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S E A R C H D V D B e a v e r |
directed
by Jim Jarmusch
USA / West Germany 1984
Rootless Hungarian emigre Willie (John Lurie), his pal Eddie (Richard Edson), and visiting sixteen-year-old cousin Eva (Eszter Balint) always manage to make the least of any situation, whether aimlessly traversing the drab interiors and environs of New York City, Cleveland, or an anonymous Florida suburb. With its delicate humor and dramatic nonchalance, Jim Jarmusch's one-of-a-kind minimalist masterpiece, Stranger Than Paradise, forever transformed the landscape of American independent cinema. ***
I
don't recall if it was Stranger than Paradise that ignited my love for the
Cinema, or if it was
Paris, Texas. I think it was the former. The
initial
tracking shot of Eszter Balint walking down the street, boombox in hand and
blasting Screaming Jay Hawkins - it just made perfect sense to me. I was
convinced I had seen the future of Cinema, and that his name was Jim Jarmusch.
The next months found me proclaiming the wonders of this Jim on my radio slot.
Nobody believed me. And 20 years later, they still don't. |
Posters
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Theatrical Release: July 25th, 1984
Reviews More Reviews DVD Reviews
Comparison:
Criterion (2-disc) - Region 1 - NTSC vs. MGM (USA) - Region 1 - NTSC vs. Kinowelt (Germany) - Region 2 - PAL vs. Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray |
Big thanks to Trond Trondsen and Pavel Borodin for the DVD Screen Caps!
1) Criterion - Region 1 - NTSC - LEFT2 ) MGM (USA) - Region 1 - NTSC - SECOND3) Kinowelt (Germany) - Region 2 - PAL - THIRD 4) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - RIGHT
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Box Covers |
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Distribution |
Criterion Collection - Spine # 400 Region 1 - NTSC |
MGM Home Entertainment (USA) Region 1 - NTSC |
Kinowelt
Home Entertainment (Germany) Region 2 - PAL |
Criterion Collection - Spine # 400 Region 'A' - Blu-ray |
Runtime | 1:29:21 | 1:28:54 | 1:25:24 (4% PAL speedup) | 1:29:26.361 |
Video |
1.78:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9
enhanced |
1.85:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9
enhanced |
1.78:1 Original Aspect Ratio 16X9
enhanced |
1. 78:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-rayDisc Size: 48,505,005,995 bytesFeature: 26,380,560,384 bytesVideo Bitrate: 34.99 MbpsCodec: MPEG-4 AVC Video |
NOTE: The Vertical axis represents the bits transferred per second. The Horizontal is the time in minutes |
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Bitrate:
Criterion . |
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Bitrate:
MGM Home Entertainment (USA)
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Bitrate:
Kinowelt Home Entertainment (Germany)
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Bitrate:
Criterion Blu-ray
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Audio | English (Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono) | English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono) |
English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono) |
LPCM Audio English 1152 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 1152 kbps / 24-bit Dolby Digital Audio English 192 kbps 1.0 / 48 kHz / 192 kbps |
Subtitles | English, none | French, Spanish, none | German, Dutch, French, none | English (SDH), none |
Features |
Release
Information: Studio: Criterion Aspect Ratio: Edition
Details: Chapters 18 |
Release
Information: Studio: MGM Home Entertainment (USA) Aspect Ratio: Edition
Details: Chapters
32 |
Release
Information: Studio: Kinowelt Home Entertainment (Germany) Aspect Ratio: Edition
Details: DVD
Release Date: September 23, 2003 Chapters
24 |
Release
Information: Studio: Criterion
1. 78:1 1080P Dual-layered Blu-rayDisc Size: 48,505,005,995 bytesFeature: 26,380,560,384 bytesVideo Bitrate: 34.99 MbpsCodec: MPEG-4 AVC Video
Edition
Details: Chapters 18 |
Comments: |
NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.
ADDITION: Criterion Blu-ray - March 2019':
Criterion bring us the gritty breakout film from Jim Jarmusch, with a
high-definition digital restoration, supervised and approved by the
director (as was the DVD). The film is housed on a dual-layered
Blu-ray
with a maxed out bitrate. The 1.78:1 HD image shows an abundance of fine
grain, giving the picture the texture of a film projected. There are the
occasional moments of damage, but these are truly few and far between.
Any restoration or clean-up that was performed is seamless, and most
certainly not noticeable while the film is in motion. The level of
detail in the image is somewhat more defined when compared to the
previous SD releases. The Criterion
Blu-ray
also benefits from their usual attention to contrast levels, giving this
release a strong range of blacks and grays. Clothing, for example, now
shows much more texture and variations thanks to those complex and
varied black levels. Another expert 1080P transfer. Colin Zavitz *** ADDITION: Criterion - Aug 07': Hard to pick flaw with the Criterion as the cover has a sticker 'New, restored high-definition digital transfer, supervised and approved by director Jim Jarmusch'. It appears similar to the Kinowelt in terms of smoothness and clarity. The MGM may have darker blacks but is riddled with artifacts that initially appeared as film grain (but aren't) and appear more like dirt. The MGM also has some edge enhancement. Expectantly the Criterion is anamorphic, progressive and dual-layered. It also offers optional English subtitles but the first disc (feature film) has no commentary and is not shared with any supplements. There is a second disc with Jarmusch's first full-length feature, entitled, Permanent Vacation made in 1980 - it runs 75 minutes long and is also a 'restored high-definition digital transfer supervised by the director'. It has 11 chapter stops and offers optional English subtitles. Next is Martina Muller's documentary 'Kino '84: Jim Jarmusch': a 1984 produced by West German television (WDR) that features interviews with the cast and crew from Stranger Than Paradise and Permanent Vacation including actor Chris Parker, cinematographer Tom DiCillo, producer Sara Driver and actors John Lurie, Eszter Balint and Richard Edson. There is also a 15 minute silent film 'Some Days in January, 1984, a behind-the-scenes Super-8 film by Tom Jarmusch' (Jim's brother). Location scouting photos is a click thru slide show of photographs of the locales used in the film and finally (digitally) there are the US and Japanese trailers. There is a very nice 46-page liner notes booklet featuring Jarmusch's 1984 "Some Notes on Stranger Than Paradise," Geoff Andrew and J. Hoberman on Stranger Than Paradise, and Luc Sante on Permanent Vacation. ***
The MGM disc is
grainier than the Kinowelt disc, as seen in the single-frame stills
below. When projected at 30 frames per second, the graininess is however
much less noticeable (as the signal-to-noise ratio improves by a factor
of square root of 6), and no worse than what I recall from seeing in the
theatre, multiple times. The Kinowelt transfer is very smooth and nice,
but perhaps a tad on the blurry side. See for example the shot through
the windshield: the pattern on Eva's scarf, and the grill on the
dashboard appear better defined on the MGM disc. The MGM is exhibiting
slight edge enhancement. It has clearly been contrast enhanced by
histogram equalization - but I feel that the resulting stark contrast is
quite in keeping with the intended Robert Frank look. The MGM image is
also slightly cropped on top and bottom and just a little bit on the
left.
The Kinowelt disc includes the entire film "January 1984 - STRANGER THAN PARADISE in Cleveland, A Silent Super 8 Film, shot and edited by Tom Jarmusch" (duration: 14:40). MGM has included a butchered version of the film. They call it "Selected Super 8 footage shot by Tom Jarmusch" (duration: 7:30), and the most interesting sequences (from a cineaste's point of view) are missing. It boggles the mind! It's not as if the bitrate used by MGM on the main feature caused them to run out of space. Even if it did, most would have the decency to not include a film at all, rather than presenting the viewer with a bastardized version!? But MGM continues to exhibit an uncanny ability to come up with new and exciting ways to provoke us. |
DVD Menus
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Criterion - disc 2
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(MGM Home Entertainment (USA) - Region 1 -
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Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray
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CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION
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ubtitle Sample from Criterion
1) Criterion - Region 1 - NTSC - TOP 2 ) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM
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Screen Captures
1) Criterion - Region 1 - NTSC - TOP 2 ) MGM (USA) - Region 1 - NTSC - SECOND3) Kinowelt (Germany) - Region 2 - PAL - THIRD4) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM
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1) Criterion - Region 1 - NTSC - TOP 2 ) MGM (USA) - Region 1 - NTSC - SECOND3) Kinowelt (Germany) - Region 2 - PAL - THIRD 4) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM
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1) Criterion - Region 1 - NTSC - TOP 2 ) MGM (USA) - Region 1 - NTSC - SECOND3) Kinowelt (Germany) - Region 2 - PAL - THIRD 4) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM
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1) Criterion - Region 1 - NTSC - TOP 2 ) MGM (USA) - Region 1 - NTSC - SECOND3) Kinowelt (Germany) - Region 2 - PAL - THIRD 4) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM
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1) Criterion - Region 1 - NTSC - TOP 2 ) MGM (USA) - Region 1 - NTSC - SECOND3) Kinowelt (Germany) - Region 2 - PAL - THIRD 4) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM
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1) Criterion - Region 1 - NTSC - TOP 2 ) MGM (USA) - Region 1 - NTSC - SECOND3) Kinowelt (Germany) - Region 2 - PAL - THIRD 4) Criterion - Region 'A' - Blu-ray - BOTTOM
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Report Card:
Image: |
Blu-ray |
Sound: |
Blu-ray |
Extras: | Blu-ray |
Box Covers |
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Distribution |
Criterion Collection - Spine # 400 Region 1 - NTSC |
MGM Home Entertainment (USA) Region 1 - NTSC |
Kinowelt
Home Entertainment (Germany) Region 2 - PAL |
Criterion Collection - Spine # 400 Region 'A' - Blu-ray |
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