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Night on Earth (1991 film)
Encyclopedia
Night on Earth is a 1991 film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch
.
It is a collection of five vignettes
, which take place during the same evening, each concerning the temporary bond formed between taxi driver and passenger in five different cities around the world: Los Angeles
, New York
, Paris
, Rome
, and Helsinki
. The movie begins with the Los Angeles
based segment and moves from city to city as the clock turns during the late hours of the night. Jarmusch wrote the screenplay for Night on Earth in about eight days, and the decision to film in certain cities was largely based on the actors with whom he wanted to work at the time. The soundtrack
, Night on Earth, is by Tom Waits
.
cabby Corky (Winona Ryder
) picks up hot-shot Hollywood executive Victoria Snelling (Gena Rowlands
) from the airport, and as Corky drives, Victoria tries to conduct business over the phone. Despite their extreme differences socially, the two develop a certain connection. Sometime during the ride Victoria, who is evidently a talent scout or casting director, discovers that Corky would be ideal for a part in a movie she is casting, but Corky rejects the offer, as she has plans to become a mechanic.
), a mild East German immigrant who was once a clown
in his home country, now works in New York as a taxi driver. He picks up a passenger named YoYo (Giancarlo Esposito
), a brash, streetwise young man and attempts to drive him to Brooklyn
. Helmut doesn't really know how to drive with an automatic transmission so he allows YoYo to drive. On their way, they pick up YoYo's argumentative sister-in-law Angela (Rosie Perez
). The story revolves around Helmut's attempts to understand and become a part of the culture of New York
.
woman (Béatrice Dalle
) goes for a ride at night with a driver (Isaach De Bankolé
) who hails from the Ivory Coast. They both take some verbal jabs at each other during the ride. The driver asks his passenger what it's like to be blind and she attempts to explain to him, but their cultural differences and differences of life experience make things difficult. An ironic twist at the end of the segment turns upon a French pun near the beginning of it: When the driver states his nationality as "Ivoirien," some other Africans mock him with the punning phrase "Y voit rien" (he sees nothing there). After he drops off his blind passenger, he feels fascinated by her and gazes in her direction. This inattention to driving causes him to crash into another car, whose driver angrily accuses him of being blind.
) picks up a priest (Paolo Bonacelli
). As he drives, he starts to confess his sins. Much to the priest's discomfort, he goes into great detail about how he discovered his sexuality first with a pumpkin and then with a sheep, then details a love affair he had with his brother's wife. The already-ailing priest is shocked by the lurid confession, and promptly has a fatal heart attack, leaving the cabbie with a very troubling situation.
, Sakari Kuosmanen
, and Tomi Salmela), climb into a cab to return home. On the way, the workers talk about what an awful fix their now-unconscious friend is in, by being out of work and having to face a divorce and a pregnant daughter. The driver, Mika (Matti Pellonpää
), then tells them all the saddest story they have ever heard. The workers are terribly moved and depressed by the story, and even become unsympathetic toward their drunken, laid-off companion. As they arrive home, the sun is beginning to rise on a new day. But no one sees change in their stupering friend from his day to day life.
Jim Jarmusch
James R. "Jim" Jarmusch is an American independent film director, screenwriter, actor, producer, editor and composer. Jarmusch has been a major proponent of independent cinema, particularly during the 1980s and 1990s.-Early life:...
.
It is a collection of five vignettes
Vignette (literature)
In theatrical script writing, sketch stories, and poetry, a vignette is a short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives a trenchant impression about a character, an idea, or a setting and sometimes an object...
, which take place during the same evening, each concerning the temporary bond formed between taxi driver and passenger in five different cities around the world: Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
, and Helsinki
Helsinki
Helsinki is the capital and largest city in Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city of Helsinki is , making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is...
. The movie begins with the Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
based segment and moves from city to city as the clock turns during the late hours of the night. Jarmusch wrote the screenplay for Night on Earth in about eight days, and the decision to film in certain cities was largely based on the actors with whom he wanted to work at the time. The soundtrack
Soundtrack
A soundtrack can be recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, book, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; or the physical area of a film that contains the...
, Night on Earth, is by Tom Waits
Tom Waits
Thomas Alan "Tom" Waits is an American singer-songwriter, composer, and actor. Waits has a distinctive voice, described by critic Daniel Durchholz as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car."...
.
Los Angeles
As evening falls, sassy tomboyTomboy
A tomboy is a girl who exhibits characteristics or behaviors considered typical of the gender role of a boy, including the wearing of typically masculine-oriented clothes and engaging in games and activities that are often physical in nature, and which are considered in many cultures to be the...
cabby Corky (Winona Ryder
Winona Ryder
Winona Ryder is an American actress. She made her film debut in the 1986 film Lucas. Ryder's first significant role came in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice as a goth teenager, which won her critical and commercial recognition...
) picks up hot-shot Hollywood executive Victoria Snelling (Gena Rowlands
Gena Rowlands
Gena Rowlands is an American actress of film, stage and television. The four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner is best known for her collaborations with her actor-director husband John Cassavetes in ten films, in two of which, Gloria and A Woman Under the Influence, she gave Academy...
) from the airport, and as Corky drives, Victoria tries to conduct business over the phone. Despite their extreme differences socially, the two develop a certain connection. Sometime during the ride Victoria, who is evidently a talent scout or casting director, discovers that Corky would be ideal for a part in a movie she is casting, but Corky rejects the offer, as she has plans to become a mechanic.
New York
Helmut Grokenberger (Armin Mueller-StahlArmin Mueller-Stahl
Armin Mueller-Stahl is a German film actor, painter, writer and musician.-Early life:Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia...
), a mild East German immigrant who was once a clown
Clown
Clowns are comic performers stereotypically characterized by the grotesque image of the circus clown's colored wigs, stylistic makeup, outlandish costumes, unusually large footwear, and red nose, which evolved to project their actions to large audiences. Other less grotesque styles have also...
in his home country, now works in New York as a taxi driver. He picks up a passenger named YoYo (Giancarlo Esposito
Giancarlo Esposito
Giancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito is a Danish-born American film and television actor and director.-Early life:Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to an Italian father and African-American mother. His mother was an opera and nightclub singer from Alabama, who once appeared on the same...
), a brash, streetwise young man and attempts to drive him to Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
. Helmut doesn't really know how to drive with an automatic transmission so he allows YoYo to drive. On their way, they pick up YoYo's argumentative sister-in-law Angela (Rosie Perez
Rosie Perez
Rosa María "Rosie" Pérez is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, director and community activist.- Early life :...
). The story revolves around Helmut's attempts to understand and become a part of the culture of New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
.
Paris
A blindBlindness
Blindness is the condition of lacking visual perception due to physiological or neurological factors.Various scales have been developed to describe the extent of vision loss and define blindness...
woman (Béatrice Dalle
Béatrice Dalle
-Biography:Dalle was born in Brest, Finistère, France, as Béatrice Cabarrou. In 1985 she married the painter Jean-François Dalle but they divorced in 1988....
) goes for a ride at night with a driver (Isaach De Bankolé
Isaach De Bankolé
Isaach or Isaac de Bankolé is an Ivorian actor.-Work:He has appeared in over 30 films, including Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and Coffee and Cigarettes...
) who hails from the Ivory Coast. They both take some verbal jabs at each other during the ride. The driver asks his passenger what it's like to be blind and she attempts to explain to him, but their cultural differences and differences of life experience make things difficult. An ironic twist at the end of the segment turns upon a French pun near the beginning of it: When the driver states his nationality as "Ivoirien," some other Africans mock him with the punning phrase "Y voit rien" (he sees nothing there). After he drops off his blind passenger, he feels fascinated by her and gazes in her direction. This inattention to driving causes him to crash into another car, whose driver angrily accuses him of being blind.
Rome
In the wee morning hours, a very eccentric cabbie (Roberto BenigniRoberto Benigni
Roberto Remigio Benigni, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI is an Italian actor, comedian, screenwriter and director of film, theatre and television.- Early years :...
) picks up a priest (Paolo Bonacelli
Paolo Bonacelli
Paolo Bonacelli is an Italian actor.He is best known for his performance as The Duke de Blangis in Pasolini's notorious Salò...
). As he drives, he starts to confess his sins. Much to the priest's discomfort, he goes into great detail about how he discovered his sexuality first with a pumpkin and then with a sheep, then details a love affair he had with his brother's wife. The already-ailing priest is shocked by the lurid confession, and promptly has a fatal heart attack, leaving the cabbie with a very troubling situation.
Helsinki
After an evening spent drinking heavily, three workers, one of whom has just been laid off (Kari VäänänenKari Väänänen
Kari Väänänen is a Finnish actor. Domestically he is a member of the Ryhmäteatteri group of actors. He was introduced to international audiences by Aki Kaurismäki; and belongs to the list of his"trusted" stable of actors....
, Sakari Kuosmanen
Sakari Kuosmanen
Sakari Jyrki Kuosmanen is a Finnish singer and actor. He has recorded several solo albums and has also done work with Sleepy Sleepers and Leningrad Cowboys....
, and Tomi Salmela), climb into a cab to return home. On the way, the workers talk about what an awful fix their now-unconscious friend is in, by being out of work and having to face a divorce and a pregnant daughter. The driver, Mika (Matti Pellonpää
Matti Pellonpää
Matti Pellonpää was an award-winning Finnish actor and a musician. He rose to international fame with his roles in both Aki Kaurismäki's and Mika Kaurismäki's films; particularly being a regular in Aki's films, appearing in 18 of them.He started his career in 1962 as a radio actor at the Finnish...
), then tells them all the saddest story they have ever heard. The workers are terribly moved and depressed by the story, and even become unsympathetic toward their drunken, laid-off companion. As they arrive home, the sun is beginning to rise on a new day. But no one sees change in their stupering friend from his day to day life.
Los Angeles
- Winona RyderWinona RyderWinona Ryder is an American actress. She made her film debut in the 1986 film Lucas. Ryder's first significant role came in Tim Burton's Beetlejuice as a goth teenager, which won her critical and commercial recognition...
as Corky (taxi driver) - Gena RowlandsGena RowlandsGena Rowlands is an American actress of film, stage and television. The four-time Emmy and two-time Golden Globe winner is best known for her collaborations with her actor-director husband John Cassavetes in ten films, in two of which, Gloria and A Woman Under the Influence, she gave Academy...
as Victoria Snelling (passenger)
New York
- Giancarlo EspositoGiancarlo EspositoGiancarlo Giuseppe Alessandro Esposito is a Danish-born American film and television actor and director.-Early life:Esposito was born in Copenhagen, Denmark to an Italian father and African-American mother. His mother was an opera and nightclub singer from Alabama, who once appeared on the same...
as YoYo (passenger & taxi driver) - Armin Mueller-StahlArmin Mueller-StahlArmin Mueller-Stahl is a German film actor, painter, writer and musician.-Early life:Mueller-Stahl was born in Tilsit, East Prussia...
as Helmut Grokenberger (taxi driver & passenger) - Rosie PerezRosie PerezRosa María "Rosie" Pérez is an American actress, dancer, choreographer, director and community activist.- Early life :...
as Angela (passenger)
Paris
- Isaach De BankoléIsaach De BankoléIsaach or Isaac de Bankolé is an Ivorian actor.-Work:He has appeared in over 30 films, including Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth, Ghost Dog: The Way of the Samurai, and Coffee and Cigarettes...
as Unnamed Taxi Driver - Béatrice DalleBéatrice Dalle-Biography:Dalle was born in Brest, Finistère, France, as Béatrice Cabarrou. In 1985 she married the painter Jean-François Dalle but they divorced in 1988....
as the Blind Woman (passenger) - Pascal N'Zonzi as an unnamed African passenger
- Emile Abossolo M'BoEmile Abossolo M'BoEmile Abossolo M'Bo is a French television, theatre and film actor who has played in French, African and American productions.-Personal life:Abossolo was born in Yaoundé, the capital city of Cameroon....
as an unnamed African passenger
Helsinki
- Matti PellonpääMatti PellonpääMatti Pellonpää was an award-winning Finnish actor and a musician. He rose to international fame with his roles in both Aki Kaurismäki's and Mika Kaurismäki's films; particularly being a regular in Aki's films, appearing in 18 of them.He started his career in 1962 as a radio actor at the Finnish...
as Mika (taxi driver) - Kari VäänänenKari VäänänenKari Väänänen is a Finnish actor. Domestically he is a member of the Ryhmäteatteri group of actors. He was introduced to international audiences by Aki Kaurismäki; and belongs to the list of his"trusted" stable of actors....
, Sakari KuosmanenSakari KuosmanenSakari Jyrki Kuosmanen is a Finnish singer and actor. He has recorded several solo albums and has also done work with Sleepy Sleepers and Leningrad Cowboys....
, and Tomi Salmela as Passengers