About this Blog
STRANGER THAN PARADISE.
Ah, the good old days. When a film by no one, starring no one and on a tiny budget could become a Cannes sensation, a Sundance darling and spark a decade-long Renaissance in maverick American filmmaking. (The catastrophic ‘90s and aughts will be addressed at a later date.)
Well, those days are long gone. Screw those days.
If Jim Jarmusch came onto the scene right now and submitted “Stranger Than Paradise” to Sundance – or the New York Film Festival or Tribeca – it may or may not be programmed, but one thing is almost certain: it would not be acquired for distribution. So what have we learned? That distributors have gone soft? That audiences have dummed down? That the landscape for American independent films has deteriorated to the point where bold, edgy, intelligent, thoughtful and innovative writer/directors have no place in the 21st century?
Fuck no.
Instead, something even more absurd has taken hold. Even with the music industry’s decade-long spiral into near oblivion as a glaring example, the film industry – and in particular, the independent film community – continues to reject the internet. Why? Who cares. I used to, but over the past three years I’ve learned that it’s a futile and entirely irrelevant question to ask. Instead, it’s time to disregard all that’s come before and look to the future without baggage and without rules.
This site and this blog are therefore dedicated to inciting, enabling and empowering filmmakers around the globe. The future for independent filmmaking, like the future for virtually everything else, lies in the power and reach of the internet. There will always be a place for brick-and-mortar cinemas and for off-line film festivals. But – and I can’t stress this point passionately enough – the audience and the tools to reach them are online. Period. Live with it. Embrace it and the world is virtually at your beck and call. Reject or fear it at your peril.
Now let’s light a fire!
I just watched this film. I love it. I also really liked Coffee and Cigarettes. Permanent Vacation is a little hard to sit through. But there are some great scenes and some very beautiful cinematography amidst the grungy tenement New york sets. In the beginning of Permanent Vacation the girl sits at a window. She seems posed as if in a famous painting. It’s really beautiful. Near the end the car thief guy stands at a pier and there again he seems posed as if on the cover of GQ. The actors, the sets, the wardrobe; all of it works so well. But Stranger than Paradise is a killer film.
You’re right about how festivals won’t play this stuff. I wonder how many great filmmakers are never heard of now that digital has made filmmaking so accessible but the festivals have gone so commercial. It seems harder now to get any kind of recognition. But at least there’s the internet where filmmakers can put stuff out. That just might be our salvation. The trouble is, how long does it take for people to discover good films with the plethora of YouTube, and other stuff out there.
We need more people like you to discover the greats and tell the world.