Permanent Vacation (1980)

Director:

Jim Jarmusch

Writer:

Jim Jarmusch (writer)

Release Date:

26 July 1986 (Japan)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

A young slacker wanders New York City searching for some meaning in life and encounters many idiosyncratic characters.

Plot Keywords:

Saxophonist | New York City | Manhattan | Tribeca | Slacker

Awards:

1 win

Cast

Richard Boes	...	War vet
Ruth Bolton	...	Mother
Sara Driver	...	Nurse
María Duval	...	Latin girl
Frankie Faison	...	Man in lobby
Jane Fire	...	Nurse
Suzanne Fletcher	...	Girl in car
Leila Gastil	...	Leila
Chris Hameon	...	French traveller
John Lurie	...	Sax player
Eric Mitchell	...	Car fence
Chris Parker	...	Allie
Lisa Rosen	...	Popcorn girl
Felice Rosser	...	Woman by mailbox
Evelyn Smith	...	Patient
Charlie Spademan	...	Patient

Runtime:

75 min | Argentina:80 min (Buenos Aires Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Sweden:Btl | Argentina:Atp | Australia:PG | Finland:S | Hong Kong:I | Switzerland:16

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Cinesthesia Productions

Trivia:

This film is featured on second disc of the Stranger Than Paradise (1984) DVD released in 2007 by the Criterion Collection.

Quotes:

Leila: Where have you been? I haven't seen you since Thursday.
Allie: Walking, just walking around. I can't seems to sleep at night, not in this city.
Leila: Doesn't seems like you sleep at all.
Allie: Well, I have my dreams while I'm awake.

Movie Connections:

References The Savage Innocents (1960)

Soundtrack:

Up There in Orbit

Original debut

This film which is, as far as I know, the first one by Jarmusch, when he still studied to become a film director, is original in its way to reinstall 'realism' – somebody would say 'surrealism' – into film art. He tries to make us understand a special psychological type of our time, a 'tourist in life' on 'permanent vacation'. People having decided to follow that life strategy don't engage themselves in anything or anyone. They just do what they 'feel like', not caring about what that means to others. Others are not really human. They are looked upon as a tourist might look upon an exotic and alien tribe.

However, they themselves also feel alienated and estranged, indeed. Why engage in anything? The home where I was born was bombed out 'by the Chinese', my mother is crazy, my father is dead, and there is no hope for the future.

Jarmusch is convincing in his description of this psychological type which might be typical of our time. It might be a descripton of himself. But that is not what makes the film original. It is rather the way he succeeds in making that description.

Already in this film he uses stationary cameras with horizontal, and sometimes vertical, views, and depicts the world, as exemplified by New York City, as ugly as it is to all of us, if we do not embellish it.

What Jarmusch has to tell might be banal to some but it is certainly something that exists and is quite difficult to make understandable to us. Exactly like the opinion of the main character. But I think he has been successful in mediating such an understanding to us who have chosen a different life strategy.