NIGHT ON EARTH (1991), the fourth film by American auteur Jim Jarmusch, is a series of vignettes centered around taxi journeys in the US and Europe over a single winter night. There is no overarching plot, but rather each segment is a study in interaction between the driver and his fare.
In Los Angeles, Winona Ryder is a 16-year-old tomboy taxi driver and Gena Rowland is a Hollywood casting agent. In New York, Armin Mueller-Stahl is an immigrant from East Germany who gets a crash course on American culture after he takes Giancarlo Esposito and Rosie Perez to Brooklyn. Crossing the Atlantic, we first go to Paris where Isaac de Bankole, an Ivorian immigrant who faces the challenge of racism daily, picks up blind woman Béatrice Dalle who could care less what colour his skin is.
The last two segments are less about class or race and more humorous and individual. In Rome, Roberto Benigni finds an opportunity to confess a long list of sins after he picks up priest Paolo Bonacelli. This is a hilarious scene, the most extreme part of the film. In Helsinki, Matti Pellonpää brings three drunks home (Kari Väänänen, Sakari Kuosmanen, and Tomi Salmela), but after they bemoan their misfortune, he tells them what real suffering is.
NIGHT ON EARTH continues the characteristic choice of scenery that Jarmusch offered in his films to date. When so much cinema depicts the US as so many ritzy places and historical landmarks, Jarmusch instead offers vacant lots, dilapidated buildings, and businesses that have long since gone out of business. In Paris, Rome, and Helsinki he also offers nondescript, industrial or residential areas, quite deserted because it is the dead of night.
This isn't a flawless film. The opening bit with Winona Ryder feels overacted. The Paris segment is nothing but clichés about how the blind might not see, but their other senses are more powerful than the sighted. The New York and Helsinki segments are homages to Jarmusch's peers Spike Lee and Aki Kaurismaki respectively, using their settings and borrowing some of their actors. While the New York scene has Jarmusch's characteristic humour, Jarmusch's style is almost completely effaced in the Helsinki scene and one could believe he's watching a Kaurismaki film.
Nonetheless, this is a very enjoyable film. Virtually all audiences will enjoy Benigni's wacky comedy, and I've come to appreciate Matti Pellonpää's acting even more. I've seen NIGHT ON EARTH several times, and I've always found it to have re-watch value.
In Los Angeles, Winona Ryder is a 16-year-old tomboy taxi driver and Gena Rowland is a Hollywood casting agent. In New York, Armin Mueller-Stahl is an immigrant from East Germany who gets a crash course on American culture after he takes Giancarlo Esposito and Rosie Perez to Brooklyn. Crossing the Atlantic, we first go to Paris where Isaac de Bankole, an Ivorian immigrant who faces the challenge of racism daily, picks up blind woman Béatrice Dalle who could care less what colour his skin is.
The last two segments are less about class or race and more humorous and individual. In Rome, Roberto Benigni finds an opportunity to confess a long list of sins after he picks up priest Paolo Bonacelli. This is a hilarious scene, the most extreme part of the film. In Helsinki, Matti Pellonpää brings three drunks home (Kari Väänänen, Sakari Kuosmanen, and Tomi Salmela), but after they bemoan their misfortune, he tells them what real suffering is.
NIGHT ON EARTH continues the characteristic choice of scenery that Jarmusch offered in his films to date. When so much cinema depicts the US as so many ritzy places and historical landmarks, Jarmusch instead offers vacant lots, dilapidated buildings, and businesses that have long since gone out of business. In Paris, Rome, and Helsinki he also offers nondescript, industrial or residential areas, quite deserted because it is the dead of night.
This isn't a flawless film. The opening bit with Winona Ryder feels overacted. The Paris segment is nothing but clichés about how the blind might not see, but their other senses are more powerful than the sighted. The New York and Helsinki segments are homages to Jarmusch's peers Spike Lee and Aki Kaurismaki respectively, using their settings and borrowing some of their actors. While the New York scene has Jarmusch's characteristic humour, Jarmusch's style is almost completely effaced in the Helsinki scene and one could believe he's watching a Kaurismaki film.
Nonetheless, this is a very enjoyable film. Virtually all audiences will enjoy Benigni's wacky comedy, and I've come to appreciate Matti Pellonpää's acting even more. I've seen NIGHT ON EARTH several times, and I've always found it to have re-watch value.