Date: 20 Aug 92 00:30:06 GMT
From: leroy@socs.uts.edu.au (Leroy)
Newsgroups: aus.films
Distribution: aus
Subject: Night on Earth

Review: Night on Earth. Directed Jim Jarmuch (Mystery Train, Down by Law, etc)
			Stars Winona Ryder, Gena Rowlands, Beatrice Dalle,
			Mueller-Stalle, Roberto Begnini - strong international
			cast.
			Music (incidental and theme tune) by Tom Waits and
			Kathleen Brennan.

Mystery Train catapulted Jim Jarmuch into the top rank of independent directors.
His followup - Night on Earth - is guaranteed a huge share of the arthouse
audience. That's unfortunate: it isn't especially strong and certainly not on 
the level of Mystery Train. 

Over one night, five taxi drivers - in Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome and 
Helsinki - meet a series of wildly differing passengers. Each section is 
introduced by a clock reminiscent of Playschool, a spin round a cartoonish 
globe, and occasionally interesting photography of the new city.

Los Angeles: Winona Ryder drives. Gena Rowlands - completely wasted on this
script - plays a casting agent. I'm lost why this is the opener: it's boring.
The dialogue is cliched *and* dire, the acting disappointing and the finale is 
cutesy. The moralistic, predicatable plot points out all people really are 
similar inside, but lacks the psychological insight of Beverly Hills 90210.
Rowlands played lead in Woody Allen's "Another Woman." She's brillant.
But not in this.

New York: Jarmuch does Spike Lee. Even Lee can't equal his self-inflated
reputation as social commentator: it's unsurprising Jarmuch fails. Meuller-Stahl
(first name forgotten; he was in Avalon and another movie I can't place) is
excellent as the recently immigrated cabdriver.

Paris: Too overtly Moral. Beatrice Dalle is the blind passenger who teaches 
her driver that appearances aren't everything (if you look like Beatrice Dalle).
Strong performances - unsubtle scripting.

Rome: the two final sections make "Night" worthwile. Roberto Begnini (Down by 
Law) drives a priest across town. During the trip he takes confession (obviously
his first in years). Vastly, staggeringly funny. Begnini's admissions of 
"releasing" himself as a teenager (into a pumpkin, then a "refined, delicate"
sheep named Lola), and his stories about sex with his brother's wife ("She 
kept looking at me with those sister-in-law eyes") redeem the movie. Night on 
Earth should become a cult video, and this section is to blame.

Helsinki: supposedly, a tribute to the director of Lenningrad Cowboys go America
(Aki Kurasaki?) Two drunks tell the story of their passed out friend: lost his 
job, his wife, then found out his daughter was pregant in one day. In return, 
the driver tells the quietly tragic story of his daughter's premature birth. 
Helsinki, for all its' overblown sadness, is the only believable slice-of-life 
in "Night."

The international coproduction could be the most interesting aspect of the film.
As with "Zentropa," and - I've heard - Wim Wenders "Until the end of the world,"
Night mixes languages and locations freely. The final three sections are 
subtitled from the French, Finnish and Italian, and filmed in the respective
countries with native crews.

See it, if only for Roberto Begini's monologue. Without it, Night on Earth 
would be unbearably dull - you'd have to catch "Edward II" instead.

--- G M Heinrich  ( leroy@socs.uts.edu.au )
I can see by your outfit that you are a cowboy.
Newsgroups: aus.films