Bagdad Cafè

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.

In a world where (some) men just escape and hide, and women go ahead and start everything anew, any place becomes a good place to give new lymph to one's life: change lies in everyone's will to make it happen, and history teaches that women are far better than men in this. The director (a man!) of "Out of Rosenheim" (better known as "Bagdad Cafè") proves this simple truth very clearly and honestly.

In my still in progress search for on the road movies I bumped into this curious piece of cinema, not a road picture properly, since no physical journey happens, but certainly more than an inner journey develops. It involves the lives of some odd characters, especially Jasmin and Brenda whose lives, so distant but so similar, come to meet at the Bagdad Café, located on a "desert road from Vegas to nowhere" (quotation from the wonderful leading song "Calling you"). At the beginning it is a shabby, dirty, anonymous place, where people only pass by, run by a hysterical and melancholic Brenda, whose encounter with the impeccable "deutsche" Jasmin will turn the cafè into an amusing and happy place and will renew both lives radically. They will become friends, besides suspicion and fear, by teaching mutually how to enjoy life again. And it will turn out very difficult, almost impossible, to leave this magic place.

The cast is outstanding, the two female protagonists are perfect in their parts, but also Jack Palance, with his mixture of past glory and present melancholy, leaves the mark.The very good photography (some settings captured at sunset are really effective), together with the deeply involving and enigmatic music contribute to a significant emotional impact on the viewer, and also some very funny moments are to be enjoyed. A truly worth seeing picture.

This is a love story. And in this film magical love comes to the Bagdad Cafe in the form of Jasmin, who brings meaning and purpose to the lives of the small group of people who surround her: the painter who begins to paint again and falls in love; Brenda, the harried, frustrated owner of the cafe who finds friendship, comfort and support; Brenda's children, who also benefit from Jasmin's caring and compassion. The use of the boomerang was interesting: a metaphor for what you give, you get back, and the joy of giving and receiving. The magic of Love will appear anywhere -even in the middle of the desert- as long as you have an open heart and mind.

A overweight German tourist is dumped in the middle of nowhere by her angry husband and puts in motion a set of unlikely comic and touching events.

Here in the Internet age we can do a lot of good work digging up and re-appraising films that deserve to be seen. While this is film might not to be everyone's taste it is a wonderful light drama about people of no particular importance doing very little beyond learning about each other.

Yet it works so well and haunts you for days after seeing it.

For reasons I also can't explain I find the American hinterlands strangely poetic and underused. Films such as Paris, Texas and The Last Picture Show also used these regions effectively.

More than any other film I have seen it cannot really be explained in words. It is about atmosphere and delivery and superb acting for a cast of - mostly - unknowns. It doesn't really have a plot as such and merely lingers in small-town America and observes small town mores and manners with cold detachment.

A little gem.

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.