FILM (1991)

Night on Earth
Winona Ryder, Beatrice Dalle, Roberto Benigni
Director: Jim Jarmusch

Five cities, viewed through the wacky nocturnal journeys of five taxi drivers and their passengers on the titular Night on Earth, feature in auteur Jim Jarmusch's most accessible film of the 1990s.

The decision to film in the cities was largely dictated by the actors Jarmusch sought for the movie and where they were at shooting time.

Because the film follows the time zones, the action opens in Los Angeles, followed by New York, Paris, Rome and finally Helsinki.

By the end of the 80s, Jarmusch had already sealed his reputation as a master of gritty urban settings and chance encounters, with Stranger Than Paradise (New York), Down by Law (New Orleans), and Mystery Train (Memphis). The trademarks of Jarmusch's 1980s triptych are all present here: the long takes, the eerie metropolitan spaces, the minimalist acting, the grimy detail, and the wry sensibility. To Night on Earth he adds - or rather, subtracts - a coherent story arc. This, however, is not much missed; every Jarmusch film is a triumph of style over substance.

Night on Earth moves from one shadowy cityscape to another, as the clock hands turn through the night. Indulging his interest in oblique comedy, Jarmusch explores the temporal shared world of cabbie and passenger, a primal urban relationship that lends itself to collisions of culture, an enduring theme of all Jarmusch's best work.