Night Train (1999)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Les Bernstien

Writers:

Les Bernstien (writer)
Gary Walkow (writer)

Plot Keywords:

Decapitation | Dark Comedy | Buried Money | Exotic Dancer | Prostitute

Awards:

1 win

Cast

John Voldstad	...	Joe / Zack Butcher
Barry Cutler	...	Sam
Nikoletta Skarlatos	...	Bobby / Regina
Pedro Aldana	...	Don Alameda
Donna Pieroni	...	Mary-Lou
Dan Shor	...	Jones
Chuck Skull	...	Torturer
Tony Cruz	...	Thug #1 (as Tony 'El Indio' Cruz)
Martin Hugo Valdiva Montes	...	Thug #2
Richard Head	...	Thug #3
Lucía Lapiedra	...	Hooker #1 (as Miriam Sanchez)
Cora Campos	...	Hooker #2
Jose Alfredi Garza Carona	...	Bartender
Aurelio Trujillo Campos	...	Vaquero in bar
Rigoberto Gonzales Flemate	...	Customer

Runtime:

Germany:80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Ultra Stereo

Filming Locations:

Tijuana, Baja California Norte, Mexico

Company:

Metropolis Pictures Inc. (II)

Virtuoso camera effects!

Writer-director Les Bernstien comes from a technical background specializing in special camera effects, so here's a neo-noir ultra-low-budget flick that shines mostly due to Bernstien's appreciation and magnificent facility with hard-core German Expressionist sets and mattes and camera angles, and classic film noir lighting and camera tricks. (Parts of the film almost look like classic avant-garde films of the 30s and 40s.) This is all in the service of a story set in some latter-day Dantean hell circle, or Tijuana, Mexico. The b&w film stock reminded me of Jarmusch's Dead Man, and the overall style and tone of this film resides somewhere in the area between Touch of Evil/Kiss Me, Deadly, and Sin City. The story is ultra-lurid to the point of an almost cartoonish otherworld ala Sin City, but it's really Tijuana, and most of the actors aren't actors. And there's also a b&w documentary look to it, esp. in the street scenes. And there's a Bukowski-ish alcohol-sodden, disease-ridden nightmare quality that I found really creepazoid. What a unique film! What a terrific, seamy, virtuoso display of classic expressionist lighting and camera effects! Not for everyone, mind you...and the spoken tracks are dubbed in. Weird, weird, weird wonderful film for a certain small percentage of film noir buffs.