Cinema
Stranger than Paradise
Jim Jarmusch · 1984
Synopsis
Willie, a Hungarian settled in New York, a gambler and small-time crook, sees his cousin Eva, sixteen, arrive from Budapest; because their aunt Lotte, in Cleveland, is in hospital, her stay with him is extended to ten days. He puts up with her badly, then becomes attached to her, and she goes to live with Lotte. A year later, Willie and his friend Eddie win money by cheating at poker, borrow a car and go to see her in Cleveland, in the dead of winter, in front of the frozen Lake Erie; then the three of them set off for Florida.
Context
The film began as a short, shot over a weekend in February 1982 in a New York apartment with leftover film stock left by Wim Wenders; the two following parts were financed afterwards, notably by German television and a British channel. The sources put the total cost between ninety thousand and one hundred and thirty thousand dollars. Each scene is a single shot of two to three minutes, and the scenes are separated by four-second blackouts.
Who it is for
A feature film of an hour and twenty-nine minutes, with minimal action, whose humour lies in the silences and the length of the shots.
Prizes and reception
Caméra d'Or at Cannes in 1984; according to Britannica, it is the film that established its director's reputation.
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