Their riotous zeal and drunken stupor are the perfect foil for the steely Pellonpaa to act opposite. The “cult” director’s 1991 effort operates around the simple but extremely effective premise of camping out in five global taxi cab rides to witness fleeting episodes between cabbie and fare, the suitably cosmic link-up being that all five are taking place at exactly the same time. It's as if the minds of these night people are affected by all of the dreams and nightmares that surround them. Benigni can talk endlessly to himself and still be entertaining. Virginia offers Corky a role in a movie she is casting; Corky rejects the offer; and, each goes his separate ways.
Night on Earth tries to stop the clock and cast a net over the whole mystery, and while the film never loses its humor, the wistfulness, yearning and deep affection at its heart is are unmistakable. It's a humorous situation made into ridiculous fun with the addition of the always loud and adorable Rosie Perez. New York - An immigrant cab driver is continually lost in a city and culture he doesn't understand. The disappointing Night on Earth is an example of the latter. The cities are lonely and look cold; even in L.
The best episode is the one set in New York, perhaps because it captures the kind of seeming improbabilities that crop up regularly in the city. And their cabs, hurtling through the deserted streets, are like couriers on a mission to nowhere. Cast: , , , , , , , , , Director: Writer: Rating: R Running Time: 128 min. In New York, a black passenger becomes convinced that his driver, from Germany, will never make it to Brooklyn without help. However, clarity is always very good, and there are only a couple of examples wits some minor unevenness that manages to sneak in.
When he touches down in France, Jarmusch's tone evolves into something more seductive and dark. That was until those noblest practitioners of cinephilia over at Criterion took a special interest in Jarmusch, releasing both Earth and his 1984 opus Stranger Than Paradise, which also includes the director's fascinating debut feature Permanent Vacation. Jim Jarmusch's hilarious dramatic comedy Night on Earth 1991 is a haze of clever script writing and beautiful cinematography. Helsinki - an industrial worker gets laid off and he and his compatriots discuss the bleakness and unfairness of love and life and death. Even in his poorest work i. This sounds overly schematic and precious but Jarmusch doesn't push the existential symbolism. Gena Rowlands is excellent as the typical Hollywood casting agent.
It is a witty and hugely entertaining film with a fantastic cast beautifully lensed by Frederick Elmes. It will then ask you for other specific criteria. The movie then jumps to Paris, then to Rome and then to Helsinki. Grain is slightly better exposed on this release, so if you view your films on a larger screen or project, you will get a marginally 'tighter' image. In Los Angeles, a casting agent tries to convince a tough young female cabbie that she might have a career in the movies.
The primaries are solid and lush, never appearing boosted, and there are good ranges of healthy nuances. Appropriately, Night on Earth also engages frequent Jarmusch collaborator, Tom Waits Down By Law, Mystery Train , to compose and perform the gravel-tongued, night-parade music that links the five vignettes. Some of the segments are more successful than others, yet all of them have the haunting quality of a completely insignificant event that someone might remember years later. Jarmusch is a poet of the night. Fans of the film from around the world sent various questions to Jim Jarmusch and he answered as many as he could.
The cabbie in the Helsinki episode reduces his drunken passengers to sobs when he reveals to them a personal tragedy. The apps are synchronized with your account at Blu-ray. The Parisian sequence has a cab driver from the Ivory Coast Isaach de Bankole kicking two condescending black diplomats out of his taxi and then picking up a surly, blind Frenchwoman Beatrice Dalle. But the flickers of humanity in those taxis are soon dulled by barriers of time, sex, race, language and money. They are flickers in a vast emotional void. Among the other tales, a standout is the Italian taxi ride that finds quirky driver Gino Roberto Benigni making a lively confession to an ailing priest. The director explains how the original concept for Night on Earth was conceived and clarifies why language barrier sare actually not an issue for him.
No, not just New York. It incorporates plenty of organic sounds and noises and even allows the dialog to be quite fluid. Everything that is seen and heard is vivid and particular, but decidedly foreign. Let's - What are you doing? Uncharacteristically, Jarmusch occasionally slips here into the Cliché Zone, with the weakest segment coming at us first, when dishevelled tomboy Corky Ryder pulls an Only-In-The-Movies fast one by turning down an offer of potential stardom from a high-powered Hollywood casting agent the under-used Rowlands because — shucks — she, like, just wants to be a mechanic, yeah? As a musician, Jarmusch has composed music for his films and released two albums with Jozef van Wissem. She fits no mold and breaks the stereotype of every girl in Los Angeles wanting to be a movie star.
The New York segment is the funniest. Much of Night on Earth creates the same kind of lonely, elegaic, romantic mood as Mystery Train, his film about wanderers in nighttime Memphis. In each city, the only thing that changes is the cab drivers and their customers. Nor do performers Winona Ryder, Isaach De Bankole, Roberto Benigni and others pick up the improvisational ball. The New York section is atmospheric jazz. I am astounded by the wit and commentary within the Parisian portion of Night on Earth.
We'll sit down, and we'll look at 'em together, okay? Her sarcastic French moaning is delightful and her performance as a blind woman is magnificent. By the time the film ends, we can't help wondering just who has been taken for a ride. Jarmusch's camera picks up the space and sound of these unique terrestrial habitats without glorifying them, bringing out each landscape's natural weirdness. His cabbie, Mueller-Stahl's Helmut, is so incompetent that Yo-Yo ends up driving the cab. But the premise and the narrative device is really all that links these discrete episodes; they have little thematic unity or accumulated sum. Character prevails throughout, and with the exception of a miscast Ryder, the performances are terrific. The plot is non-existent, so you just get to revel in these intimate character interactions.