NIGHT ON EARTH

US, 1992, 139 minutes, Colour.
Winona Ryder, Gena Rowlands, Giancarlo Esposito, Roberto Benigni, Armin Mueller- Stahl, Rosie Perez, Paolo Bonacelli, Beatrice Dalle.
Directed by Jim Jarmusch.

Night on Earth is a compendium of short stories - written, produced and directed by Jim Jarmusch, successful in making independent and small-budget features as Stranger Than Paradise, Down by Law, Mystery Train. Mystery Train has several stories interwoven in Memphis, Tennessee. This time Jarmusch has five stories. They take place simultaneously. It is night on earth.

The stories are slight - humorous, optimistic, wry. They are particularly well acted - and give substance to the slightness of the episodes and some of the writing. However, they are beautifully photographed, creating an impression of each city: Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, Helsinki, each as a character of the film.

Jarmusch here combines mainstream style with his experimental and small-budget style. However, he has a good cast including Winona Ryder, excellent as a young taxi driver in Los Angeles, and Gena Rowlands as an affluent casting executive. In New York, Gian Carlo Esposito is Yoyo, wanting to get home to Brooklyn, and Armin Mueller- Stahl (Angry Harvest, The Music Box, Avalon) is a refugee German taxi driver who cannot drive. Beatrice Dalle is a blind woman in Paris (she was effective in Benneix's Betty Blue), Roberto Benigni in Rome, who does a monologue of talking to his priest passenger and making up an exaggerated false sexual confession, was impressive as the wandering Italian in Down By Law. The cast of the Helsinki episode all starred in Leningrad Cowboys Go America - in which Jarmusch made a guest appearance.

Entertaining, slight stories from an interesting American film writer-director.

1. The films of Jim Jarmusch: his quality of writing, capturing the idiom of his characters and their moods? His small budgets? His interweaving of stories and plots? Simultaneous time zones and what human beings are doing during a night on earth?

2. How effective the compendium of short stories - the linking by the clock? The credit sequences and the globe, Tom Waits' song about the world? The roaming over the map, the light in the city? The final songs by Waits?

3. The theme of night on earth, the time zones, difference in time, simultaneous? Optimistic philosophy of life,. relationships, humour, wry humour and ironies?

4. The locations, the bringing to life of the cities, the variety of the cities at night?

5. A picture of the world - optimism, relationships, hopes, change?

6. The Los Angeles story: the young driver, wanting to be a mechanic, her face smudged, her clothes, bubble gum, continuous smoking? Her reaction to the pop group that she deposited at the airport, their reaction, fare and the tip? Her phone call back to base? Her character revealed in appearance, mannerisms, way of speaking? The contrast with Victoria arriving in the executive jet, the mobile phone, the phone calls on the tarmac, with the baggage? Her relationships, her work as a casting director? Clothes, glamour and style? Her going with the driver? The shabby cab, the luggage in the boot? Each observing the other, the mirrors, the cigarette? Victoria acting like mother? The driver's reaction? The concern about the boyfriend - relationships, the driver and her hopes, becoming a mechanic? Her family, the boys as mechanics? Victoria and the phone calls, the casting problems, her tapes of actresses? Her brainwave? Travelling through Los Angeles and the atmosphere of the town in the early evening? The variety of locations? Home, affluence, the carrying of the cases? Victoria and her proposition? The driver's reactions, flattered, trying to be nice, but having he life mapped out - and not wanting to be a movie star? Acceptance?

7. The New York story: Manhattan, the rush of the taxis, ignoring passengers? Yoyo and his desperation, waving the money, the cabs going past? Helmut stopping, stopping and starting? Yoyo getting in, the discussion? Pulling over, the bargain about driving? Helmut and his photo, registration, English? His response in friendship to Yoyo and their mutual admiration? The jokes about each other's names? Driving, New York, the slang, the swearing? The vernacular? Yoyo seeing Angela, the fight - and Helmut laughing about the intensity of the fight, the fighting? Mutual abuse, crankiness? Arriving home - and yet the love within families? Brooklyn, the streets? Yoyo getting out - giving the money to Helmut? The comparison of names, hats, interests in life? The directions - and Helmut going the wrong way, chugging along?

8. Paris, the black driver, the early morning, the black politicians and their drunkenness, talking in the back, their clashes? Making a fool of the driver? His anger, putting them out? His being from the Ivory Coast - and their guessing it? Picking up the girl, her blindness? The discussions about being disabled? His awkward questions and comments? Her personality, abroad at this time of the morning? Inability to see? Her sense of where she was, the tunnel, the directions? Feeling the indications on the sign in the cab? His agreeing to what she asked? The discussions about their life? His letting her off, her walking along the road contentedly? His looking after her? And the crash?

9. Rome in the early morning, the deserted streets, the beauties of Rome, architecture, scenery? Slums? The taxi driver, his patter to himself, phoning in, flirtatious? Looking for a fare? Agreeing to go? Finding the priest? Thinking he was a bishop? The personality of the priest, his reticence, sitting in the back, his being ill, the cough with the driver's smoking? His tablets, being bounced around in the back and losing the tablets? His listening to the confession - half listening, half concerned about his health? The driver and his smart talk, prattling on? The decision about the confession - his exaggerating (and assuming the priest top be very prim and proper)? His relationship with the little boy, the romance with the sheep, his brother's wife and the adultery - and his need for confession? The skill of the prattling monologue? The prostitutes, the transvestites on the highway? The driver cheering them up? The death of the priest? The alarm of the driver, the rigmarole of sitting him on the park bench, supporting him, driving away?

10. The Helsinki story: the winter, the early morning, the dawn? The driver and his tiredness? Listening to the directions for picking up fares, his going to the street? The three drunken men supporting each other, his apprehension? Their getting in, the drunken conversation, the story about their mate who was asleep, loosing his job, his wife, everything collapsing, the worst day of his life? The music and singing? The happy atmosphere but the driver stern and threatening to put them out? Their settling down? The discussions about the worst possible story? The driver and his sad story, his love for his wife, trying to get pregnant? premature birth? The reaction of the doctor, his decision not to love the daughter but to be detached, the weeks passing and the daughter living, his finally deciding to love her, going to the hospital and discovering that she had died at that moment? The men and their sympathetic response, going off home, the man waking up and sitting on the ground, the fare? The taxi driver and his going off to face the day? The sadness of the story?

11. The effect of each story, the cumulative effect? The world, night on earth, human nature?