Part of Jim Jarmusch January: A Director's Retrospective

Stranger Than Paradise is by definition a listless film. Every cut leads to black, leads to one shot, and cut to black for the next shot again. It doesn't really seem to move much. But there's a great energy hidden under all this, as the film is full of an unseen humor as Jarmusch invites at us to laugh at the quite ordinary misadventures of three people looking to do something in an aimless world.

But they can't, because the world is an empty place where even a different location doesn't offer much variety. It's all a series of moments trying to find meaning in nothing. Jarmusch here evolves from the roughness…

I have something of an odd relationship to Jim Jarmusch. Broken Flowers was my first experience with his work, and it marked for me not just what I hold to be Bill Murray's best performance, but a filmmaker whose themes and grasp of them had me absolutely fascinated. It wasn't until seeing Permanent Vacation about a year ago that I finally encountered more from him, and that I hated. Coffee and Cigarettes was next (the full feature version), which I admired aesthetically, but found narratively intolerable. Stranger Than Paradise had a mixture of all these reactions, though leaning of course far closer to the Broken Flowers end of the spectrum. Aesthetically, it's marvellous, especially considering the nature of the production.…

Stranger Than Paradise is structureless deadpan comedy with an innovative style that has become a trademark for independent film. Comprised of a continuous sequence of shots that focus on the natural body language and chemistry of its characters. Wille (John Lurie) is a Hungarian immigrant who now shuns his roots and has immersed himself in a directionless, very American lifestyle. He develops an subtle affection for his self-reliant cousin, Eva (Eszter Balint). Then there is his easy-going friend, Eddie (Richard Edson), who is receiver of much of the implied humor. Each character lives life day-by-day, they have no goals other than to enjoy life in whatever way possible.The arty inventiveness and simmering originality of this film really snuck up on…

It's very clear that the esteemed Mr. Jarmusch knows what he's doing. It's obvious that he's a very sharp man. If you don't believe me, watch Stranger than Paradise, a thoughtful, understated comedy on 1950s America. In such a slow-paced movie where conventional narrative is tossed by the wayside, what makes it work is that every moment is thought out to a painstaking degree. With a smooth, steady hand guiding the subdued camerawork and a clean, uncluttered visual language, Jarmusch crafts a demonstration of minimalist storytelling at its very finest.

But all this only goes so far, because, like I've mentioned before, Stranger than Paradise is S-l-o-w. Slow with a capital S. Molasses going uphill in January Slow. Think Days…

I hadn't seen this film since a first watch way back when i was first getting into Jarmusch's work and film in general.

At the time I didn't enjoy it really. I was "bored" and it just didn't do it for me. I thought I should return to it now as I've been in the mood to rewatch some of his work and this is the one I've seen the least/had an opinion that seemed to go against everyone else's. Also since the last time I saw it I have watched many more minimalist films, grown in patience in general and watched some more of his influences.

I'm happy to report that I loved it this time around. I love…

Maybe the only filmmaker I hate more than Jarmusch is Godard.

I rewatched this because I havent seen it since high school. I thought maybe it was better than I remembered, but unfortunately its worse.

John Lurie is atrocious in this film. He makes it obvious that you're watching a movie and impossible to be immersed into his world.

The dialogue is forced and without any subtleties. "Are you sure you don't want a TV dinner? ....This is what we eat in America." Everything that is going on is made unbelievable obvious through forced exposition. Over the telephone: "Yeah, I know my little cousin is coming to stay with overnight.....I can't possibly babysit for her for ten days, it'll disrupt…

It's very clear that the esteemed Mr. Jarmusch knows what he's doing. It's obvious that he's a very sharp man. If you don't believe me, watch Stranger than Paradise, a thoughtful, understated comedy on 1950s America. In such a slow-paced movie where conventional narrative is tossed by the wayside, what makes it work is that every moment is thought out to a painstaking degree. With a smooth, steady hand guiding the subdued camerawork and a clean, uncluttered visual language, Jarmusch crafts a demonstration of minimalist storytelling at its very finest.

But all this only goes so far, because, like I've mentioned before, Stranger than Paradise is S-l-o-w. Slow with a capital S. Molasses going uphill in January Slow. Think Days…

This was probably not a good introduction to Jim Jarmusch. I'm not much a fan of the kind of indie-hipster-mumblecore style in which everything is real but boring and the characters are vague but quirky. This film reeks of low budget, guerrilla style filmmaking with untrained, mediocre actors, and as such it comes off more like a student film.

Thematically, this is a film ripe with possibilities. Jarmusch name-drops Ozu's Tokyo Story, also a film favoring static compositions about the disappointment of the dull everyday life when family members come to visit. But whereas Ozu fills his film with the details of universal truths and relationships, we aren't given any context to these characters besides their names and nationalities.

I…