please click on me
is this dvd rare to find in stores?
shareIt is currently out of print, so yeah, it is now.
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MovieChat Forums > Stranger Than Paradise (1984) Discussion > please click on me
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Thats great that its out of print. Well not for people who don't own it but I feel so special now, like a vintage Jarmusch film DVD collector. The MGM DVD isn't that bad a print, I actually prefer the grainy grittiness of the print to the cleaned up Criterion version of Down By Law. I think cleaning up the print to DBL takes away about 65% of what I totally admire about the film. It's a totally different film to me because of that. We should request Criterion to desproose the HD transfers so us nostalgic cinephiles can be taken to a celluloid-heavy era of film. Anybody else feel that way too?
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Jarmusch supervised the Down By Law transfer and I'm pretty sure the Criterion image on the DVD is exactly how he wished. I even remember him saying something in the special features about how Stranger than Paradise was a much grainier film, while Down By Law has a much clearer, contrasted look. Stranger than Paradise's film stock was probably a lot cheaper and of weaker quality than Down By Law's, considering the budget was bigger and the cinematographer (Muller) was more renowned.
And your comment about the "I'm glad this is out of print", "Vintage Jarmusch collector" out of print dvd is just idiotic. The MGM dvd is garbage; it's outdated and the sound is horrible. Owning that means so little about your "fandom"; DVD's are different than vinyl records. Criterion is a godsend and they are dedicated to preserving the integrity of films for posterity, usually doing their best to recreate the image exactly as the filmmaker intended. They are picking up Jarmsuch's This Night on Earth for release at the end of the year, and rumors are swirling about Stranger Than Paradie and Permanent Vacation releases too. When those come out, then you can pick them up and be a real "cinephile".
I am very aware of the Jarmusch/Mueller supervision, thank you very much, but my nostalgia for film prints gets the better of me for the most part and thats what prompted my last comment regarding the Criterion version. I'm also aware that if I'm this nostalgic about certain prints, I should just look for the original 35mm print, but I am not filthy rich so I want them as economical as possible. And for the record I love Criterion and their unrivaled quality collection of DVDs, I just feel that in most cases (Down By Law being one) the overall tone and mood of an original composition is often distorted with this "cleaner" look so I decided to air said grievance. Sue me.
You didn't have to reply with such confrontational words about my collector-isms, neither. They are both rude and uncalled for. I was just expressing my "fanboy" enthusiasm for my fortuitous purchase of said MGM DVD so long ago and, oh by the by, I don't think the dvd is horrible by any stretch of the imagination. It may be dated but how great can the sound get in a low-budget indie flick like this? I, for one, prefer the audio to be less THX-ized. That doesn't mean I prefer crappier sound quality, but "I Put A Spell On You" doesn't need to blow me away. Call me nostalgic, call me a lunatic living in the past who even loves the static of an old vinyl recording, but I'm still, unquestionably, a Jarmusch-ite. So "Buzz off", if you don't like it.