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Brilliant, will grab both of these. Big Jarmusch fan. I like both of these vastly more than Down By Law so very welcome additions to the collection. I also agree that Mystery Train is one of his best though, so be great to see that in future.

And I may be solitary in this view but my favourite Jarmusch films are actually of his more recent output, Ghost Dog: Way Of The Samurai and Dead Man. Both visionary, flawless masterpieces as far as I'm concerned. Leave me stone cold drunk on cinema each and every time.

Buttery Jeb wrote:Can anyone supply a synopsis/opinion on "Permanent Vacation"?

I saw it not too long ago, it has an homage to Breathless,

Spoiler

how he steals the car, and when he sells it

both seem to be similar stories too, about a young man with no direction, but wants one, I think.....it was all very Godardian actually, with wacky background characters spouting absurd dialog. It's a short movie, I thought it was cool as his first film.

Mr Pixies wrote:

Buttery Jeb wrote:Can anyone supply a synopsis/opinion on "Permanent Vacation"?

I saw it not too long ago, it has an homage to Breathless,

Spoiler

how he steals the car, and when he sells it

both seem to be similar stories too, about a young man with no direction, but wants one, I think.....it was all very Godardian actually, with wacky background characters spouting absurd dialog. It's a short movie, I thought it was cool as his first film.

i think it was more inspired by Amos Poe's The Foreigner then Breathless actually.

Beaver on Stranger...

Don't touch my f&ckin' phone.

Gigi M. wrote:Beaver on Stranger...

not picture boxed, huh?
wow...

TheGodfather wrote:not picture boxed, huh?
wow...

Criterion only pictureboxes 1.33 films. This one is 1.78.

arsonfilms wrote:Criterion only pictureboxes 1.33 films. This one is 1.78.

Permanent Vacation, however, does appear to be pictureboxed.

arsonfilms wrote:Criterion only pictureboxes 1.33 films. This one is 1.78.

Not true.

justeleblanc wrote:

arsonfilms wrote:Criterion only pictureboxes 1.33 films. This one is 1.78.

Not true.

I'm sorry, I must have been mistaken. What else have they pictureboxed?

justeleblanc wrote:Seduced and Abandoned

Well, but that isn't exactly a standard. Maybe they don't ONLY picturebox 1.33 movies, but it seems rare enough that the surprise should be if it is, not if it isn't.

Dennis Lim revisits the film.

Permanent Vacation: 75 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

domino harvey wrote:Permanent Vacation: 75 minutes of my life I'll never get back.

That bad?

I don't like to throw this level of hyperbole around, and nothing against the film's fans, but it is the worst piece of shit Criterion has ever released (as far as feature-length films go). As someone mentioned earlier in the thread, it feels like a student film, and not a particularly good one. 75 minutes has never felt so long. It's nice that it's out there for Jarmusch fanatics to see, but I can't conceive of any scenario in which anyone would feel compelled to revisit the film. Consider the mystery as to why this wasn't assigned a spine number solved.

I didn't think It's "Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books" was any good either but I'm glad it's there on the "Slacker" DVD but I never watched it in it's entirety and chances are that I never will. The will probably go for Permanent Vacation if I ever actually end up buying the Stranger Than Paradise DVD.

VC2020 wrote:I didn't think It's "Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books" was any good either but I'm glad it's there on the "Slacker" DVD but I never watched it in it's entirety and chances are that I never will. The will probably go for Permanent Vacation if I ever actually end up buying the Stranger Than Paradise DVD.

Off Topic, but the only way I could get through Impossible/reading Books was watching it with the commentary. It really is a boring piece of shit. That being said, it was a great extra. Otherwise I'd always be wondering about it.

Permanent Vacation was significantly better than Plow, IMO. Plow felt so ridiculously masturbatory to me (Linklater's acting prescence didn't help any): at least PV had an interesting milieu (though the Sante essays, to be fair, played a bigger role in establishing this for me than the movie itself) and some passages of interest, however minor. Regardless, though, both were important stepping stones for their respective directors, and I found PV especially helped me appreciate more what Stranger than Paradise has to offer. As a supplement, I can't ask for anything more, and I think that's rightfully what PV is. It also somewhat kindled my interest in The Savage Innocents, so there you go.
EDIT- PV, not PM...whoops

skuhn8 wrote:Off Topic, but the only way I could get through Impossible/reading Books was watching it with the commentary. It really is a boring piece of shit. That being said, it was a great extra. Otherwise I'd always be wondering about it.

Damn straight

I basically went through all the DVDs tonight, having a minor Jarmusch fest and Vacation was pretty brutal to get through.

At any rate, anyone else surprised that Jarmusch considers Idiocracy one of the best films from last year (I'm referring to the Q&A)? Anybody on here get their questions answered?

Idiocracy is pretty good!
Stranger Than Paradise washed the bad taste of Permanent Vacation out of my eyes, what a tremendous leap in quality from one feature to the next! It's been several years since I'd seen STP and seeing it back to back with PV only helps make the praising and damning of each that much easier.

Canadia....?

He calls Canada "Canadia" a few occasions in the Q+A.
Is there an in joke or reference that I'm not getting?

domino harvey wrote:Stranger Than Paradise washed the bad taste of Permanent Vacation out of my eyes, what a tremendous leap in quality from one feature to the next! It's been several years since I'd seen STP and seeing it back to back with PV only helps make the praising and damning of each that much easier.

The one time I saw PV was as the first half of a double feature with STP. The latter truly was like a breath of fresh (winter) air and was one of the best movie going experiences I've had in regards to a 'good audience vibe'.