DVD - Night On Earth

One of a few Jim Jarmusch films that have been difficult to get ahold of the last decade or so, Night On Earth is a grouping of stories that take place in different cities, but all in taxi cabs. Some are hilarious, some are more serious and genuine, but all of them deal (surprisingly well) with the human condition. I say surprisingly well because I found it kind of hard to believe that such a great job could be done with character development and plot development while stuck inside a taxi cab for two hours. Granted, its not the same taxi, but, still...

The film follows five different stories in five different cities. There's a casting agent who meets a spunky, hard as nails young woman driving a cab in Los Angeles, a guy in New York City, trying to get from Manhattan to the Bronx with a cab driver who doesn't know how to drive a car, a blind woman who questions her drivers ability to truly appreciate life in Paris, a priest who catches a ride with a very strange, self obsessed Italian cabbie (with deadly results) in Rome, and a couple of drunks who catch a ride home with a driver who knows more about love and loss than any of them, in Helsinki.

My biggest concern going into this film was - Will it be interesting for two hours? I saw Coffee and Cigarettes a few years back, in the theater, and, while segments of it were interesting, as a whole, I just felt like it didn't always work for me. Now, that being said, Night On Earth was written, specifically, as a feature (that info comes from Jarmusch himself on the DVD Q&A), whereas Coffee and Cigarettes was a series of short films shot over twenty years or so, with no intent to ever be packaged together. Night On Earth, though, really kept my attention and interest throughout the whole film. I never felt like the "five stories/different cities/all in taxi cabs" thing was a stunt. It never felt trite or stupid. Every story had interesting, well thought out characters, and, to me, Night On Earth shows Jarmusch as an incredibly mature and talented writer.

Also, Jarmusch and I are both Cassavetes fans, so, I'm sure he got a kick out of working with her, but I got a huge kick out of seeing Gena Rowlands on the screen. I think she's an incredible actress, and, Jarmusch states in the Q&A that this was the first film Rowlands did after John passed away in 1989. She's really at the top of her game in it too. Roberto Benigni's Italian cabbie is hilarious as well. His delivery is flawless, and you believe even the stupidest things with his character (like the fact that he forgot he had his sunglasses on, even while driving at night).  Night On Earth is a great piece of 90's Independent cinema, and I'm really glad the Criterion Collection decided to put it out there for everyone to see.

DVD - Broken English

Any film made by a Cassavetes is worth my time. Nick, Xan, and Zoe all grew up amongst filmmaking, with their mother, Gena Rowlands, being one of Americas best actresses, and their dad, John Cassavetes, being one of the best independent film writer/directors ever. Xan's only film, so far, is the incredibly charming and interesting Z Channel: A Magnificent Obsession, and Nick has been responsible for films like John Q, The Notebook, and Alpha Dog. Zoe had always been the hold out, having worked with people like Sofia Coppola on her films, and making an occasional short, but never anything of her own. Last year, though, she joined the ranks of her brother and sister with the "romantic comedy" Broken English.

If you can't tell by the fact that romantic comedy is in quotations, I use that term very loosely, since it is nothing like the Hollywood definition of Romantic Comedy. The film stars Parker Posey as Nora Wilder, a thirty something New Yorker who is yet to find true love. Her best friend, Audrey, along with her mother Vivien (played by Zoe's mother, Gena Rowlands), are trying to hook Nora up, so that she can find the last thing that is missing from her life. After a series of misfires, though, she ends up at a co-workers lame party, where, as she's leaving, she meets a suave frenchman, Julien, who cranks the charm up to 11. Nora is very passive aggressive towards Julien because she doesn't like the idea of getting involved with another man who is going to break her heart. She ends up making a fool out of herself, on numerous occasions, but Julien doesn't give up. She eventually succumbs to his charms, only to find out that he has to leave to go back to Paris the next day. He implores her to go with him, but she refuses, believing it will end in disaster. As time goes by, though, Nora becomes convinced she needs to go to Paris and reconnect with Julien, so she grabs her friend Audrey, and the adventure begins.

I didn't think this was supposed to be a comedy, and when I was watching the supplemental features, I was REALLY surprised to find out that that is what Zoe considers it. It comes off as more of a drama to me, with humorous moments in between. The directing is solid, though not anything that blew my socks off. The acting felt about the same. New York and Paris were both beautiful, and I wish we would have gotten to see wider shots of both cities.

Broken English was funded through HDNet films, and was, therefore, shot on HD (the Thompson Viper, not that anyone cares). This was probably the only thing that really bothered me, technically, about the film. It just... didn't look that good. Everything had this flatness and plainness about it.

All in all, a solid debut for Zoe Cassavetes, and I'm looking forward to the possibility of another film.