Nothing says late-night cool quite like perennial sunglasses-wearer Jim Jarmusch, and nowhere are those nocturnal inclinations on greater display than Night on Earth (1991). Taking place over one time-zone-spanning evening, Night on Earth is an anthology following five different cab drivers and their various fares in five U.S. and European cities. It's also one of Jarmusch's best films; a multifaceted showcase of his knack for crafting unhurried tributes to the sliding scales of the human condition.
Starting in LA (where else?), Night on Earth takes each of its five stories as it comes, following the winding inner-city taxi rides until an endpoint presents itself naturally. Our first driver is Corky (Winona Ryder), a no-nonsense cabbie whose passion for foul language is only matched by her ability to pull cigarettes seemingly from thin air, a stark contrast with the appropriately snooty-named film exec Victoria Snelling (Gena Rowlands) who reluctantly takes her taxi. They exchange musings on life, consider their differing trajectories, and eventually diverge paths—not likely to see each other again, but subtly changed by the experience.
That same pattern plays out over and over in each of the next four stories, Jarmusch probing at ideas of spontaneity and coincidence, at how the cramped hubbub of urban life lends itself to chance encounters that cut across class divides. Time and time again behaviours transcend cultural boundaries—patrons struggling with the billowing smoke clouds of their drivers, for one, cantankerous differences of opinion, for another—each likeness emphasised by how Jarmusch shoots from similar fixed positions in the various cabs. Through it all, Tom Waits (whose drawling soul-patch tones are a good litmus test for whether or not you'll jibe with Jarmusch's brand of sardonic cool) undergirds the dusky lights of the photography with slinking dive bar rock. The midnight blues are in full effect.
If the stories all contain shades of similitude, in Jarmusch's montaged layers of late-night serenity the film finds its distinct textures. There's LA, where Rocky & Bullwinkle stand guard and popped cherry-pink bubble gum reigns supreme; New York, its streets busy and cramped, populated strictly by hucksters or rubes; Paris, quiet at night, yet somehow still defined by a cool rudeness; Rome, equal parts dignified and dirty, smoke peeling off moped wheels as young lovers fuck in back alleys; and Helsinki, frigid to the bone and slick with ice. Simultaneously, Jarmusch toys with different genre inflections; the Rome segment plays like an out-and-out screwball comedy, while the Helsinki portion is inversely morbid, finding something life-affirming in the sharing of personal tragedies.
In the end, it's all Jarmusch, albeit refracted through the varying hues of the different locales. By experimenting with those contrasting atmospheres, exaggerating American and European cultural mores in the tight confines of each car as shadow-streaked architecture whips by, he identifies idiosyncrasies in his own approach and in each city he visits. The result is an adroitly-observed homage to the concept of shared experience that's never too cool to have a heart.
Special Features
- High-definition digital restoration, supervised and approved by director Jim Jarmusch, with 2.0 surround DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Selected-scene commentary from 2007 featuring director of photography Frederick Elmes and location sound mixer Drew Kunin
- Q&A with Jarmusch from 2007, in which he responds to questions sent in by fans
- Belgian television interview with Jarmusch from 1992
- English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
- PLUS: Essays by filmmakers, authors, and critics Thom Andersen, Paul Auster, Bernard Eisenschitz, Goffredo Fofi, and Peter von Bagh, and the lyrics to Tom Waits's original songs from the film
- Cover by Eric Skillman
Night on Earth is available now.
