Criterion Collection: Stranger Than Paradise [DVD] [1984] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

Petrides Antonis

at 12:12 am

Review by Petrides Antonis for Criterion Collection: Stranger Than Paradise [DVD] [1984] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Rating: (4 / 5)
It is quite possible that somebody might say they have never seen a more slow, uneventful and seemingly uninteresting film in their lives than Strangers in Paradise. It is true that throughout the film nothing really ‘happens’. Strangers than Paradise demolishes all presuppositions about narrative and plot, even the minimal expectations one might have from a road movie. Yet it manages to make a point, partly because of its alluring cinematography (the serenity of the snowy landscape weighs on you unbearably), partly because of the distancing effect of the dubbing and partly because of the brilliantly performed characters, whose indifferent, tired faces captivate. This is a story about the American dream and about non-belonging. For those who were mesmerised by the obviousness of American Beauty, Strangers than Paradise will be a total anticlimax. For me, it worked.

Phoust

at 12:32 am

Review by Phoust for Criterion Collection: Stranger Than Paradise [DVD] [1984] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
Rating: (5 / 5)
“Stranger Than Paradise” directed by Jim Jarmusch is a triumph of independent film-making and is a product his influences. It would be difficult to imagine other films like “Slacker” (Linklater, 1991) or “Drugstore Cowboy” (Van Sant,1989) without it. Jarmusch’s influences are clearly evident in “Stranger Than Paradise” drawing from the neo-realism of Vittorio De Sica as well as Dreyer, Ozu, Bergman, Bresson and Antonioni while never really entering into their angst-ridden territory. There is no evident anxiety in these characters but rather what would one would have to regard as a pre-slacker boredom. There seems to be a underlying comic element to these observations of American popular culture as viewed from an outsider perspective that gives it an endearing quality. This is a world where Screaming Jay Hawkins, Grindhouse movies, TV dinners and hipster beat cool replace the existential anxieties of those afore mentioned directors but utilise the visual style instead to achieve its objective. I am also reminded a bit of the Direct Cinema of the Maysles brothers, most notably their masterpiece “Salesman” (1969), when watching this film.

“Stranger Than Paradise” may very well be the best American film of the 80s and is one that I would place in my top 100 ever made.

The criterion package as always is superb with the added bonus of Jim Jarmusch’s 1980 directorial debut “Permanent Vacation” included.