This Night for Hire (Night On Earth (DVD))

Member Name: ihatebroccoli

Product:	Night On Earth (DVD)
Date:	20/02/01 (259 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Original collection of stories and script in general

Disadvantages: Can leave you with a lonely feeling at times

Directed by one of my personal favourites, Jim Jarmusch, Night on Earth is a film of many parts and locations. Set in five different places around the globe (Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki) on one night, the film features five different taxi journeys and focuses on the relationships between the respective driver and their passenger/s. The film begins in Los Angeles with Winona Ryder as a chain-smoking cab driver, who picks up casting agent Victoria Snelling played by Gena Rowlands (wife of director John Cassavetes). Rowlands tries to convince Ryder than she could perhaps have a career in the movies, but she is only interested in driving her taxi. The mother-daughter type relationship that is played out is very interesting.

In New York, an East German refugee (Armin Mueller-Stahl) is learning on the job driving his taxi and trying to find Brooklyn in the dark. This story is probably the closest to most people’s idea of a classic Jarmusch situation - especially when he picks up a semi-hysterical man, who winds up taking over the wheel and rendering his driver a passenger. Later on, the passenger’s completely hysterical sister-in-law appears played irritatingly well by Rosie Perez. This is probably the funniest segment of the film, especially when the driver and passenger discover each other’s names: Helmut and Yo-Yo.

In Paris, Beatrice Dalle (probably best known for “Betty Blue”) is a blind woman who is picked up by an Ivory Coast cabby after he drops off his previous fare of a couple of annoying African diplomats. Dalle’s character is obsessive in attempting to demonstrate that she can cope on her own despite her blindness, and her driver is fascinated by what she does to get by; making love, recognising colour, putting make-up on etc… "I can do everything you can do," she says. "Can you drive?" he asks. "Can you?" she shoots back.

Driver: Don't bl
ind people usually wear dark glasses?
Blind Woman: Do they? I've never seen a blind person.

Next is the drive around Rome, featuring a mouthy Roman driver (Roberto Benigni, a favourite choice of the director’s) and a tired-out priest. The driver insists upon describing his own sexual peculiarities to the priest who just happens to be having a heart attack in the back seat. Included in these are his confessions of guilt of his adolescent love for Lola the sheep and his sexual preference for pumpkins (interesting!) Benigni’s monologue is certainly original, as he zooms through the nighttime streets of Rome.

Little bit of Trivia: The Roman taxi driver (Roberto Benigni) has an 8-ball as a gear stick knob. In Down by Law (another Jarmusch film), Benigni played a character who killed a man using an 8-ball.

Helsinki features a taxi driver yet again, and his three drunken passengers, whose faces are familiar from the film "Leningrad Cowboys Go America” – an absolute classic! This is definitely the saddest of the five stories, as the driver discovers what a bad day his passenger has had, and then presents his own woeful tale.

The film was made for $3.5 million and won the Independent Spirit Award in 1993 for best Cinematography. Night on Earth might not be the most uplifting film, or the funniest or have the best plot in the world, but it gives you a strange, almost otherworldly feeling as you are watching it, as if you are out there in the world that night, in all those different cities with the characters. The characters too may not be the most endearing in the world, but they are watchable, even funny especially in the New York story, Beatrice Dalle’s character, and Winona Ryder’s to some extent at the beginning.

Although none of the characters in the separate cities ever meet, the night, and the earth, and the fact they are driven/driving around in taxis connects them. The va
rious cityscapes are very different, especially the European contrasted with the American, and it’s easy to see why the Cinematography won an award. The film also features a brilliant soundtrack by Tom Waits.

In general, the characters (passengers and drivers) are all unusual people (“Jarmusch characters” you might say), detached from normal life for that night. If you’re looking for warmth and belly laugh humour in a film, I wouldn’t particularly recommend this film. However, if you’re looking for something interesting and non-mainstream, a little of the alternative, and some beautifully shot film then look no further. I wouldn’t say this was Jarmusch’s best film to date, far from it, but I think that is largely due to the disconnected nature of the movie (i.e. set in five different places with different characters in each, not interacting).

The audience cannot identify with and follow the characters throughout the movie, as after the particular city segment is over, the characters do not re-appear. The three European segments are also in their respective languages; French, Italian and Finnish, so subtitles are the order of the day after New York (although you may feel you need subtitles sometimes with a New Yorker ;-)) Currently available on video.

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