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Bagdad CafeRating:
Release Date: 24 July, 2001 Retail Price: $14.94 OUR Price: $10.99 You SAVE: $3.95! Cast: Complete Cast (6 total) |
Bagdad Cafe Reviews
"Too much harmony."
Bagdad Caf� aka Out of Rosenheim is a German film although it's set in the Mojave Desert with only two Germans in the cast. In a way it's a distant relation of the wave of 70s German independent films starring faded American stars or directors (think Wim Wenders' work with Nicholas Ray and Dennis Hopper for an example) with a touch of magical realism thrown into the comic mix. A big hit in its day, time has been less kind to it and it veers more towards the irritating and overdrawn than the charming as it progresses. The major problem is the slightness of the material, with Marianne Sagebracht's displaced German housefrau doing an underplayed Mary Poppins act on the miserable and worn out employees and hangers on around the dilapidated roadside cafe and motel she finds herself in. Thanks to an open heart, a talent for housework and a box of magic tricks, she turns it into a burgeoning cabaret truckstop venue, bringing out the best in everyone around her (well, except one who leaves because there's "too much harmony.").
Unfortunately, this transformation is very long in coming and less than convincing when it does, and en route Percy Adlon doesn't offer enough development to justify the overlong running time. In fact, the characters are pretty thin all round - a frighteningly genial Jack Palance prowls around in the kind of leather and snakeskin wardrobe that creaks more than he does but is never really given much to do beyond prowling and painting, while CCH Pounder spends so much of the movie as a spectacularly unpleasant and increasingly less credible total misery that you wonder why the hell Sagebracht sticks around. Too many scenes outstay their welcome or simply go over the same ground, and the constant use of the same mournful song over almost every scene regardless of mood gets beyond grating.
It has its moments and its heart is in the right place, but a sharper script and a tighter running time would have made a world of difference.
calling you
The essence of this film is the song "calling you"....hauntingly done by Jevetta Steele...something in Yasmine calls to Brenda and something in Brenda calls to Yasmine...every character needs something from someone else...someone to whom they would never ordinarily look. Tolerance, awakening, love, and joy when least expected. Who could ask for more?
More Customer Reviews (18 total)
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