Permanent Vacation (1980) by Jim Jarmusch
Sunday, September 19, 1982, 8:00 pm
Permanent Vacation (1980) by Jim Jarmusch, music by John Lurie
A Dream-like New Wave Odyssey of New York’s Lower East Side
Jarmusch’s first feature captures the alienation of New York as seen through the eyes of a young wanderer with no home, no school, and no job. Jarmusch writes “The film attempts to merge recreated experiences with imagined ones, placing the camera somewhere in the netherworld between documentary and theatrical… Aloysius, now 16, drifts in and out of strange encounters with other misfits: always moving, keeping just ahead of whatever it is that seems to be chasing him… the music for the film is treated Javanese gamelan, and in certain sequences is mixed with solo saxophone improvisations done for the film by John Lurie (of the Lounge Lizards)… The film is unofficially dedicated to the memory of Nick Ray”