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1992-09-10
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REVIEWS, Page 78CINEMAHack Work
By RICHARD CORLISS
TITLE: Night on Earth
WRITER AND DIRECTOR: Jim Jarmusch
THE BOTTOM LINE: Five taxis, five drivers, five fares,
five cities, five stories, most of them going nowhere -- slowly.
Jim Jarmusch is shrinking. Already a miniaturist in his
Stranger Than Paradise (1984), this vaunted U.S. independent
director now aspires to make shorts. Mystery Train (1989) was
three anecdotes in search of narrative baling wire. His new
Night on Earth splits its time five ways: taxi drivers pick up
fares in Los Angeles, New York City, Paris, Rome, Helsinki. A
little biography, a vagrant communion through the rearview
mirror, then on to the next town. If Jarmusch keeps at it, he
will become the first postpunk director of 30-second
commercials.
His problem here is that the stories, characters and
acting rarely justify even feuilleton treatment. The Hollywood
agent (Gena Rowlands) who thinks her driver (Winona Ryder) could
be a star; the Brooklyn bro (Giancarlo Esposito) who bonds with
his German-born cabbie (Armin Mueller-Stahl); the blind
Parisian (Beatrice Dalle) who, sigh, sees life more clearly than
the African (Isaach De Bankole) in the front seat; the Finnish
depressive (Matti Pellonpaa) who relates a you-think-you-got-
troubles saga -- these are shaggy-dog stories without a tail.
Or, really, a tale.
The Rome episode is the saver, with Italian movie clown
Roberto Benigni effusively confessing his sexual adventures
(with a pumpkin, a sheep, a sister-in-law) to a shocked priest.
And the glimpses of the cities, beautifully shot by Frederick
Elmes (Blue Velvet), suggest there might be stories to
complement the ghostly landscapes. But Jarmusch gooses his fine
performers to overact in close-up, as if to compensate for the
paucity of event. The result is something like the ultimate
minimalist international co-production. All those places to go,
and hardly an inviting cab in sight.