Bagdad Cafe
1987 Directed by Percy Adlon
Synopsis
A surreal comedy depicting a diverse cast of characters and the changes they undergo as the German tourist Jasmin interacts with each of them at a remote truck stop in the middle of the Mojave desert.
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None-more-indie film about a “big German woman” (Marianne Sägebrecht) who, after a violent row with her husband, walks out of the desert and into the lives of a black American family running a dusty café and motel. It’s a poor man’s Paris, Texas, really, with barely any story (and what there is moving far too fast), all to the strains of a plaintive theme song that’s done to death. It’s interestingly directed, though, with adventurous camera angles and filtered vistas loading emotion and atmosphere onto a slender script. Sägebrecht is quite good, though Monica Calhoun is am-dram standard, G Smokey Campbell has nothing to do except look through binoculars and say "Oh, Brenda" like some sort of lazy, alienated Frank…
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Magic.
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The movie is based on a very interesting constellation of characters and the plot seems to be nothing more than the 'natural' flow of actions and reactions between these characters. This way, the director Percy Adlon manages to create an atmosphere that is at the same time weird, even surreal occasionally, and nonetheless appears to be a depiction of everyday life. Only within such a setting it is possible to place a message of cultural understanding and harmony that would otherwise too easily become kitschy. There definitely are kitschy moments throughout the film, but these find their culmination and justification in the end, when the movie turns into a musical. „There's nothing so tragic, cause it's all about magic!“
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Patchy quirky comedy about an abandoned German housewife who inveigles her way into a family who own a cafe in the middle of the American desert. Moments of humour are completely eclipsed by moments of sheer weirdness. Even so, I quite enjoyed this film.
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I first saw this late eighties indie comedy while I was taking a dreams course in college. The teacher assigned it for all the textbook dream symbolism. If I had seen it in any other context, I probably would not have liked it. It's too quirky for its own good. The beautiful haunting theme song is played over and over. The characters are cartoonish. Some of the editing is avant garde in its non sequitor approach. But I like it regardless.
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None-more-indie film about a “big German woman” (Marianne Sägebrecht) who, after a violent row with her husband, walks out of the desert and into the lives of a black American family running a dusty café and motel. It’s a poor man’s Paris, Texas, really, with barely any story (and what there is moving far too fast), all to the strains of a plaintive theme song that’s done to death. It’s interestingly directed, though, with adventurous camera angles and filtered vistas loading emotion and atmosphere onto a slender script. Sägebrecht is quite good, though Monica Calhoun is am-dram standard, G Smokey Campbell has nothing to do except look through binoculars and say "Oh, Brenda" like some sort of lazy, alienated Frank…
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Mooie rol voor Duitse Marianne Sägebrecht
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Before I became really addicted to foreign/arty cinema my grandmother took me to a grungy picture house in Brighton. This was my first foray into art house film. The seats were hard, the place was cold (it used to be nicknamed The Flea Pit) - but I came out completely hooked.
The film starts with a German couple stranded on Route 66 in California after a car break down. A brief argument sees them go their separate ways and the wife ends up at Bagdad Cafe (gas an oil!) looking for lodgings and food. The place is dull and lifeless and she decided to take it into her own hands to brighten the place up - at the peril of…
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Enjoyable low budget film.
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Magic.
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This review reportedly contains spoilers. I can handle the truth.