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
Winona Ryder	...	Corky
Lisanne Falk	...	Rock Manager
Alan Randolph Scott	...	Rock Musician #1
Anthony Portillo	...	Rock Musician #2
Armin Mueller-Stahl	...	Helmut Grokenberger
Giancarlo Esposito	...	YoYo
Rosie Perez	...	Angela
Richard Boes	...	Cab Driver #1
Isaach De Bankolé	...	Driver - Paris
Béatrice Dalle	...	Blind Woman
Pascal N'Zonzi	...	Passenger #1 (as Pascal Nzonzi)
Emile Abossolo M'bo	...	Passenger #2 (as Émile Abossolo-M'bo)
Stéphane Boucher	...	Man in Accident (as Stephane Boucher)
Noel Kaufmann	...	Man on Motorcycle

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

The name of New York taxi driver (Helmut) was taken from a member of the crew of Down by Law (1986), also directed by Jim Jarmusch.

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Goofs

Winona Ryder's character opens the trunk through the missing rear window, but from the inside of the car it appears that the window is not missing.

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Quotes

Helmut Grokenberger: [Yoyo and Helmut happen to be wearing markedly similar winter hats] We have the same... we have the same hat.
Yoyo: What?
Helmut Grokenberger: The same hat.
Yoyo: No, no no, mine's different.
Helmut Grokenberger: Oh no, it's the same hat!
Yoyo: Mine's different, man!
Helmut Grokenberger: [pointing to the front of the hat] This is different, here.
Yoyo: Mine's-mine's the newest/latest, m-mine's fresh!
Helmut Grokenberger: No, the ear things here. The same! Here...
Yoyo: Naw, naw man, look mine is the, the hype!
[...]

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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

Referenced in Beddosaidosaib&acircpanku (2016)

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Soundtracks

Cycle-Delic
Performed by Davie Allan & The Arrows
Written by Davie Allan
Courtesy of Capital Records, Inc.
By Arrangement with CEMA Special Markets and Curb Records, A California Corporation
Mike Curb Music (BMI)

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.