Jim Jarmusch’s first masterpiece and the first evidence of his signature style.
Permanent Vacation
- Date:
- from
14 Dec 2025
- Age restrictions
- 16+
Permanent Vacation
1980, Jim Jarmusch
United States
75 minutes, English with Russian subtitles
Starring: Chris Parker, John Lurie, María Duval, Sara Driver
Manhattan hipster Ally Parker fancies his own style, mixing jazz with punk, and distracts himself from his own reflection in the mirror only to chat up girls at the cinema and show off with quotes from Lautréamont. Don’t expect him to get things done, for he doesn’t intend to take a break from his endless vacation.

Shot from Permanent Vacation, 1980
It’s the film where nearly every piece of Jarmusch’s aesthetic was developed, and possibly the best time capsule of punk-and-hepatitis Manhattan ever committed to celluloid.
— Michael Wojtas, The Quietus
In Jim Jarmusch’s directorial debut, freedom of expression reigns supreme, and a whole universe opens up in the infinitely cinematic decline of late 1970s New York.