STRANGER THAN PARADISE
US/Germany, 1984, 90 minutes, Black and White.
John Lurie, Eszter Balint, Richard Edson.
Directed by Jim Jarmusch.
Stranger Than Paradise was the first film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch (Down By Law). It began as a short student film but was enlarged to 67 separate sequences and set-ups and shots. They are edited together with dark breaks between each (subjecting the film to all kinds of interpretation - whereas necessity made this particular format the style of the film).
Jarmusch worked with his friend John Lurie (who also scored the music). Richard Edson is very good in support. The film is an ironic look at the American Dream: life in New York and a girl coming from Hungary to the New World and finding it drab, a segment a year later in Cleveland where the men are on holidays and the young woman works; the third part is ironically called Paradise where the group goes to Florida and simply repeats the kind of behaviour of New York and Cleveland.
Shot in black and white, with crisp dialogue emphasising the banalities of ordinary life as well as the humour, the film is quite striking in its modest way.
1. Enjoyable film? Interesting experiment? Student film? Portrait of characters and environment? American themes?
2. Black and white photography, light and shadow? Compositions? The seasons? The 67 scenes? Small budget? The black space editing technique and its effect: glimpses of life?
3. The irony of the title and Eva as the stranger in the New York and American paradise? The United States being stranger than paradise? The American dream? Florida as the goal and paradise? The ironies?
4. The ensemble playing? The characters playing off each other? The style of the dialogue? Silent acting? Interacting?
5. Willie, the phone call from his aunt, his apartment, way of life, idle, friendship with Eddie? Gambling? The American way, speaking English, TV dinners, baseball and betting? His reaction to Eva's arrival? Talking with her, abrupt with her? In the apartment, the phone being answered, watching television? Not going out with her? Her deciding to leave? His buying her the dress and pleased with it? The decision to go for the holiday to Cleveland, driving with Eddie, their adventures on the way, looking for the house? Meeting Aunt Lottie, the meal, meeting Eva, watching the Kung Fu film? The ordinary but drab holiday? Going back to New York? The decision to go to Florida, driving, the motel, wandering about, not helping Eva, bored? Her departure, the money, going to get her to ask her to stay? Seeing Willie watch the plane take off?
6. Eddie, his friendship, a bit more initiative than Willie but subject to him? Friendship with Eva, talking to her, explaining things to her? The farewell? The holiday, the money, driving, looking forward to meeting Eva again? Cleveland? Driving to Florida, sharing things with Eddie, neglecting Eva?
7. Eva, arriving from Hungary, walking the New York streets, making her way to the apartment, the lack of welcome? Settling down, bored, smoking? Talking, trying to understand English? Television? Not liking the dress? Deciding to go to Cleveland? The work in Cleveland, settling down with Aunt Lottie, the work in the hot dog bar, her boyfriend? Going to Florida, being bored, left alone? The man with the money and the strange encounter? The airport, the possibility of a plane to Budapest? Returning?
8. Aunt Lottie, the phone call, her illness, welcoming the boys, the meal, card games, trying to tell them what to do and their reaction, Eva's reaction?
9. The strange man with the money?
10. The sequence at the airport and going to Budapest?
11. Glimpses of characters? Nicely detailed? Understated? Verbal and visual humour? An initial film - and the basis of a career?
