Stranger Than Paradise
Year: 1984 - Cinethesia Productions  Director: Jim Jarmusch  Screenplay: Jim Jarmusch  Starring: John Lurie, Eszter Balint, Richard Edson, and Cecillia Stark.

The movie opens with the arrival of Eva in New York City. She has come from Budapest to live with her Aunt Lotte in Cleveland. Much to her cousin Willie's surprise, she is supposed to stop off at Willie's apartment in New York for ten days while the aunt has surgery. Willie (John Lurie) is a seedy kind of young guy who lives in a seedy part of New York City. He is not too keen on the idea of baby-sitting his seventeen-year-old cousin. As Eva, played by Eszter Balint, walks along the streets on her way to Willie's apartment, she plays a tape of Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "I've Got a Spell On You."  This dangerous sounding song from the 1950's probably conveys the sense of adventure Eva is hoping to find in United States. After finding Willie's apartment on her own, Eva is stuck there for the next ten days with nothing to do. We are shown this in excruciating detail. Shot in black and white, with a stationary camera, the scenes in the apartment look bleak and dismal. Willie and Eva spend most of the days just watching television and smoking. Willie won't let Eva do anything for him or even play her Screamin' Jay Hawkins tape. Eva is bored, Willie is content. She is almost in a prison cell. This cannot be what Eva expected when she decided to come to America.

Willie slips out on occasion with his best (and probably only) friend, Eddie, to go to the track. Gambling is the way Willie makes his living. Eddie (Richard Edson) is an easygoing guy who seems genuinely interested in Eva. When she tells him about going to Cleveland, he tells her what a great place Cleveland is. He then confesses he has never been there. Willie tells Eva not to leave the apartment because of the dangerous neighborhood he lives in. Defiantly, Eva leaves the apartment anyway and comes back with food and cigarettes she has shoplifted from the grocery store. This greatly raises Willie's opinion of Eva.  As a surprise for Eva, Willie brings home a dress he has bought for her. She tells him she doesn't wear dresses like that, but he insists on giving it to her anyway. To please Willie, she wears the dress; but over her cloths instead of how it is intended to be worn. For some reason, the sight of Eva wearing the dress in this fashion doesn't bother Willie. Before leaving, Willie even allows Eva to clean up the apartment a little. He is sad to see her leave. She is obviously dying to get out of there. Just outside of the apartment, Eddie sees Eva remove the dress and throw it in the trash. She tells Eddie, "That dress bugged me."

One year later, we see Eddie and Willie at a poker game. They are working together to cheat the other players. Willie and Eddie have had a string of good luck at the track and the card tables. They have about $600 cash. Willie suggests that they go to Cleveland to visit Eva as a surprise. They borrow a car and drive straight through from New York City to Cleveland. The drive is taken during the dead of winter and turns out to be very long and tedious. It is obvious that these two young men have rarely ventured outside of the city. They manage to get to Cleveland with only spending about fifty dollars. Eva is still living with her Aunt Lotte in a tiny house near some railroad tracks. The young woman is working as a waitress at a diner and they surprise her at work. She is very pleased to see them, and is impressed that they drove all of the way from New York to see her. Looking for something to do, they tag along on Eva's date to the movies that night. It soon becomes apparent that Willie does not know how to have a good time. The whole week he and Eddie spend in Cleveland is passed by playing cards with Aunt Lotte and watching television. Eva is having a terrible time during their visit because she is bored but feels obligated to stay home while they are there. On the last day of their visit they decide to look at Lake Erie. Being winter, there is nothing to see but a great expanse of snow and ice extending to the gray horizon. It is here where Eddie expresses the fact that being in Cleveland doesn't seem that different from being in New York. Willie and Eddie leave the next day, having not done anything in Cleveland that they couldn't have easily done at home.

On their way back to New York, Willie decides it would be great to go to Florida with Eva. Willie unconsciously wants change in his life, but doesn't know how to obtain it. He knows that Eva briefly brought change to his life in New York and he liked that. Willie somehow thinks just by changing his location he can bring about the change in his life he wants. He doesn't realized he has to change himself. Despite the protests of Aunt Lotte, Eva agrees to go with Eddie and Willie. In celebration, Eva plays her Screamin' Jay Hawkins tape. Eddie likes it but Willie still hates it.  He tolerates it for Eva's sake. After another long and tedious ride they finally reach Florida where they buy sunglasses to celebrate; another insignificant change. Eva probably thinks that she is finally going to have some fun. She couldn't have been more wrong. The three check into a motel where Eva has to hide from the manager so that they can get the room for less money. In the morning, instead of going to the beach as Eva wants, Eddie and Willie go to the dog track. Willie forbids Eva to come along and she is stuck in the motel room all day, feeling once again bored and neglected. Willie returns later with Eddie, furious that they have lost almost all of their money at the dog track. Eva talks them into going to the beach, but Willie is in too foul of a mood to enjoy it.  Jarmusch's use of black and white stock makes even Florida look drab and dreary.

Eva awakens the next day to find that Willie and Eddie have slipped out without waking her. Furious she decides to go for a walk rather than be stuck in the motel room again. She buys a hat and takes a stroll. She comes upon a man who thinks that she is there to make a money pickup for a drug dealer. He gives her an envelope stuffed with big bills and walks away. Eva goes back to her room and finding Willie and Eddie still gone, leaves a wad of money and a note before leaving. She goes to the airport to book a flight to Europe. She finds the only flight leaving that day is to Budapest. Meanwhile, Willie and Eddie return from the horse races having won back all of their money and some more. Finding the note from Eva, Willie and Eddie head for the airport to stop her. Willie really like Eva, he just can't express it very well. Willie gets on the plane for Budapest determined to find Eva. The planed takes off with Willie still onboard. Ironically, Eva decided not to take the flight to Budapest. She didn't want to stay in America but she certainly did not want to go back to where she came from. She goes back to an empty motel room wondering where Willie and Eddie have gone.

This film is simple, yet darkly humorous. Very little happens or is said in the film. The technique of using dull, tedious shots effectively conveys the dull and tedious lives of the films characters. Eva is tormented by the monotony while Willie seems oblivious to it. One gets the feeling that Willie must have spent time in prison because his way of living is little different from that of an inmate in a penitentiary. While the lives of the characters are unimaginative, the same can not be said for the film. The movie is strangely engaging and that constitutes the art of it. Jarmusch fully exploits the medium in a deceptively simple film. Some may find the movie a complete waste of time. Others way find it time wasted well.

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