Before our feature presentation, ACME would like to start the evening with another Porky Pig Looney Tunes cartoon, the 1938 Porky and Daffy (co-starring Daffy Duck, of course), directed by Robert Clampett.
You would be forgiven if you thought this was the team's first paring. Their actual first pairing was in the 1937 Looney Tunes short, Porky's Duck Hunt. In that cartoon, directed by Tex Avery and animated by Bob Clampett, Daffy Duck made his debut as a nameless hunter who torments Porky Pig. Porky and Daffy is their first pairing where they both starred in this short
We all miss Alex Trebek. Someone on the staff on The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour found this clip reel of very funny moments from Jeopardy:
Who knew the Alex was that funny
We’ve selected another entry from the excellent reference book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, edited by Steven Jay Schneider. Today’s film is the 1984 comedy Stranger Than Paradise, directed by Jim Jarmusch and starring John Lurie, Richard Edson, and Eszter Balint. What began as a 30-minute short (shot in 1982) was later expanded into a three-part feature. The first section, The New World, takes place in New York; the second, One Year Later, in Cleveland; and the last, Paradise, in Florida.
This quirky, idiosyncratic film blends the feel of a Jack Kerouac-style road movie, a Waiting for Godot-like script reminiscent of Samuel Beckett, post-beatnik hipster coolness, and the deliberate pace of an Andy Warhol film. It is an intense study of alienation among bohemian outcasts and outsiders, shot mostly in a deadpan style (with no elaborate camera movements) and structured around scenes that begin and end with simple fade-ins and fade-outs to black. The film contains a total of 67 single-shot, unbroken takes - mostly disconnected and episodic. It is highly atypical of most films due to its unconventional and static nature, its unedited and uncut long takes, its series of strung-together vignettes, and its lack of a dense plot.
Although the film is a story about displacement and boredom, the film itself is far from boring. Punk rock at its core is minimalism, and Stranger Than Paradise leans fully into its own sense of hipness, with the chutzpah to support its self-assured cheekiness. Much of what we learn about Willie (John Lurie), Eva (Eszter Balint), and Eddie (Richard Edson) comes from their opinionated taste in pop culture, often illuminated by the burning glow of a television set reflecting off their expressionless faces. Though they drift aimlessly through every other aspect of their apathetic existence, they hold firm, uncompromising views about the movies and songs that define their very way of life.
Please find a comfy chair and join us here at The ACME Eagle Hand Soap Radio Hour as we watch one of Akira Kurosawa’s favorite movies: Stranger Than Paradise.
Jim Jarmusch was dismayed to learn that all the money he paid for the rights to Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ I Put a Spell on You went to the record company, with none of it going to Hawkins. When the film turned a profit, Jarmusch took it upon himself to track down Hawkins (who was living in a trailer park at the time) and give him some money. It was the beginning of a friendship that lasted until Hawkins’ death. According to Jarmusch, Hawkins repeatedly swore he would pay him back, despite Jarmusch’s insistence that the money was a gift.
Demand Euphoria!
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