Night on Earth (Widescreen Collector's Edition) | Winona Ryder, Gena Rowlands

Night on Earth (Widescreen Collector's Edition) | Winona Ryder, Gena Rowlands | Outrageous-Irreverent

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Night on Earth (Wi...

	Night on Earth (Widescreen Collector's Edition) Winona Ryder, Gena Rowlands New Line Home Video, 1997 average customer review:based on 60 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Jarmusch Masterpiece on DVD for the First Time!!!

So it only took 16 years for it's first USA release on DVD, but I think it will be worth the wait. I only recently parted with my VHS copy of this film when Criterion announced it's release. While obviously I've not seen the release, there is no reason Criterion will disappoint. For those who haven't seen the film (and I've met dozens of people who still haven't) I believe it to be Jarmusch's best for many reasons.

With five stories (five cabs, five drivers, five cities in the world), all occurring simultaneously, it examines Jarmusch's fascination with the crossing and meeting of cultures and classes. The film is jammed packed with humor, pathos, sadness, thought provoking stories of people that you actually care about after only 20 minutes and so much more. Tom Waits (a regular contributor to the work of Jarmusch) does not appear in the film, but wrote the soundtrack instead (so in some ways is in the entire film!). I would have loved to have seen a 6th story with Waits as the cabbie!!

Every actor is awesome, some giving a career highlight performance, including Winona Ryder, Gena Rowlands, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Giancarlo Esposito, Rosie Perez, Roberto Benigni (who was mostly unknown at the time), and several European actors that I've never seen elsewhere, but have never forgotten all these years later.

It's hard for me to pick a favorite story, because like a great short story collection, my favorite keeps changing. The Italian story (with Benigni) is the slightest story with none of the serious subtext the other stories have, but it is also the funniest, so it's hard not to love it. Benigni, for me, has never been better.

The final story is almost "too" sad, with almost no humor, but the silence, the snow, the heartbreaking story that the cab driver tells, seems to transcend the sadness that shrouds the scene (I could definitely see Bergman doing this story).

The first story is great, with our notions of these two great actresses (Rowlands and Ryder) turned upside down. Who is vulnerable? Who is charge of their life? Who is truly happy? I'm not sure Jarumsch has ever been called a "feminist", but these two women are strong, smart, funny and I can't think of a female writer/director that has written two better characters? I might have to pick this as my favorite on most of my dozen viewings, but each story has something unique to offer.

For those who have seen Jarmusch's latest films (Broken Flowers and Coffee & Cigarettes), this one is closer to the latter film, but far surpasses it. While the five stories are diverse (of location, language, style), they are held together with Waits slippery and mysterious music, the passing landscapes outside the taxi cab's windows, and Jarmusch's themes of alienation, existentialism and the basic goodness of people trying to relate to each other even when the odds are against it.

For those who haven't seen this film the wait is, thankfully, almost over. Thank you Criterion!

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Outrageous-Irreverent

This movie is a strange melange of several stories that take place in a taxi cab over the course of 24 hours
around the world. The first is with Gena Rowlands and Winona Ryder... a bit uncomfortable as the previous reviewer said.. but appropriate to the subject. Each story has a bit of pathos as with Paris & Helsinki, or a bit of over the top humor as with the stories in New York and Italy. If you are a Jim Jarmusch, or Roberto Begnini fan.. you will enjoy this. If you go for more "conservative" types of movies steer clear.. this is a cavalcade of black humor mixed in with some very touching moments. Particularly Helsinki.... a quiet but thoughful ending to this Fellini-esque romp across the globe. If you have a soft spot for the rude and ridiculous bordering on the incomprehensible this is the one for you. I've been waiting for this movie to come out on DVD since I first saw it in the 1990s. It's one I will enjoy seeing over and over. Foul language may repel some viewers, but for those who are not squeemish... this is a masterpiece that wacks you across the head then waits for you to laugh.

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Take a cab ride with Jim Jarmusch...

Jim Jarmusch began the 1990s with Night on Earth and would go on to produce some of his strongest work with Dead Man and Ghost Dog. However, these two films don't quite have the warmth and the humanity abundant in Night on Earth. While he does avoid major Hollywood studios, Jarmusch has no problem collaborating with well known actors. His first experiment was with this film, which featured famous movie stars, Winona Ryder, Gena Rowlands, and Rosie Perez. Jarmusch returned to the structure he used so well in Mystery Train, but expanded its scope. Night on Earth is broken up into five stories that all occur at the same time but in different cities all over the world with the action restricted to taxi cab rides. Jarmusch uses these encounters as springboards for interesting, often hilarious, sometimes tragic discussions ranging from acting in movies to circus clowns to inappropriate acts with farm animals.

After Night on Earth, Jarmusch's methodically paced, dry-witted comedies were no longer en vogue, only to be replaced by a louder, flashier wave of new filmmakers with overt pop culture sensibilities. This film manages to avoid the hackneyed cliché of the world weary cabbie to present touching insights into the human condition with situations that run the entire emotional spectrum.

"Q&A with Jim" features Jarmusch answering questions submitted by fans from all over the world (this was also done on the Down By Law DVD). Among the highlights include him telling an anecdote about a scary moment during the filming in Helsinki. Jarmusch talks about his movie-watching habits and about how he works with actors.

"Alice: Magazine Europeen" is a brief interview with Jarmusch on Belgian television in 1992. The interview mostly takes place in the back of a moving car as the filmmaker talks about the origins of his film.

Finally, there is an audio commentary by the film's director of photography Frederick Elmes and sound mixer Drew Kunin. The two men talk about the challenge of moving from city to city and how they had to train a new crew in every place. Elmes and Kunin recount many filming anecdotes, like how no actual cabs would stop for Giancarlo Esposito in the NY segment. They provide fascinating insight into making an independent film all over the world.

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"Night on Earth" provides you both comedy and drama.

Being that this film was recommended to me, I have never seen a film directed by Jim Jarmusch and this was a good place to start. "Night on Earth" contains 5 stories mostly happening inside a taxi cab located in 5 different cities spanning between 30-40min long. The cab rides in this film take place at approximately the same time, but the stories couldn't be more different. The lighter conversations take place in the first few segments and as we enter the smaller hours of the morning, the conversations become a little heavier. I enjoyed this film a lot coming from the first segment in L.A. to the final segment in Helsinki.

Three of the five segments are not in English and it would be a shame if you bypass this film because of it. The characters are all truly amazing, in some films it takes virtually the whole dramatization to attain the feeling that you familiarized with the characters, in one way or the other. In some films, you never even come close to such an accomplishment. But in this one, however, you merely need a brief cab ride to really feel the presence and the acquaintance.

Apart from enjoying all the cab rides, I exceptionally laughed and yet sincerely fathomed the tragedy of the New York ride. The situation Helmut, a German immigrant, finds himself in is really sorrowful, as it is very comical as well. For a reason beyond comprehension he has though his bad English and very severe driving accomplished to obtain a taxi driver card in a city he practically doesn't know the name of. Somewhat accidentally he managed to pick up Yo-Yo, an energetic, talkative & very amusing New Yorker. Two greatly distinct cultures persuaded to make conversation is extremely charming, interesting & humorous, though they can hardly understand each others nature they still manage to somewhat interpret each other in a very abstruse way. The Paris chapter concentrates on a black cab driver who is made fun of by foreign (and also black) dignitaries. He is proud, until later he finds a cynical blind woman and he becomes curious about her. It's not extraordinary but it clearly held my interest. Rome is a straight out comedy that I could not stop laughing. Especially, Robert Benigni who speaks very quickly in this film acting absolutely perfect in Rome's story. His monologue to the priest in the back seat of the cab - even when read, not heard - is hysterically funny, with Benigni giving the perfect blend of absurdum and sincerity. You can't tell whether he is telling the truth or not. In Helsinki (Finland) you meet three drunks that get into a cab, one of whom has had the worst day imaginable. Then the cabbie tells a tale of his own, and it puts the unlucky drunk's problems in proper perspective that will deeply touch your heart. The least of my favorites would likely be the L.A. segment with Gena Rowlands and Winona Ryder because both of there performance seem wooden, force, and unconvincing to me. After you get through the rough patches of their segment the rest of the way is ridden smoothly.

Other than that, "Night on Earth" is a nice collaboration of tragic & comic wrapped up in five different destinies, neither containing a beginning or a goal, merely an embracing of time, an embracing of life.

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Five Taxis. Five Cities. One Night.

Jarmusch went for a series of shorts like he did in Mystery Train, only this time he decided to stetch his vision out to include LA, New York, Paris, Rome and Helsinki, with a cavalcade of stars including Winona Ryder and Gena Rowlands. Jarmusch had now hit the big time, but he seemed to take a back seat in this movie. It is rumored he wrote the script in a week and it shows. The scenarios provide fine comic ground for actors like Benigni, Rosie Perez and Giancarlo Esposito, who pretty much improvise, but other actors seem to struggle with their roles, notably Ryder as the cab driver, Corky, although Jarmusch apparently wrote the role expressly with her in mind. The movie has its appeal, especially the foul-mouthed Roberto Benigni divulging more than the priest he takes for a ride through the streets of Rome would like to hear. The stories all revolve around taxi rides during the course of a single night, more or less trying to capture the spirit of the cities in which they take place. Somehow the taxi ride in Helsinki rang the most true, but then maybe that's because I know nothing about Helsinki, other than what I saw in Leningrad Cowboys. All though the situation has nothing to do with the Leningrad Cowboys so don't get your hopes up. The short stories are choppy and uneven with nothing to hold them together, unlike Mystery Train, which was set entirely in Memphis. After such independent hits as Stranger than Paradise and Down By Law, both available through Criterion, Night on Earth was a bit of a disappointment (at least to Jarmusch fans at the time) but it is worth watching just the same.

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