82nd VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL: Father, Mother, Sister, Brother by Jim Jarmusch.

ultimatetrendymag
Sep 6, 2025
2 min read

The cast is stellar: Tom Waits, Adam Driver, Mayim Bialik, Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett, Vicky Krieps, Indya Moore, Luka Sabbat, along with Sarah Greene and Françoise Lebrun.

Article and Photos by Marco Lorè

Jim Jarmusch returns to the form he knows best: an anthology triptych divided into three episodes set in the United States, Dublin, and Paris.

They’re tied together by symbolic details such as a mysterious Rolex, surreal toasts (with water, tea, coffee), and brief recurring appearances — elements that give the film a subtle poetic unity.

Episodes

Father (U.S., New Jersey): two siblings (Driver and Bialik) visit their eccentric father, played by Tom Waits. The visit is filled with silences, ambiguities, and small details — like a questionably authentic watch — that fuel family mystery.
Mother (Dublin): two sisters (Blanchett and Krieps) meet their distant mother, played by Rampling. The encounter feels ritualistic, suspended between subtle irony and emotional dislocation, with the color red surfacing as a sign of latent tension.
Sister Brother (Paris): twins Skye (Moore) and Billy (Sabbat) face the grief of their parents’ deaths and confront the material remnants of the past. Here, deep melancholy and a painful connection between the two siblings come to the forefront.

Jarmusch embraces an essential narrative style built on loaded silences, suspended dialogue, and visual composure.

Melancholy coexists with irony, emotional distance takes delicate, almost unspoken forms, and time itself becomes palpable: slowing down, stretching out, turning into a physical presence.

The film communicates more through absence than exposition.

Each episode is its own microcosm, observed without judgment, where family emerges as a place of incomprehension — and at the same time, fragmented beauty.