Bagdad Café

I sat down and watched this in a rather distressed state having had a trying day. After a few minutes into the film my mood changed as I became immersed into this strange tale of a harassed owner of a cafe in the middle of nowhere and a tourist from Germany. The owner of the cafe brilliantly played by CCH Pounder is just as bemused as we are why this German tourist delightfully played by Marianne Sagebrecht wants to stay at her cafe. This is a wonderfully unpredictable film never going where most films would go. It's utterly charming and I only got distressed again when I realised it was about to end! (9/10)

A wonderful, funny, odd, and unique film.

Strong acting all around (Jack Palance is amazing). Inventive use of distorted colors and changing camera speeds. A few moments get a bit precious, but generally one of the best uses I've seen of a slightly surreal style to tell a very touching, human story - an overweight, depressed Bavarian housewife is left stranded in the southwest desert by her husband, and slowly finds herself, and a home among the odd characters who live and work at the Bagdad Cafe.

This is a case where brave film-making enhances rather than distracts from emotional involvement. The basic theme (we're all weird, and we all need somewhere to fit in) is nothing new, but the approach here makes it delightful and fresh.

The original 15 minute longer 'director's cut' available on European DVDs does add some nice details, moments and filling out of characters. The film works fine in its shorter US version, and the Italian DVD of the director's cut I got was frustrating in that it had a a weaker visual transfer than the US DVD, and there were Italian subtitles you couldn't turn off, but I was glad to see it, and overall it's an even stronger film with the original material added back in.

Here's a lovely oddity from little known German director Percy Adlon - his first in English. Set in the Arizona scrub is a scruffy diner, where a motley crew of staff and regulars make their home.

A plump German housewife (a joyous Marianne Sagebrecht) is dumped at the roadside by her husband after they row. She makes it to the diner, cases in tow, where the argument has been all about the broken down coffee machine. "You want a room? HERE!!?" enquires boss Brenda (CCH Pounder). The camera shows odd angles and takes on things, rather like Oliver Stone's might do.

Jack Palance, radiating comic charm is the resident just beyond-middle age hippie and he takes a shine to the Frau Jasmin. His performance is as memorable as his Oscar winning one in City Slickers. Anyways, the bustling restless Jasmin has her ways of thinking and those ways don't always meet that of Brenda. Her first task is to do the much needed vacuuming in a pea-green walled room that she's paid $25 to stay in. It's the sight of Jasmin's unpacked lederhosen that causes Brenda to call out the local sheriff.

In a charming, heart-warming tale, full of human colour, is a film that can be enjoyed time and again (I'm on my third view) and one that is offbeat enough to be interesting but always stays the side of going too far. An unknown and enjoyable gem.

A German woman had a fight with her husband and left her on the outside a motel in the middle of the desert. She meets colorful characters along like motel owner and a former Hollywood artist. Usually the plot make the movie, but the opposite is true for this movie. It is the characters that make the movie plot click together. Unlike any movie you never seen before on the screen. I recommend watching Bagdad Cafe for the excellent performances of each actor in movie. A film saying a statement without expressing a bad word.

Bagdad Cafe has been one of my favorite films since I first saw it back in the late '80s. Like so many others who have commented on this film before me, as the film began, I too wondered how long I was going to last while I watched its very strange opening sequence. But, I stayed with it and by the end, was so taken by the characters and locale of this film that I immediately added it to my library and have watched it at least once a year ever since. Watching it is now like visiting old friends once again. One person commented below that they wished Bagdad Cafe really existed. While the characters in Bagdad Cafe may be fictional, the cafe really does exist. It is located in Newberry Springs, CA, about 20 miles east of the desert town of Barstow. Though it was originally called The Sidewinder Cafe, due to the following of this film, it is now called Badgad Cafe. I have had lunch there several times and each visit is a completely surreal experience. The cafe looks much the same as it did in the film and you can sit at the table right by the door where Jasmine used to sit and have her coffee. If you're ever passing by on Interstate 40, don't forget to visit. In the meantime, check out this special film. The memorable performances will keep you involved, even if the first 30 minutes have you wondering what and why you are watching, but hang in there. You won't be disappointed.