Director: Jim Jarmusch
Writers: Jim Jarmusch, John Lurie
Photography: Tom DiCillo
Music: John Lurie, Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
Editors: Jim Jarmusch, Melody London
Cast: John Lurie, Eszter Balint, Richard Edson, Cecilia Stark, Tom DiCillo
It’s probably fair to call director and cowriter Jim Jarmusch an acquired taste but Stranger Than Paradise might be as good a place as any to start acquiring it. The picture has obvious affinities with and aspirations toward the work of director Jean-Luc Godard—slow, playful, quirky, mannered, pulpy in cerebral ways, low-budget, self-conscious cinema shot in a black and white that looks like it sat in the sun too long (leftover filmstock donated by Wim Wenders reportedly). The plot involves a threesome of hipsters—Willie (John Lurie), his Hungarian cousin Eva (Eszter Balint), and his best friend Eddie (Richard Edson). As the picture opens Willie hears from his Aunt Lotte (Cecilia Stark) in Cleveland that Eva, coming for a visit, will need to stay with him longer than one night because something has come up and she can’t put her up for another 10 days.
Willie lives in a small dirty apartment in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In the first part of the picture, “The New World,” Willie and Eva make do with the situation. He snaps at her a lot and isn’t much of a host. They watch his tiny TV—football, which he tries to explain to her and she says is stupid, and late-night science fiction movies. They smoke a lot of Chesterfields. Willie’s style is porkpie hats indoors. He likes to sit with Eddie drinking beers and not talking. Eva wants to vacuum the place. He tells her in America vacuuming is called “choking the alligator.” She doesn’t believe him. The movie proceeds in a series of scenes with blackouts, skipping ahead in time randomly and without notice. Wikipedia notes these scenes are all single long takes but I should note I never particularly noticed the lack of cuts.
It’s probably fair to call director and cowriter Jim Jarmusch an acquired taste but Stranger Than Paradise might be as good a place as any to start acquiring it. The picture has obvious affinities with and aspirations toward the work of director Jean-Luc Godard—slow, playful, quirky, mannered, pulpy in cerebral ways, low-budget, self-conscious cinema shot in a black and white that looks like it sat in the sun too long (leftover filmstock donated by Wim Wenders reportedly). The plot involves a threesome of hipsters—Willie (John Lurie), his Hungarian cousin Eva (Eszter Balint), and his best friend Eddie (Richard Edson). As the picture opens Willie hears from his Aunt Lotte (Cecilia Stark) in Cleveland that Eva, coming for a visit, will need to stay with him longer than one night because something has come up and she can’t put her up for another 10 days.
Willie lives in a small dirty apartment in the Lower East Side of Manhattan. In the first part of the picture, “The New World,” Willie and Eva make do with the situation. He snaps at her a lot and isn’t much of a host. They watch his tiny TV—football, which he tries to explain to her and she says is stupid, and late-night science fiction movies. They smoke a lot of Chesterfields. Willie’s style is porkpie hats indoors. He likes to sit with Eddie drinking beers and not talking. Eva wants to vacuum the place. He tells her in America vacuuming is called “choking the alligator.” She doesn’t believe him. The movie proceeds in a series of scenes with blackouts, skipping ahead in time randomly and without notice. Wikipedia notes these scenes are all single long takes but I should note I never particularly noticed the lack of cuts.
