Recently rewatched Jarmusch's "Only Lovers Left Alive" and "Dead Man". There are almost 20 years between the films– but there are more parallels than it seems

In both films, the protagonists are outsiders. Vampires among humans, an accountant from Cleveland in the Wild West. Jarmusch generally loves this theme, but here it's presented especially bluntly.

Second is the theme of life and death. Jarmusch returns to it often, but in these two works it comes to the forefront particularly clearly. Moreover, what's more interesting is not death itself, but what it leaves behind – and what happens to those who remain.

In both films, poetry plays an important role. In "Dead Man", the hero literally bears the name of the poet William Blake, and the entire film is an otherworldly poetic trip. In "Only Lovers Left Alive", vampires exist as guardians of culture: one is a musician, the other reads at a speed any editor would envy. Art here is a way to hold on when everything around is falling apart.

Music in both cases speaks louder than the characters. In "Dead Man" – Neil Young's nervous solos, as if the guitar is dying along with the hero. In "Lovers" – slow drone-rock SQÜRL with a lute. There is pain and convulsion, here – eternity and fatigue from it.

And both distort time, only in different directions. In "Dead Man", it contracts: the hero dies throughout the entire film, and by the finale it's unclear which "shore" he is on. In "Only Lovers Left Alive" – on the contrary, it stretches to infinity. Vampires remember Shakespeare alive and are tired of people who burn out like matches.

So you think: is this a coincidence or is Jarmusch just like that – returning to the same questions again and again, each time finding a new shell for them.