This film is featured on second disc of the Stranger Than Paradise (1984) DVD released in 2007 by the Criterion Collection.
The book Allie gives Leila is "Maldoror and Poems" by Lautreamont (Penguin Classics 1978), one of the earliest surrealist stories.
The Doppler Effect mentioned by the man in the lobby ('Frank Faison'), is the change in a sound (frequency and wavelength) noticed by an observer as a sound source moves relative to the observer.