You learn a lot about a noir character by their coffee: sugar? cream? more whiskey than caffeine?
I’m cataloging every noir scene where coffee plays a role — rote and ritual, soul-dark or cream and sugar, served from dingy diners to shiny penthouses.
Tarantino could have chosen any action or item to give his actors ‘business’ in this scene from Jackie Brown.
He went with coffee.
“The milk went bad while I was in jail.”
A criminal and bail bondsman sitting across from each other nursing beverage as an excuse to talk is quintessential.
From a director’s perspective it also allows for ‘mug shots’ (punny!) to break up the scene — making, serving, and drinking coffee enables motion and action, keeping conversation and edit smoothly flowing until Jackie & Max land on opposite sides of table, talking about what really matters, and nothing at all.
“You want some sugar?”
From a character perspective, it starts as Jackie wants to distracts from the gun and Ordell, allows Jackie to “what I can’t hear you” and hide her face occasionally as she makes and drinks it, promotes some light flirting, and keeps both their hands busy when they talk at the table.
Jackie’s hospitality leads to talk of where they’re at, the mortality they face, and cyclical nature of their jobs and life.
I love the ritual of making coffee; most other daily household necessities feel like chores, not rituals — do the laundry, make the bed, brush your teeth. Coffee is meditative, always the same in a way cooking isn’t, with an immediate, shareable reward at the end.
But there’s no getting around the fact it’s still a constant, repetitive task.
“I always feel like I’m starting over.”
By the end of the scene the camera is pushing in and the mugs are out of frame, nobody’s drinking and all pretext is forgotten.
The coffee served its purposes.