Night on Earth (1991)

An anthology of 5 different cab drivers in 5 American and European cities and their remarkable fares on the same eventful night.

Director:

Jim Jarmusch

Writer:

Jim Jarmusch

Stars:

Winona Ryder, Gena Rowlands, Lisanne Falk

1 win & 1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gena Rowlands	...	Victoria Snelling (segment "Los Angeles")
Winona Ryder	...	Corky (segment "Los Angeles")
Lisanne Falk	...	Rock Manager (segment "Los Angeles")
Alan Randolph Scott	...	Rock Musician #1 (segment "Los Angeles")
Anthony Portillo	...	Rock Musician #2 (segment "Los Angeles")
Armin Mueller-Stahl	...	Helmut (segment "New York")
Giancarlo Esposito	...	YoYo (segment "New York")
Rosie Perez	...	Angela (segment "New York")
Richard Boes	...	Cab Driver #1 (segment "New York")
Isaach De Bankolé	...	Driver (segment "Paris")
Béatrice Dalle	...	Blind Woman (segment "Paris")
Pascal N'Zonzi	...	Passenger #1 (segment "Paris") (as Pascal Nzonzi)
Emile Abossolo M'bo	...	Passenger #2 (as Émile Abossolo-M'bo)
Stéphane Boucher	...	Man in Accident (segment "Paris") (as Stephane Boucher)
Noel Kaufmann	...	Man on Motorcycle (segment "Paris")

Storyline

A collection of five stories involving cab drivers in five different cities. Los Angeles - A talent agent for the movies discovers her cab driver would be perfect to cast, but the cabbie is reluctant to give up her solid cab driver's career. New York - An immigrant cab driver is continually lost in a city and culture he doesn't understand. Paris - A blind girl takes a ride with a cab driver from the Ivory Coast and they talk about life and blindness. Rome - A gregarious cabbie picks up an ailing man and virtually talks him to death. Helsinki - an industrial worker gets laid off and he and his compatriots discuss the bleakness and unfairness of love and life and death.

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Plot Keywords:

taxi | episodic structure | immigration | night | anthology | 

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Taglines:

Five Taxis. Five Cities. One Night.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for violence, language, and some drug use

Details

Country:

France UK Germany USA Japan

Language:

English French Finnish Italian German

Release Date:

12 December 1991 (Germany)

Also Known As:

LANewYorkParisRomeHelsinki

Filming Locations:

Brooklyn Bridge, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$3,500,000 (estimated)

Gross USA:

$2,015,810

Company Credits

Production Co:

Victor Company of Japan (JVC), Victor Musical Industries, Pyramide Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

129 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

For logistical reasons the individual stories were shot in almost the exact reverse of the order in which they occur in the finished film. Helsinki was shot first, then Paris, Rome, New York and finally Los Angeles.

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Goofs

This film takes place sometime during the winter, and the opening story takes place in Los Angeles starting at 7:07 PM. At no time during the winter would Los Angeles be this sunny at 7:07 PM. In fact, the latest time of day the sun would set during the winter would be at 6:07 PM on March 20, the last day of winter. (Currently, March 20 would occur during Daylight Savings Time, but, in 1991, Daylight Savings Time did not begin until April.)

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Quotes

Helmut Grokenberger: [objecting to Yoyo's driving the cab] No, no, it's...
Yoyo: What you mean 'No?'
Helmut Grokenberger: It's not allowed! Not allowed!
Yoyo: Look, yeah, it's allowed! This is New York!

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Crazy Credits

During the end credits, the titles of the crew members are in the language of the place/unit they worked in (ie the Helsinki unit's credits are in Finnish, and so on).

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Connections

References L.A. Story (1991)

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Soundtracks

Good Old World
Written by Tom Waits and Kathleen Brennan
Produced by Tom Waits
Arranged by Tom Waits and Francis Thumm
Jalma Music, Inc.
Administered by Ackee Music, Inc. (ASCAP)
Tom Waits performs courtesy of Island Records, Inc.

User Reviews

5 little stories, 5 cities, 4 languages - surprising

A fantastic piece of entertainment: five little stories, five cities, four languages. That's all. This movie has no message but it portrays five regions of the world most sensitively.

The L.A. episode is the weakest. It is not bad but it has one big problem: it is the first one. People start watching the movie and expect something sensational. This first episode cannot present anything spectacular, only first class character acting. There are no big surprises or twists, the episode is not particularly funny or anything. Honestly, when I saw the first minutes of this movie I thought: `O dear, I'm going to fall asleep!'

Then, the N.Y. story came. This one made me laugh real hard, and it made Armin Mueller Stahl one of my favourite actors. I started to love this movie, and I was well prepared for the Paris episode, which is, in my opinion the best, the most satisfying of them.

I found the story of the Roberto Benigni episode rather stupid, but his talent in exaggerating (so he did this even seven years before 1999's Oscar ceremony!) made up for it.

Then, the huge contrast: The liveliest episode is followed by the dreariest. Finnish workers tell each other stories from their lives, each trying to tell the saddest.

`Night on Earth' is not a movie for everybody but I think it is, in any case, the ideal movie to watch on television at two o'clock in the morning.