. People on screen are identified by name in what could be described as vampire font, something The Munsters would have chosen for themselves, childish and funny with little droplets of blood coming off each name or intertitle explaining where we are now. Iggy Pop impresses by being able to casually interlace all five fingers of his hand with all five toes and as a storyteller.

Public screenings: Saturday, October 1 at 9:15pm - Alice Tully Hall; Monday, October 3 at 6:00pm - Walter Reade Theater - Expected to attend: Jim Jarmusch and Iggy Pop on October 1

Paterson

Paterson

Laura (Golshifteh Farahani) stays at home in Paterson, New Jersey and dreams up ever changing careers for herself. She bakes cupcakes and orders a "harlequin guitar" and a manual to learn how to play, with hopes of becoming a country western music star. More than anything, maybe even more than Paterson (Adam Driver) and their English Bulldog Marvin (Nellie), she loves to decorate with black and white handmade dots and doodles. Bus driver and poet Paterson's words to his wife say "I love you", his face often says "I would rather be a fish". On his bus one day, two passengers played by Kara Hayward and Jared Gilman, discuss Gaetano Bresci, the anarchist who lived for a time in Paterson as a weaver before he assassinated King Umberto I of Italy in July 1900. You might recognize the two as the runaways Suzy and Sam from Wes Anderson's Moonrise Kingdom. A barkeeper ((Barry Shabaka Henley) puts a clipping of Iggy Pop on the wall next to the picture of Lou Costello and the visiting card of William Carlos Williams MD. Masatoshi Nagase from Mystery Train shows up as a Japanese poet. Twins are everywhere. A young girl who writes in a secret notebook asks Paterson if he likes Emily Dickinson. He says he does and she responds "Awesome, a bus driver who likes Emily Dickinson." It becomes the film's most chilling exchange when you think of the beginning of one of Dickinson's most famous poems. "Because I could not stop for Death - He kindly stopped for me …"

Sunday, October 2 at 9:00pm - Alice Tully Hall; Monday, October 3 at 6:00pm - Alice Tully Hall - Expected to attend: Jim Jarmusch on October 2

The 54th New York Film Festival will run from September 30 through October 16.