Jim Jarmusch and Friends, BFI Southbank

Note the title: Jim Jarmusch has friends. The doyen of New York indie cool may exude a kind of punkish aloofness in person, but in fact themes of friendship and affection are at the beating heart of his films. In his breakout work  Stranger Than Paradise , a hipster and a gambler are redeemed by a visit from a warm-hearted cousin; relationships are forged and cemented over cups of java in  Coffee and Cigarettes ; even the ostensible loner in  Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai  finds solace among his pet pigeons. It’s a rare Jarmusch character – Bill Murray’s inveterate lothario in Broken Flowers  comes to mind – who is denied love.

Filmmaking is collaborative by nature. But to judge from his coterie of regular actors and collaborators, for Jarmusch the creative process is built on relationships of trust and respect. There’s Tilda Swinton, whose futuristic beauty illuminates his ethereal images. There’s Robby Müller, whose gritty cinematography lends Jarmusch’s early films their grungy aesthetic. There are Tom Waits and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, whose raucous vocals sharpen the films’ edges. Together with the recurring theme of friendship, this merry band of indie eccentrics gives the director’s oeuvre a strong coherence.

All of which makes Jarmusch’s films a joy to watch, despite occasional longueurs and a general absence of dramatic incident. Three cheers, then, for the British Film Institute’s complete retrospective of his career, which includes an extended run of his early prison-set masterpiece Down By Law. Screening alongside his works is a handful of movies made by colleagues and admirers, including Claire Denis and Aki Kaurismäki. While most of his indie peers – Spike Lee, Martin Scorsese – have gone to Hollywood or simply gone, the range of weird and wonderful films screening in this season reminds us that Jarmusch has stayed put on the fringes of the film world, where his friends are.