Editing Jim Jarmusch (section)

=== 1980s ===
Jarmusch's final year university project was completed in 1980 as ''[[Permanent Vacation (1980 film)|Permanent Vacation]]'', his first feature film. It had its premiere at the International Filmfestival Mannheim-Heidelberg (formerly known as Filmweek Mannheim) and won the Josef von Sternberg Award.<ref name=allmovie/> It was made on a shoestring budget of around $12,000 in misdirected scholarship funds and shot by cinematographer Tom DiCillo on [[16 mm film]].<ref name=first/> The quasi-autobiographical feature follows an adolescent drifter (Chris Parker) as he wanders around downtown Manhattan.<ref name=postcards/><ref name=vacation/>

The film was not released theatrically and did not attract the sort of adulation from critics that greeted his later work. ''The Washington Post'' staff writer Hal Hinson would disparagingly comment in an aside during a review of Jarmusch's ''Mystery Train'' (1989) that in the director's debut, "the only talent he demonstrated was for collecting egregiously untalented actors".<ref name=hinson/> The bleak and unrefined ''Permanent Vacation'' is nevertheless one of the director's most personal films, and established many of the hallmarks he would exhibit in his later work, including derelict urban settings, chance encounters, and a wry sensibility.<ref name=vacation/><ref name=rediscovering/>

Jarmusch's first major film, ''[[Stranger Than Paradise]]'', was produced on a budget of approximately $125,000 and released in 1984 to much critical acclaim.<ref name=burr/><ref name=sterritt/> A deadpan comedy recounting a strange journey of three disillusioned youths from New York through Cleveland to Florida, the film broke many conventions of traditional Hollywood filmmaking.<ref name=avclub/> It was awarded the [[Camera d'Or]] at the [[1984 Cannes Film Festival]] as well as the 1985 [[National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Film]],<ref name=tasker/><ref name=hartl/> and became a landmark work in modern [[independent film]].<ref name=criterionstranger/>

In 1986, Jarmusch wrote and directed ''[[Down by Law (film)|Down by Law]]'', starring musicians [[John Lurie]] and [[Tom Waits]], and Italian comic actor [[Roberto Benigni]] (his introduction to American audiences) as three convicts who escape from a New Orleans jailhouse.<ref name=morned/> Shot like the director's previous efforts in black and white, this [[Constructivism (art)|constructivist]] [[neo-noir]] was Jarmusch's first collaboration with Dutch cinematographer [[Robby Müller]], who had been known for his work with Wenders.<ref name=law/>

His next two films each experimented with parallel narratives: ''[[Mystery Train (film)|Mystery Train]]'' (1989) told three successive stories set on the same night in and around a small [[Memphis, Tennessee|Memphis]] hotel, and ''[[Night on Earth]]'' (1991)<ref>See [[Gabri Ródenas]] (2009), Guía para ver y analizar Noche en la Tierra de Jim Jarmusch, Barcelona/Valencia: Octaedro/Nau Llibres, ISBNs: 978-84-8063-931-6 /978-84-7642-776-7. Spanish only.</ref> involved five cab drivers and their passengers on rides in five different world cities, beginning at sundown in Los Angeles and ending at sunrise in Helsinki.<ref name=starwars/> Less bleak and somber than Jarmusch's earlier work, ''Mystery Train'' nevertheless retained the director's askance conception of America.<ref name=canby/> He wrote ''Night on Earth'' in about a week, out of frustration at the collapse of the production of another film he had written and the desire to visit and collaborate with friends such as Benigni, [[Gena Rowlands]], [[Winona Ryder]], and [[Isaach de Bankolé]].<ref name=second/>

As a result of his early work, Jarmusch became an influential representative of the trend of the American [[road movie]].<ref name=rascaroli/> Not intended to appeal to mainstream filmgoers, these early Jarmusch films were embraced by art house audiences,<ref name=rosen/> gaining a small but dedicated American following and cult status in Europe and Japan.<ref name=katzman/> Each of the four films had its premiere at the [[New York Film Festival]], while ''Mystery Train'' was in competition at the [[1989 Cannes Film Festival]].<ref name=tasker/> Jarmusch's distinctive aesthetic and ''auteur'' status fomented a critical backlash at the close of this early period, however; though reviewers praised the charm and adroitness of ''Mystery Train'' and ''Night On Earth'', the director was increasingly charged with repetitiveness and risk-aversion.<ref name=allmovie/><ref name=tasker/>

A film appearance in 1989 as a used car dealer in the cult comedy ''[[Leningrad Cowboys Go America]]'' further solidified his interest and participation in the road movie genre. In 1991 Jarmusch appeared as himself in Episode One of John Lurie's cult television series ''[[Fishing With John]]''.