Joe Strummer Hired a Contract Killer

It took me about six years (and a bit more internet savvy, and just plain remembering - I've been busy) to track down a copy of Aki Kaurismäki's I Hired A Contract Killer (1990) after being introduced to his work through a film history course that screened his also-wonderful 2002 film The Man Without A Past. I Hired... features the indomitable/always sort of awkward Jean-Pierre Léaud, star of Truffaut's semi-autobiographical "Antoine Doinel" cycle, as the (sometime) suicidal lead and should appeal to any Jim Jarmusch fans in the crowd, especially those who were delighted to find Joe Strummer pop up in Mystery Train as you're treated to little moments like this:



Oh, and you'll probably be okay waiting less than six years to track it down.