Jim Jarmusch
follows his
groundbreaking Stranger Than Paradise
with another
rambling
,
character-driven film
with a
twisted sense of humo
r. Set in a seedy New Orleans summer,
Down By Law
details the meeting o
f three unlikely convicts
and their just as unlikely escape.
Zack (Tom Waits)
is an out-of-work DJ who is accused of murder when a body is found in the trunk of a stolen car he was hired to drive across town.
Jack (John Lurie)
is a pimp set up for a fall by a competitor. These two sullen 
souls are locked in a cell with
Roberto (Roberto Benigni)
, a cheerful Italian immigrant who happens to have killed a man. The chemistry between the members of this loosely bound "team" is fascinating: Zack and Jack are forever laughing at Roberto, yet they rely on his
energy and good will
to escape their dire situation. The three mismatched miscreants eventually bust out of jail and head into the Louisiana bayous. Tired and hungry, they separate to search for food: Waits goes one way, Lurie another, and the frightened Benigni decides to risk stepping into a ramshackle diner. Somehow or other, he winds up in the arms of gorgeous Italian girl Nicoletta Braschi - and is even able to provide
new clothes and escape routes
for his astonished comrades! 
Original audio, Hungarian subtitles, free screening. Before Down By Law,
Kolor Kinema
will screen Nagypál Orsi's
Kispárizs 
- thanks to
Friss Hús Budapest
.