Night on Earth (The Criterion Collection)
by Jim Jarmusch
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DVD details
Actor: Alan Randolph Scott, Anthony Portillo, Gena Rowlands, Lisanne Falk, Winona RyderDirector: Jim Jarmusch
Brand: Image Entertainment
Producer: Jim Jarmusch
Writer: Jim Jarmusch
Producer: Demetra J. MacBride
Producer: Jim Stark
Producer: Masahiro Inbe
Producer: Noboru Takayama
Producer: Rudd Simmons
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); Finnish (Original Language); French (Original Language); German (Original Language); Italian (Original Language)
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 129 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2007-09-04
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Criterion Collection
DVD Reviews of Night on Earth (The Criterion Collection)
DVD Review: Taxicab confessions
Summary: 4 Stars
If there is a "sleeper" in the Jarmusch catalog, it would have to his ode to taxi drivers, "Night on Earth".The film is framed by a structural device that Jarmusch previously utilized in his 1989 film "Mystery Train"; it is a collection of loosely connected vignettes that all take place in the course of one evening. Instead of taking place in one location, however, "Night on Earth" is spread out over five cities and two continents.
The film gets off to a shaky start in Los Angeles, with a relatively flat segment. Wynona Rider plays an outspoken, gum cracking cabbie who picks up a fare at the airport (Gena Rowlands) who turns out to be a Hollywood casting director (er-guess what happens). It's worth sitting through just to see these two interesting actresses working together, if nothing else.
Don't let the bland appetizer put you off, however, because things improve rapidly with the second vignette. Spike Lee regulars Giancarlo Esposito and Rosie Perez hitch a ride to Brooklyn with an amiable German cabbie (Armin Mueller-Stahl) whose driving skills (and sense of NYC geography) are marginal at best. Jamusch milks maximum laughs out of the cross-cultural pollination that ensues (a recurring theme in his films).
Next, we jump the pond over to Paris, where an African immigrant cab driver (Isaach De Bankole) has endured a long night of racist insults and obnoxious passengers. He spots a blind woman (Beatrice Dalle, who dazzled in one of my favorite French films, "Betty Blue") and offers her a ride, thinking "at least she won't cause me any trouble". Naturally, he's wrong! A clever parable about stereotyping.
Comic actor Roberto Benigni takes the driver's seat as the story moves to Rome. Veteran character actor Paolo Bonacelli (you may recall his memorable turn as Brad Davis' arch-nemesis, the creepy jailhouse toady in "Midnight Express") plays a priest who is in for the shock of his life after getting into Benigni's cab. Bonacelli, an actor with a marvelously expressive face, is a joy to watch as he registers steadily increasing horror while Benigni cheerfully and matter-of-factly recounts a lifetime's list of "sins" in an unsolicited taxicab Confession that gets exponentially funnier along with the steadily escalating depravity of the acts being described. It's hilarious.
The final segment makes for a bittersweet dessert. Jarmusch pays homage to his favorite director, Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismaki (I loved his 2002 film "The Man Without a Past"-a real gem). A Helsinki cab driver (Matti Pellonpa) picks up a trio of working stiffs who are stumbling home after a long night of drinking. The vignette is alternately sad and darkly funny as passengers and driver compete to top each other's sob story in order to establish which one of them is leading the most depressing and miserable existence(some form of traditional Finnish male bonding?). Three of the actors in the piece are Kaurismaki regulars.
Overall, "Night on Earth" achieves a satisfying synchronicity as a thoughtful meditation on certain universal truths that govern the human condition, regardless of cultural orientation or geographical location (and delivers it in a much more entertaining and less heavy handed manner than the recent spate of dreary, overrated, self-important "message" films like "21 Grams", "Babel" and the particularly execrable "Crash").
Description of Night on Earth (The Criterion Collection)
Five cities. Five taxicabs. A multitude of strangers in the night. Jim Jarmusch assembled an extraordinary international cast of actors (including Gena Rowlands, Winona Ryder, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Béatrice Dalle, and Roberto Benigni) for this hilarious quintet of tales of urban displacement and existential angst, spanning time zones, continents, and languages. Jarmusch?s lovingly askew view of humanity from the passenger seat makes for one his most charming and beloved films.Jim Jarmusch's 1991 ensemble comedy turns a gimmick into a revelation. The story begins in Los Angeles one evening at 7:07 p.m. A talent agent (Gena Rowlands) gets into the back of a taxi driven by a sullen, chain-smoking young woman (Winona Ryder), and over the course of their bumpy conversation, Rowlands's character becomes convinced that the cabby would be perfect for a particular part in a movie. Meanwhile, at that very moment, taxi drivers in New York, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki are all having unique encounters with a variety of fares, breaking through that invisible social barrier between the front and back seats of their cars, often to absurd or touching effect. Among them are cabby Roberto Benigni's ranting confessions to a priest, Armin Mueller-Stahl's relinquishing of the wheel to a stunned Giancarlo Esposito, and Isaach De Bankolé's relentless discussion of sight and sex with an angry, blind woman (Beatrice Dalle). What emerges is a chain of brief intimacies (not always welcomed by the characters), like a number of matches lit simultaneously across the globe, flickering brightly for a few short moments. This popular work by Jarmusch helped confirm his reputation as a fiercely independent filmmaker of rare perception, rigor, and classical sensibility matched with original thinking. --Tom Keogh
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