Stranger Than Paradise (1984)

Directed by Jim Jarmusch

It's Screamin' Jay Hawkins, and he's a wild man, so bug off.

In the opening of Stranger Than Paradise, we follow Eva, just landed in New York from Hungary, as she makes her way through the dingy streets of the Lower East Side in search of her cousin’s flat. She is not a tourist. As she walks, she takes a portable cassette tape player from her baggage and introduces us to her personal theme song and the signature track of the film, the voodoo blues vamp “I Put a Spell on You” by Screaming Jay Hawkins. Incidentally, Screaming Jay hails from Cleveland – the second, and much bleaker, location we follow Eva to in the film. The choice of this song and that it reappears throughout the film, however, is certainly not incidental. It’s not so much a soundtrack as it is another character or perhaps a sort of narrator providing a philosophical undertone.

As I watched, I was thinking about Jarmusch’s relationship to music as a filmmaker. With the help of Wikipedia, I discovered that the trio of actors in Stranger Than Paradise are also musicians. [jazz musician John Lurie, former Sonic Youth drummer-turned-actor Richard Edson, and Hungarian-born actress and violinist Eszter Balint] The casting of musicians as actors is not anomalous to Stranger Than Paradise. We see “wild man” Hawkins appear in the flesh in Jarmusch’s 1989 film Mystery Train. There’s Down By Law (1986) with Tom Waits and the musical ensemble of Coffee & Cigarettes (2003). He has a long history of working with musicians both as sonic spell casters and as actors. Jarmusch employs music like some filmmakers use lighting to create atmosphere, or as a backstory to underscore a way of life. He is clearly has a deep understanding of the way that music enriches our experiences – how it casts a spell on us.

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Directed by Stanley Kubrick with Peter Sellers, George C. Scott, Sterling Hayden, Slim Pickens, and James Earl Jones

“Mr. President, we are rapidly approaching a moment of truth, both for ourselves as human beings and for the life of our nation. Now, truth is not always a pleasant thing. But it is necessary now to make a choice, to choose between two admittedly regrettable, but nevertheless distinguishable, post-war environments: one where you got 20 million people killed, and the other where you got 150 million people killed!”

I often thought of Dr. Strangelove over the past four years as we collectively endured the mind-boggling buffoonery of the Trump circus. Now that we have been released, scarred but still intact, from the villainous grip of the orange tyrant, I felt it was safe to venture back to Kubrick’s Cold War satire.

Before I watched Dr. Strangelove again, I read a little bit of Roger Ebert’s 1999 review. Ebert wrote this review after watching the film for perhaps the tenth time. He begins by stating that every time one watches a great film something new comes to light. Ebert happens to zero in on the performance given by George C. Scott as General Turgidson – particularly what he does with his face, the tics and twitches, the comic plasticity of his over-the-top expressions. So, that is what I paid attention to as I watched the film again. In my past viewings, I’m sure that I paid most attention to Peter Sellers’ characters and the delightfully bizarre general Jack D. Ripper played by Sterling Hayden. I’m glad that Ebert steered me toward Scott’s exuberant performance – it’s brilliant comedy. Also brilliant is Ebert’s review and critique of the film. He offers great insights. I suggest you see for yourself: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-dr-strangelove-1964

One insight offered in Ebert’s review is related to the War Room set which was designed by Ken Adam. While I had certainly been aware of the brilliance of that set, I’d never really considered its design and creation. Upon further investigation, I learned that Ken Adam, having worked on over 75 films during his 60 year career, has a long list of equally brilliant sets to his name. For instance, Adam is the vision behind the futuristic secret volcanic lair of the international terrorist organization Spectre in the Bond film, You Only Live Twice. The following anecdote about Adam’s war room set pretty well sums up how convincing and influential his vision was: “Shortly after being elected president of the United States in 1981, Ronald Reagan was shown around the Pentagon by his chief of staff, James Baker. At the end of the tour, Reagan asked why they hadn't seen the War Room. Baker explained that it didn't exist, except in a movie.”