MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Written and directed by the ever-unpredictable Jim Jarmusch, Mystery Train is comprised of three short anecdotes involving foreign tourists in Tennessee. Each story is set in a fleabag Memphis hotel which has been redressed as a "tribute" to Elvis Presley. Story one involves two Japanese tourists whose devotion to '50s American rock music blinds them to everything around them. Story two finds eternal victim Luisa (Nicoletta Braschi) sharing a room with stone-broke Dee Dee (Elizabeth Bracco) and having her problems solved by a spectral vision of the King. And story three offers the further misadventures of Dee Dee, her no-good boyfriend, and her dysfunctional family. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1 (Theatre Wide Screen)
• Audio: 5.1, PCM Stereo
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Subtitle: Spanish, French, English
• Features:
  • Collectible behind-the scenes booklet

AWARDS

• Cannes Film Festival

•     Won Best Artistic Contribution - 1989 (Jim Jarmusch)

• Independent Spirit Awards

•     Nominated Best Actress - 1989 (Youki Kudoh)
•     Nominated Best Cinematography - 1989 (Robby Müller)
•     Nominated Best Director - 1989 (Jim Jarmusch)
•     Nominated Best Picture - 1989
•     Nominated Best Screenplay - 1989 (Jim Jarmusch)
•     Nominated Best Supporting Actor - 1989 (Steve Buscemi, Screamin' Jay Hawkins)

• Telluride Film Festival

•     Film Presented - 1989

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Jim Jarmusch

• Producer:

  Jim Stark, Rudd Simmons

• Screenwriter:

  Jim Jarmusch

• Cinematographer:

  Robby Müller

• Composer (Music Score):

  John Lurie

• Editor:

  Melody London

• Production Designer:

  Dan Bishop

• Associate Producer:

  Demetra J. Macbride

• Executive Producer:

  Hideaki Suda, Kunijiro Hirata

• Set Designer:

  Dianna Freas

• Costume Designer:

  Carol Wood

• Makeup:

  Robert Laden, Meredith Soupios

• Special Effects:

  Gary King

• Production Manager:

  Kathie Hersch

• Line Producer:

  Rudd Simmons

REVIEW:

• Mystery Train is one of Jim Jarmusch's wittiest and most perceptive examinations of how America looks to outsiders, as a variety of visitors, from overseas and out of town, arrive in Memphis, the birthplace of rockabilly music, Sun Records, and Elvis Presley, whose high-octane music and languid rhythms make it seem exotic even to folks from neighboring states. To a young Japanese couple (Masatoshi Nagase and Youki Kudoh), Memphis is a promised land, where their heroes Elvis and Carl Perkins once walked, and their awe overwhelms their romantic problems. To an Italian widow (Nicoletta Braschi), it's a place of loss yet new hope, as the spirit of Elvis appears to comfort her. And to Johnny (Joe Strummer), the rockabilly-coiffed small-time crook from England, Memphis is a place of excitement, danger, and contradiction, as guns keep going off at the wrong times and the city's largely African-American population must keep confronting the legacy of a white man who became famous playing black music. Mystery Train never resolves the contradictions of Memphis (and, by extension, America), instead revelling in them and finding beauty and wonder in their inexplicabilities -- in Jarmusch's world, as good a reason as any for staying. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi