THERE is something alarmingly mainstream about the opening lines of Jim Jarmusch's message in the Arts Centre's August programme.
''I am very happy that my films are being shown in Hongkong, a city which along with Paris, Hollywood and Bombay, is one of the world's capitals of cinema,'' the 40-year-old director wrote.
''Very happy'' indeed. Pah! This from a man who has made an art form of championing the rebellious, the obsessive . . . the outsider for whom happiness springs from disappointment and dysfunction.
Fortunately, his words soon ring a little more true.
''To be honoured by a 'retrospective' of my work is, to be honest, a little disturbing to me. My first reaction was 'shouldn't they wait until I've made more films, or until I'm dead or something?' . . .
''All I can say is that these films are about, if anything, the smaller, not so dramatic but often comic events in daily life that all of us are familiar with. Maybe the real beauty of life is only in the details.'' He is writing about next month's Arts Centre programme ''Rebellious American Director: Jim Jarmusch''.
A blend of poet, rock 'n' roll fan and lover of French cinema, New York-based Jarmusch produces films which deal with the darker corners of life but which still stroll along with an off-beat humour.