Jim Jarmusch: Stranger Than Paradise

30th Anniversary
Piddling New York City gambler John Lurie unwittingly plays host to his wayfaring Hungarian cousin, Eszter Balint, in his cramped studio apartment. He introduces her to such touchstones of American life as TV dinners, Monday Night Football and Chesterfield cigarettes…not to mention his unflappable sidekick, Richard Edson (Sonic Youth's original drummer). But after Balint splits for Cleveland to live with Aunt Lotte (Cecillia Stark), Lurie and Edson decide to use their poker winnings for an impromptu road trip to the Midwest and beyond. Punctuated by Screamin' Jay Hawkins's “I Put a Spell on You" and crisply shot by future director Tom DiCillo (“Johnny Suede,” “Living in Oblivion”), Jarmusch's minimalist comedy swept awards throughout international film festivals: winning a Special Jury Prize in Sundance, the Camera d'Or in Cannes for best first feature (Jarmusch's true debut, the short film Permanent “Vacation,” was little seen outside New York), and the Golden Leopard in Locarno.

1984, 89 minutes, black and white, 35mm | Written and directed by Jim Jarmusch; with John Lurie, Eszter Balint, Richard Edson and Cecillia Stark