Ever feel like you don't have anything to do, and no matter where you go, you just end up doing the same thing which is nothing? This is what's behind "Stranger Than Paradise", a comedy about people who go places, but never know what to do when they get there.
The story follows Willie (John Lurie), a gambler in New York, he lives in a one room apartment and seems to lead a pretty lackadaisical lifestyle. When Willie's Hungarian cousin Eva (Eszter Balint)comes to stay with him, he's not all that happy. He tells her she can stay one night then she's on her own. Eva ends up staying longer than that anyway. Both of them aren't shown doing much. One scene has them watching an old movie at night, and then it cuts to the morning where Eva is still up watching tv. We find out Willie loves betting on the horses when his friend Eddie (Richard Edson) comes and tells him all the races of the day. Again we never see them go to these races, they are mostly just hanging around. Soon we see a relationship form between Willie and Eva, they begin to like eachother and there is a hint of an incestuous love interest, but we get the feeling nothing is ever consummated.
Soon Eva leaves New York to go live with her Aunt in Cleveland, and she and Willie must part. A year passes and Willie and Eddie get into some money, so they decide to go to Cleveland to visit Eva. The two are very excited to leave New York and look at it as a vacation, however when they get to Cleveland they don't really do much. The phrase "What are we doing here" is uttered more than once in this film, and we get that feeling also. Eva is happy to see them both and for a moment there is a feeling of happiness that they are all together, but nothing ever happens beyond that.
Soon Cleveland becomes boring, so instead of going back to New York, Willie and Eddie decide to steal Eva away and drive down to Florida, where again nothing much happens.
"Stranger Than Paradise" is a film about individuals who are feeling lost and don't know what to do with themselves. They represent drifters or misfits who are on a road to nowhere. The film reminds me very much of my #1 film of the 70s "Two-Lane Blacktop" which was also about misfits trying to find their way.
"Stranger Than Paradise" was filmed in black and white which works very well showing each city looking very similar to one another, the only reason we know the characters are in Florida is because we are told it is, plus it has an occasional palm tree in the background. This proves to be one of the ongoing struggles of the characters finding a place that is new and exciting, but to them it all looks the same, it doesn't matter where they are, they end up doing the same thing.
The film was the second feature of Jim Jarmusch, a director who has made a career of small budget minimal stories from this to "Coffee and Cigarettes" and "Broken Flowers". This film was perennial however in starting the new independent film movement of the 80s, also putting the famed "Sundance Film Festival" on the map. At its core though, "Stranger Than Paradise" is an important film because of the themes it brings up, and the tone and look of the film. Each character feels isolated, and the world looks to be a vast wasteland with nowhere to go. It's a minimal film but done very stylistically. Jarmusch was a student of Ozu who believed in one scene, one shot, Jarmusch took this philosophy even more literally in this film by actually doing it. There are no close ups, but only establishing shots, with the occasional pan, then a small black screen before the next scene is shown. The style was invented for economic reasons, but it becomes a very effective way to shoot the film, and we are able to live within each shot of the film.
"Stranger Than Paradise" is a brave film, it's small in stature, but big on ideas, and its in the way these ideas are conveyed that makes this so memorable and a treasure.
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