Stranger Than Paradise – Criterion Collection

Review by Steve Rogers

Production Year: 1984
DVD Release Date: September 4, 2007
Studio: Criterion Collection
Director: Jim Jarmusch
Cast: John Lurie, Eszter Balint, Richard Edson
Genre: Comedy - Drama
MPAA Rating: R

I can’t exactly put my finger on it, but, Jim Jarmusch’s breakout indie feature film, is a movie I simply love, never tiring of its subtle charms upon repeated viewings. With its bold yet minimalist structure, nondescript though engaging characters and starkly dramatic black & white cinematography, it is a true contradiction in terms. Released in 1984, it established Jarmusch as America’s most important auteur in independent film, and served as a catalyst for a look, style and feel in that genre that resonates to this day. Jarmusch has of course gone on to mainstream success, but always on his own terms with efforts as diverse as Night On Earth, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and most recently, Broken Flowers. Diverse, yet all produced in Jarmusch’s muted laconic style. For many fans, Jarmusch is the independent film director.

Stranger Than Paradise, at its heart (at least for me), has always been first and foremost a road picture, that most uniquely American of genres. It’s a genre well suited to Jarmusch’s style, where there’s not much really going on, but there’s an awful lot happening. The beauty of Jarmusch’s filmmaking is his ability to craft multiple layers of substance and thought provoking content in films where even a single layer of plot is hard to find.

The film follows the fortunes (or misfortunes) of three lovable losers who drift through the events of the film seemingly oblivious to their decrepit social status. Willie, the ring leader, is a Hungarian émigré who lives in a cramped, run-down New York City apartment and considers dining on TV dinners evidence of his Americanization. He’s joined by Eva, his 16-year-old cousin just in from Budapest, who ends up staying with Willie for ten days before heading out to Cleveland to live with their Aunt Lottie. Willie’s friend Eddie, a more affable ne’er do well than Willie, rounds out the trio. None of these characters seems to fit in anywhere be it time or place, with Willie and Eddie sporting low-rent jazz hipster looks complete with mismatched suit jackets and porkpie fedoras. Eva carries a portable tape player around that continually blares out Screamin’ Jay Hawkins “I Put A Spell On You”. A year after Eva has departed, Willie and Eddie are caught cheating at a card game and decide to hit the road and visit Eva. In Cleveland the improbable group slowly forms a bond and, bored with the frozen environs of Cleveland, the threesome heads for Florida in the final chapter of this bizarre little odyssey. But “paradise” doesn’t turn out to be what they’d expected (if they’d expected anything) and the film ends with a neat twist that leaves all three heading in separate directions, but nonetheless better off for the experience.

The thing I find continually impressive is Tom DiCillo’s cinematography. It’s absolutely perfect in its depiction of the characters’ bland, rootless existence. The look of the film conveys the urban decay of early 1980s NYC, the industrial rot of Cleveland and the windswept, anonymous shoreline of a deserted Florida beach in almost painterly images. When Eva takes Willie and Eddie for a view of Lake Erie, the three of them stand on the edge of a pier during a snowstorm with the wind howling around them. Silhouetted against an all-white background, with no lake visible, it’s a striking shot, and one of many in this amazing film. In fact, the movie is structured to resemble a sort of photo album, with each scene a master shot divided by a quick black screen before the next scene.

Stranger Than Paradise remains a high point in the career of Jim Jarmusch, a quirky ode to the joys of bohemian ennui, and a significant milestone in the development of American independent cinema. Jarmusch highlights the rootlessness of the American spirit and the longing for something better. His characters are strangely reminiscent of Kerouac’s Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarity from On the Road (minus the adrenaline, but with a similar bebop jazz soundtrack) and his themes expand the dead-end conceits found in the Eagles quintessentially American Hotel California. Jim Jarmusch remains a uniquely American filmmaker, steadfastly independent in every facet of his work.

Video Quality

Criterion’s new high-def digital transfer of the film, supervised and approved by Jarmusch himself, is a wonder to behold. A vast improvement over previously issued versions, the image quality, presented in anamorphic 1.78:1 aspect ratio, exhibits a clarity and detail heretofore missing in earlier versions. The blacks are deep and lustrous and lighter shades are accurately depicted. The snow scenes in Cleveland (and there’s a lot of snow) are beautifully rendered in natural light. There is a slight degree of grain noticeable, most likely due to the age of the film.

Audio Quality

The audio track is Dolby Digital mono and there is certainly no need to enhance anything for this film’s soundtrack. The dialogue is clear and ambient sounds are audible, with everything sounding natural.

Special Features

Criterion’s special features rarely disappoint and Stranger Than Paradise is no exception. They are all contained on Disc 2 of this two-disc edition, highlighted by Jarmusch’s first feature length film, Permanent Vacation. The 75-minute film follows a gangly, somewhat whiny teenager as he wanders the backstreets of NYC besotted with urban blight and vacant rundown tenement buildings. He encounters a cadre of unusual street types and pays a visit to his mother in a mental hospital that looks like something out of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Even more minimalist than Paradise, it nonetheless leaves an indelible impression of late ‘70s downtown NYC squalor and its inhabitants.

There’s also a German TV documentary, “Kino ’84” (filmed in English), which profiles Jarmusch and the cast and crew of both movies on this disc. Jarmusch is a man of few words and it’s nice to get some insight from him along with recollections about his films and thoughts on cinema in general. A silent feature called “Some Days in January” was shot by the director’s brother with Super 8 film while on location in Cleveland. We see the crew and actors trying to keep warm in arctic-like conditions, and then construct the flimsiest jerry-rigged setup I’ve ever seen to rig a camera onto the hood of the actor’s car for motion filming.

Location and scouting photos, along with U.S. and Japanese trailers, round out the features on Disc 2, and there is a classy 45-page booklet that comes with the package containing excellent essays on the film by Jarmusch, Geoff Andrew, and J. Hoberman of The Village Voice. Luc Sante contributes an essay on Permanent Vacation, and a lengthy piece on downtown bohemian street culture of late Seventies’ Manhattan. It’s quite an interesting read and essential for an understanding of the Jarmusch milieu.

Summary

Criterion has scored another winner with its resurrection of Jim Jarmusch’s eighties classic. Stranger Than Paradise has been given the treatment it deserves and this indie gem is well complemented by incisive and appropriate special features. This is a set that should please all followers, from hard core cineastes to casual fans of independent film and the work of Jim Jarmusch.