Independent filmmaker Jim Jarmusch has amassed an eclectic array of films to his credit. Coffee and Cigarettes, which he wrote and directed, actually began in 1986 as a short piece he created for Saturday Night Live. The short, starring Roberto Benigni and standup comedian Steven Wright, was a series of conversations about coffee and cigarettes.

Anyone who saw Roberto Benigni tramp across the rows of seats at the 1997 Academy Awards to receive his Oscar for Life Is Beautiful knows any scenario with Benigni would probably be amusing, even a trip to the dentist. Thus Jarmusch’s concoction of jokes, metaphors and repeated references about coffee or cigarettes, filmed in an obscure setting and shot in black and white, did have some humorous moments.

In 1989 Jarmusch shot a second addition to his film. While in Memphis filming Mystery Train, he took the opportunity to use that film's stars -- Steve Buscemi, Cinqué Lee and twin Joie Lee -- in another vignette for Coffee and Cigarettes. In this series, the twins play quarreling brothers who get sidetracked by an Elvis-storytelling waiter. This vignette evokes only a slight smile.

The idea to build on his film continued to take shape. In 1992, Jarmusch found himself in California where he tapped Tom Watts and Iggy Pop to play themselves in a conversation during which Tom claims to be a practicing doctor. After the two men down coffee and dance around the idea of finding a better place to go, Iggy leaves alone. At this point, some of my fellow audience members left with him.

Jarmusch persisted with his idea of becoming a voyeur in smoke-filled, table-stained out of the way places where the obscure meet the obscure and talk about nothing. He added more to the film from 1993 to 2003 and found some very interesting talent willing to be a part of his project.  

Cate Blanchett plays herself and a cousin in “Cousins,” an amusing bit about an actress on a coffee break during a film junket. The exceptional actor Alfred Molina decides he’s a cousin to British actor Steve Coogan, in another segment, but Coogan is having none of this revelation.

Taylor Mead, Bill Rice, Jack and Meg White, Renée French and E. J. Rodriguez are some of the other stars who have segments that fail to elicit a sound out of the audience in the screening I attended.

In contrast, the you-only-have-to-look-at-him-to-laugh Bill Murray gets a few loud guffaws in a skit where he guzzles coffee straight from the pot, while GZA and RZA talk about how good they feel since they’ve sworn off the stuff.

Coffee and Cigarettes might have won the Golden Palm at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival for Short Film, but even at a little under 90 minutes, it’s not short enough or interesting enough to warrant a full ticket price.

(Released by MGM and rated “R” for language.)