If “Seinfeld” was the show about
nothing, then Jim Jarmusch’s 1984 film “Stranger Than Paradise” is the film
about nothing. Filled with moments of
silence, and white noise, with characters literally sitting doing nothing, not
speaking, or doing anything to progress the non-story forward. They all seem to walk aimlessly and with no
clear direction, and speak in half-conversations. All this and I have to be honest, I kinda dug
it.
Willie (John
Lurie) is a slacker New Yorker, before slackers were cool. He is forced by his estranged family to put
up his cousin for ten days who is coming in from Hungary. Eva (Eszter Balint) travels with a suitcase
and a bag and a tape recorder that only plays ‘Screamin Jay Hawkins “I Put a
Spell on You”. When she firsts plays it,
it is eerily appropriate and is probably my favorite moment of the film. Eva is as quiet as Willie with as much zest
for life as him (meaning none).
Filmed in
black and white it is the hallmark of minimalist filmmaking. You don’t get any more independent film than
this. Even the locations that are
traveled to, from New York to Cleveland to Florida which had to all be the same
location that it’s even called out in the film by Eddie (Richard Edson) who you
may remember from his role in “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off” as the garage
attendant. “What country do you think
this is?” That guy. His character Eddie provides the comic relief
to the film along with Aunt Lotte (Cecillia Stark) who like a lot of older foreign
woman you may know, speaks in her native tongue, except when cursing in
American.
Over all “Stranger
Than Paradise” is a quiet, charming film, that is worth a watch if you want to
see how an independent film from the 80’s looked and sounded. And as obvious as the message at the film’s
end is, I really liked it. Give it a
watch.
--Robert L.
Castillo
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