Making nothing happen: the transition from reactive nihilism to affirmation in Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers (2005)

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2011
Authors
Backman Rogers, Anna
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Film and Screen Media, University College Cork
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Abstract
This article draws from Gilles Deleuze’s interpretation of the Nietzschean concept of “the eternal return” in order to read Jim Jarmusch’s film Broken Flowers as being not merely a study in duration, apathy and reactive nihilism, but also a film which, through its formal repetitive structure, also offers pathways to transformation and affirmation. As such, I argue that the central protagonist, Don Johnston undergoes a subtle yet crucial change in the course of the film from a state of ressentiment to affirmation and becoming. I also characterise the film as an absurdist quest or road movie.
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Broken Flowers , Road movie , The eternal return , The affirmative life , Gilles Deleuze , Bill Murray , Existential dilemmas , Ethical dilemmas
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Backman Rogers, A. (2011) 'Making nothing happen: the transition from reactive nihilism to affirmation in Jim Jarmusch’s Broken Flowers (2005)', Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, 2 (Winter 2011). 10.33178/alpha.2.06