390 - Permanent Vacation, United States, 1980. Dir. Jim Jarmusch.
I know that when I get the feeling the drift is gonna take me.
So says Aloysious Christopher Parker. Played by Christopher Parker. In Jim Jarmusch's NYU student film. (He would leave without graduating.)
We saw Jim Jarmusch's Mystery Train (1989) nearly a year ago. This one came out nearly a decade before that one.
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Aloysious goes by Allie.
He spraypaints his name on the walls of buildings.
Allie
Total
Blamblam!
He sprays, but his heart is not in it.
He walks the debris-covered streets.
He talks in voice over as we see a montage of interiors. Spaces from jail cells to living rooms, apartments to mansions.
He tells us if he ever has a son he will name him Charles Christopher Parker. Like Charlie Parker. He likes jazz.
When he arrives at his apartment his girlfriend Leila is waiting for him. Leila played by Leila Gastil.
She sits in a chair of the mostly empty loft, looking out the window. A mattress lies on the floor.
She asks him where he has been. He says walking. He cannot seem to sleep at night.
He puts on some jazz music. Bebop. Not Charlie Parker but "Up There in Orbit" by Earl Bostic. He dances. She ignores him. He dances to the whole song.
They live with layers of silence between them. They have as much chemistry as two cardboard boxes sitting on a barren concrete floor.
He sits reading at the table. Les Chants de Maldoror by Le Compte de Lautreamont. A French poet from Uruguay who published two works before dying at 24, and who had a strong influence on Surrealists.
She makes herself a cup of coffee. He reads to her. Then he says, "I'm tired of this book. You can have it."
"Everyone is alone. That's why I just drift, you know. People think it's crazy. But it's better to think you're not alone when you're drifting, even though you are."
Then he goes drifting.
Everyone he encounters seems to be insane. He does not judge them. He befriends them. But they cannot understand him.
The first is a homeless man living in an abandoned building, thinking he is fighting in Vietnam. He hears enemy fighters overhead. He looks like he is played by one of Jarmusch's youthful, healthy college friends.
The second is Allie's mother. He visits her at the asylum. She is silent. Her roommate laughs incessantly. He identifies himself. She denies he is her son. The nurse sends him out to give her medication.
The third is a woman in a slip on a stoop shouting in Spanish, her lipstick smeared on her face. He tries to talk to her but she gestures him away.
He walks with a yo-yo. He goes to see a movie. The Savage Innocents. Nicholas Ray. 1960. Anthony Quinn.
The fourth is a girl at the concession counter. She is reading. He buys popcorn. He asks about the movie. She tells him they eat maggots in it.
The fifth is a man in the movie theater lobby talking about the Doppler effect. The Doppler Effect is the name of his joke. It is really a long story. A really long story.
The sixth is a man playing the saxophone. Played by John Lurie. Who played Slater in Paris, Texas. And who will go on to work with Jim Jarmusch in at least three more films. Stranger Than Paradise (1984), Down By Law (1986), and Mystery Train (1989), which we saw last year. He works in films as both actor and composer, and he is the composer on this film.
He asks Allie what he would like to hear. Allie says, "I don't care as long as it's vibrating bugged-out sound."
He plays some vibrating bugged-out sound. Or what sounds like the beginning of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," which then detours into improvisation. Allie listens and then walks off. He sleeps on a roof. The next morning he mumbles to himself as dogs bark.
The seventh is quite frankly Allie himself when he wakes up on the roof. He sits on the parapet. Looks over. Will he jump?
Later he smokes while leaning against a postal box. When a young woman pulls up and asks him to drop her letter in for her, he refuses. When she gets out of the car to mail it, he gets in and drives off.
He sells the car for $800.
He returns to his apartment. Leila is out. He packs.
He is getting the feeling. The drift is going to take him.
He leaves a note.
He gets on a boat.
He meets a young man from Paris. They talk.
He gets on another boat.
He talks to us.
"I don't want a job or a house or taxes, although I wouldn't mind a car. . . .
Let's just say I'm a certain kind of tourist. A tourist that's on a permanent vacation."
And off he goes.
Permanent Vacation is a student film. And it shows. It has sound problems. Bad acting. A thin script with overwrought earnest philosophizing. If you are looking for a night of popcorn and Milk Duds, then this movie is not for you. If you are looking for a thoughtful art house film, then this movie is also not for you.
But if you are a Jarmusch fan and want to see him early at work, then have a go. Permanent Vacation carries within it the seeds that would develop into Jim Jarmusch's ever-nomadic independent style.
Do you get the drift?
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