Jul 03 2008
Stranger Than Paradise (1984)
Eddie: You know, while we’re in Cleveland, Willie, why don’t we go see the Cavaliers?
Willie: They have a terrible team.
Eddie: So what?
Willie: They’re like 0 - 48 or something like that.
Eddie: Yeah, but we’re not doing anything.
Originally available on DVD from MGM, Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise has made its way to Criterion. The MGM DVD was fine, but this is a film that rightly belongs on the Criterion label. You’d be hard-pressed to find another film that captures the minutiae of everyday life in such intimate detail. Jarmusch is known for the detached emotional stance that many of his films take. Paradise is passive in nature, but Tom Dicillo’s cinematography connects the viewer to the characters in an unforgettable way. At times, Paradise feels so desolate that it is as if the main characters are the only people on earth. This is the isolation that Jarmusch’s characters feel in the strange new world they live in.
Paradise makes me wish John Lurie was still acting and making music. Lyme Disease has prevented him from being too active. Lurie, the former band leader of The Lounge Lizards, plays Willie, a stubborn New York hipster (sorry, there just isn’t a better word). Willie spends his time at the race track with his good friend Eddie, played by original Sonic Youth drummer and Ferris Bueller car thief Richard Edson. Lurie and Edson’s performances are classic and hilarious. Willie is thrown for a curve when his Hungarian cousin Eva (Eszter Balint), a sixteen-year-old obsessed with Screamin’ Jay Hawkins, comes to America and makes a surprise visit to his apartment.
Eva decides to stay with Willie until she can go to Cleveland to live with their aunt Lotte (Cecillia Stark). Willie isn’t the most patient man and often becomes frustrated while attempting to teach Eva the American way. Despite this, him and Eddie become fond of Eva and visit her in Cleveland a year later. Balintâs character provides a unique perspective into immigrant life, a rare thing to see on the big screen now, let alone in 1984 when Paradise was released. The three characters share an awkward chemistry that barely ties them together. It is fitting that the film’s conclusion finds them all on their own. Jarmusch’s bare-bones script reveals a new handful of brilliant one-liners every time the film is viewed.
If you were worried that the Criterion re-issue would reduce the film’s trademark graininess, don’t be worried. As it should be, this transfer is Jarmusch approved, and I doubt he’d let anything bad happen to his baby. The sound on the re-issue has been improved though. Lurie’s excellent soundtrack sounds more prominent than ever. Those who are hesitant to upgrade their MGM copies to the Criterion edition might want to pick it up just to see Jarmusch’s 1980 debut, Permanent Vacation, which is generously included on disc two. Vacation is tedious and finds Jarmusch honing his skills. The rest of the supplements are a little disappointing. The only other bonus new to this edition is Kino ‘84, a boring German documentary that features interviews with Jarmusch and the cast, who do not seem thrilled about being interviewed. Is it too much to ask for some new interviews?
Paradise is Jarmusch’s calling card, the film that put him on the map as an independent force. I am thrilled to see it on the Criterion label alongside his 1986 follow-up, Down By Law. Criterion also just released another Jarmusch film, 1991’s Night On Earth. In my opinion though, Paradise is where it’s at. I don’t love all of Jarmusch’s films, but I love Paradise. If you are going to get into Jarmusch, this is the film to do it with. It was the first film by him that I saw, and while I am quite fond of Broken Flowers, Paradise remains the sentimental favorite.
(9/17/07)
