Night on Earth DVD Review:

Jim Jarmusch is one of those independent American film makers that you are happy to have around because their films are so.....out there. If you take some of his first outings such as Down By Law (1986) the story of three prison escapees and Mystery Train (1989), three different stories occurring at the same time, involving three international characters, these films and their disposition, set the scene for the enigmatic piece that is Night on Earth. These films have characters that can be described as being outside of the mainstream because in the first instance they are prison breakers and in the second instance with Mystery Train, the main characters are international people and the stories are told in a non constructive manner, i.e Pulp Fiction.

Night on Earth is the study of taxi driving in the late 20th century. You could not call it a story because there are many stories being told and these are supposedly happening at the same time. There are 5 cities that we travel to, five completely different attitudes to get involved in and five wonderful situations to get completely lost in. In LA, we have Winona Ryder taking Gena Rowlands for a ride. In New York we have Rosie Perez mouthing off... again. And in Rome, Roberto Benigni is being outrageous.

This film came out in the early nineties, just a little before the aforementioned Pulp Fiction which also used an ensemble cast mixing independent favourites with box office clout including Giancarlo Espesito and Beatrice Dalle. Other directors were playing around with ensemble casts at this time including Robert Altman in two great films Pret a Porter (Ready to Wear) and Short Cuts.

There is a particular beauty about this film and it is not just the weird situations that you find yourself in and can connect with some of the mad conversations that are held in taxi cabs, it is also the cities themselves. In LA, Winona is contemplating and rejecting the lure of stardom while driving around the Hollywood Hills, in New York ethnicity and cultural difference are being parodied while the cab driver looks longingly over the Brooklyn Bridge and in Rome, the Holy City, the driver confesses all to a would be bishop.... driving through the alluring empty streets of the great city. Sadly there are no features on this disc but this film speaks for itself on so many different levels. If you're one of those people who like to mix it up in the course of one movie, this is the one for you.



Catherine Emenike