HOME at the moment would seem to the the home of Jim Jarmusch. To celebrate the release of Gimme Danger and Paterson, Jason Wood revisits the director’s breakthrough film, Stranger Than Paradise. We also present the famously tight-lipped director’s own snapshot of his latest work.
Jim Jarmusch on Paterson
Paterson is a quiet story, its central characters without any real dramatic conflict. Its structure is simple, following just seven days in the lives of its subjects. Paterson is intended as a celebration of the poetry of details, variations and daily interactions and a kind of antidote to dark, heavily dramatic or action-oriented cinema. It’s a film one should just allow to float past them — like images seen from the window of a public bus, moving like a mechanical gondola through a small, forgotten city.
Jim Jarmusch: Stranger Than Paradise
One of American independent cinema’s defining moments, Stranger Than Paradise was directly responsible for pushing many new films and directors into production and for auguring what industry expert John Pierson perceives as a halcyon period (1984-1994) in intelligent, esoteric but accessible low budget movies. Moreover, the film (Jarmusch’s second after 1982’s Permanent Vacation) coined a laconic, minimalist visual style and general sensibility in part informed by the works of Bresson, Ozu and Rivette but also borrowing from avant-garde and punk rock aesthetics. Kevin Smith recognised the ‘look’ to which he aspired, thanking Jarmusch in the Clerks (1993) credits for ‘leading the way’.
Originating as a 30-minute short shot over a weekend on leftover stock gifted by Wim Wenders following the completion of The State of Things (1982), the film screened on portable projectors at clubs throughout New York in order to attract further finance. Later shown at the Hof Festival in Germany, the short captured the attention of director Paul Bartel and chocolate impresario Otto Grokenberger with the latter stepping forward to provide the completion funding that extricated Jarmusch from his soured relationship with Gray City Films, Wenders’ distribution company.
Exploring the effects of an unwanted visit from a Hungarian cousin (Estzer Balintz) on detached, taciturn New Yorker Willie (John Lurie) and his gambling buddy Eddy (Richard Edson), the film offers a perceptive look at exile, existential solitude and the possibilities of communication beyond cultural differences. Jarmusch also studies the effects of geography on human emotions, tracking the trio as they travel from New York, to snowy Cleveland and then on to an out of season Florida.
Shot for $110,000, $10,000 of which went towards securing the use of Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ I put a Spell on You, Stranger Than Paradise was immediately set apart by Tom DiCillo’s elegant black and white photography and its part poignant, part comic minimalism which serves to magnify the import of every gesture and wry comment. Divided into three chapters: ‘The New World’, ‘One Year Later’ and ‘Paradise’, Jarmusch employs a very discrete approach to style and grammar, with no dissolves, cuts or wipes in the long, uninterrupted stationary scenes in which the film proceeds. Drawing on understated, deadpan performances, the film made a telling contribution to the casting process with Jarmusch avoiding Screen Actors Guild members in favour of character types and figures with whom he was familiar from the downtown punk scene.
Jarmusch became the first American to win the Camera d’Or for best first feature at Cannes and was the recipient of sustained critical approval. Zeroing in on the zeitgeist, the film was picked up for distribution by the Samuel Goldwyn Company and played for over a year in American cinemas, racking up a profitable domestic gross of $2.5 million. It was subsequently a cultural and commercial event throughout Europe and Japan (a sustained source of funding for future Jarmusch productions), where Jarmusch was immediately canonised as a guru of cool. A seismic influence on the way American independent films were made, distributed and marketed (the poster audaciously proclaimed ‘a new American film by Jim Jarmusch’), the determinedly economical style perfectly captured the relationship between aesthetics and economy, with executives seizing upon the realisation that small budgets bring increased profit potential.
Originally produced in 100 American Independent Films, Jason Wood. Palgrave.
Paterson opens on Fri 25 November. To book tickets head here.
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