Diners in Film: Coffee and…

In the savory world of the culinary arts, where the bill of fare endlessly taunts and tempts with a plate to pleasure every possible palate, familiarity becomes the welcome change. While American tastes are subject to the whims and fancy of fashionable chic and nouveau cuisine, there is always that familiar neon glow and the comforting immaculate sheen of chrome, pre-fab, post-war "American diners" - an Art Deco oasis amidst a sea of in-vogue vittles, where the comfort chow, predictable menu options and casual atmosphere are a welcome respite for a hungry John Q.

An American phenomenon, the diner supplants the English pub and the French café as the New World's neighborhood community center, a place for the Everyman, with a blue plate special for a blue-collar man topped with the best cup of coffee in town.

In the 1970s, the decline of the studio system and the rise of independent filmmaking set in motion changes in scripting and character dynamic. Following the footsteps of the French New Wave, idiosyncratic American directors like Cassavetes emphasized personal, intimate character revelation, replacing that for conventional movie devices in their dialogue-driven films. Constantly in search of a naturalistic setting to give their players room for leisurely discourse, filmmakers turned to the all-American institutions, and the diner became the perfect no-pretense venue for a these tête-à-têtes.

Filmmakers have since been using diners in a variety of ways: to have characters elucidate (Tin Men), to communicate local color (My Cousin Vinny) or to segue the narrative (Goodfellas).

Barry Levinson's 1982 ground-breaking drama Diner tells the tale of five 20-something buddies who wrestle with their transition into adulthood. The eponymous title is not only the audience's link to the characters world, but the character's link to their past and their reluctance to move beyond it. The film helped launch the careers of Mickey Rourke, Ellen Barkin, Daniel Stern, Steve Guttenberg, Kevin Bacon and Paul Reiser, and was the start of Levinson's love-affair with filmmaking in Baltimore. Equally innovative was America's most watched sit-com, "Seinfeld," which was essentially a never-ending, plotless conversation situated in Tom Monk's Diner, the preferred stomping ground for the show's quirky quartet (and now a notable tourist spot near Columbia University).

Maverick director Quentin Tarantino has drawn on diners to lend a humanistic element to complex or unlikable characters. In both Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, he turns a tableful of cold-blooded killers into an affable bunch of "regular guys." Pontificating on television, radio and women, the backdrop of the diner transforms vicious sociopaths into likable eccentrics.

Woody Allen (Broadway Danny Rose), Martin Scorsese (Taxi Driver, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore) and the Coen Brothers (The Big Lebowski) have all used the diner to orient their viewer through the familiar, sensible commonality of the venerable lunch wagon with small talk and coffee.

And of course, there is Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes. The maestro of minimalism uses black and white film, Hollywood and the music industry's A-list, nicotine, caffeine, offbeat dialogue and, oh yes, the bleak backdrop of a montage of dingy diners to give you one of the most unconventional combinations and juxtapositions in film history. Where else could you find Bill Murray and members of the Wu Tang Clan expounding on the complexities of life?

On the studio side, who can forget Marty McFly in Back to the Future ("Give me a milk...Chocolate!")? Or Jack Nicholson in Five Easy Pieces attempting to circumvent the unbending establishment by finding a way to get his wheat toast by taking apart a hapless waitress? Or the robbery scene in Pulp Fiction ( "I love you honey-bunny")? Or, or, or...

Some other notable Diner movies and scenes:
1. Midnight Cowboy (1969)
2. Grease (1978)
3. Thelma & Louise (1991)
4. Natural Born Killers (1994)
5. The Basketball Diaries (1995)
6. U-turn (1997)
7. Pleasantville (1998)
8. Monster's Ball (2001)
9. A History of Violence (2005)
10. Little Miss Sunshine (2006)