Editing Jim Jarmusch (section)

==Early life==
Jarmusch was born in [[Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio]], the second of three children of middle-class suburbanites.<ref name=atclow/><ref name=last/><ref name=private/><ref name=chron/> His mother, of [[Germans|German]] and [[Irish people|Irish]] descent, was a reviewer of film and theatre for the ''[[Akron Beacon Journal]]'' before marrying his father, a businessman of [[Czechs|Czech]] and German descent who worked for the [[B.F. Goodrich Company]].<ref name=private/><ref name=bio/><ref name=correction/> She introduced Jarmusch to cinema by leaving him at a local theater to watch matinee double features such as ''[[Attack of the Crab Monsters]]'' and ''[[Creature From the Black Lagoon]]'' while she ran errands.<ref name=hattenstone/><ref name=sfgate/> The first adult film he recalls seeing was the 1958 cult classic ''[[Thunder Road (1958 film)|Thunder Road]]'', the violence and darkness of which left an impression on the seven-year-old Jarmusch.<ref name=thunder/> Another [[B-movie]] influence from his childhood was ''[[Ghoulardi]]'', an eccentric Cleveland television show which featured horror films.<ref name=sfgate/>

{{quote box
| align = right
| width = 25%
| quote = The key, I think, to Jim, is that he went gray when he was 15... As a result, he always felt like an immigrant in the teenage world. He's been an immigrant—a benign, fascinated foreigner—ever since. And all his films are about that.
| source = —[[Tom Waits]], as quoted in ''[[The New York Times]]'', 2005.<ref name=last/>
}}

Jarmusch was an avid reader in his youth and acquired an enthusiasm for film.<ref name=atclow/> He had an even greater interest in literature which was encouraged by his grandmother.<ref name=bio/> Though he refused to attend church with his [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopalian]] parents (not liking "the idea of sitting in a stuffy room wearing a little tie"), Jarmusch credits literature with shaping his metaphysical beliefs and leading him to reconsider theology in his mid-teens.<ref name=thunder/>

From his peers, he developed a taste for [[counterculture]], and he and his friends would steal the records and books of their older siblings—this included works by [[William Burroughs]], [[Jack Kerouac]], and [[The Mothers of Invention]].<ref name=atclow/><ref name=otlesw/> They made fake identity documents which allowed them to visit bars at the weekend but also the local art house cinema, which typically showed pornographic films but would occasionally feature [[underground film]]s such as [[Robert Downey, Sr.]]'s ''[[Putney Swope]]'' and [[Andy Warhol]]'s ''[[Chelsea Girls]]''.<ref name=atclow/><ref name=otlesw/> At one point, he took an apprenticeship with a commercial photographer.<ref name=atclow/> He later remarked, "Growing up in Ohio was just planning to get out."<ref name=otlesw/>

After graduating from high school in 1971,<ref name=allmovie/> Jarmusch moved to [[Chicago]] and enrolled in the [[Medill School of Journalism]] at [[Northwestern University]].<ref name=chron/><ref name=iFMagazine/> After being asked to leave because he had neglected to take any journalism courses—Jarmusch favored literature and art history—he transferred to [[Columbia University]] the following year, with the intention of becoming a poet.<ref name=thunder/><ref name=iFMagazine/> At Columbia he studied [[English literature|English]] and [[American literature]] under professors including [[New York School (art)|New York School]] avant garde poets [[Kenneth Koch]] and [[David Shapiro (poet)|David Shapiro]].<ref name=bio/> At Columbia, he began to write short "semi-narrative abstract pieces"<ref name=bio/> and edited the undergraduate literary journal ''[[The Columbia Review]]''.<ref name=chron/><ref name=auster/>

During his final year studying at Columbia, Jarmusch moved to [[Paris]] for what was initially a summer semester on an exchange program, but turned into 10 months.<ref name=atclow/><ref name=allmovie/> He worked as a delivery driver for an art gallery and spent most of his time at the [[Cinémathèque Française]].<ref name=atclow/><ref name=chron/>

{{Blockquote|text=That's where I saw things I had only read about and heard about—films by many of the good Japanese directors, like [[Shōhei Imamura|Imamura]], [[Yasujirō Ozu|Ozu]], [[Kenji Mizoguchi|Mizoguchi]]. Also, films by European directors like [[Robert Bresson|Bresson]] and [[Carl Theodor Dreyer|Dreyer]], and even American films, like the retrospective of [[Samuel Fuller]]'s films, which I only knew from seeing a few of them on television late at night. When I came back from Paris, I was still writing, and my writing was becoming more cinematic in certain ways, more visually descriptive.|sign=Jarmusch on the Cinémathèque Française, taken from an interview with [[Lawrence Van Gelder]] of ''The New York Times'', October 21, 1984.<ref name=bio/>}}

Jarmusch graduated from Columbia University with a [[Bachelor of Arts]] degree in 1975.<ref name=chron/> He was broke and working as a musician in [[New York City]] after returning from Paris in 1976. He applied on a whim to the graduate film school of [[New York University]]'s [[Tisch School of the Arts|School of the Arts]] (then under the direction of Hollywood director [[László Benedek]]).<ref name=bio/><ref name=atclow/><ref name=iFMagazine/> Though he lacked experience in filmmaking, his submission of a collection of photographs and an essay about film secured his acceptance into the program.<ref name=bio/> He studied there for four years; he met fellow students and future collaborators [[Sara Driver]], [[Tom DiCillo]], [[Howard Brookner]], and [[Spike Lee]] in the process.<ref name=chron/> During the late 1970s in New York City, Jarmusch and his contemporaries were part of a [[no wave]] cultural scene centered on the [[CBGB]] music club which inspired the formation of his no wave band [[The Del-Byzanteens]].<ref name=lat/>

In his final year at New York University, Jarmusch worked as an assistant to the film noir director [[Nicholas Ray]], who was at that time teaching in the department.<ref name=chron/> In an anecdote, Jarmusch recounted the formative experience of showing his mentor his first script; Ray disapproved of its lack of action, to which Jarmusch responded after meditating on the critique by reworking the script to be even less eventful. On Jarmusch's return with the revised script, Ray reacted favourably to his student's dissent, citing approvingly the young student's obstinate independence.<ref name=starwars/> Jarmusch was the only person Ray brought to work—as his personal assistant—on ''[[Lightning Over Water]]'', a documentary about his dying years on which he was collaborating with [[Wim Wenders]].<ref name=atclow/> Ray died in 1979 after a long fight with cancer.<ref name=chron/> A few days afterwards, having been encouraged by Ray and New York underground filmmaker [[Amos Poe]] and using scholarship funds given by the [[Louis B. Mayer Foundation]] to pay for his school tuition,<ref name=bio/><ref name=suarez/> Jarmusch started work on a film for his final project.<ref name=nyt/><ref name=chron/> The university was unimpressed with Jarmusch's use of his funding as well as the project itself and refused to award him a degree.<ref name=allmovie/>