BAGDAD CAFE
A film review by Jeff Meyer
Copyright 1988 Jeff Meyer
Seem at the Seattle Film Festival: BAGDAD CAFE (West Germany, 1987) Director/Screenwriter: Percy Adlon Cast: Marianne Sagebrecht, CCH Pounder, Jack Palance, Christine Kaufman
BAGDAD CAFE is one of those comedies that derives much of its humor from the strangeness of its characters. The question I think is critical to rating such a picture is this: how long did it take for the characters to become more funny than strange? In the case of this film, about twenty minutes.
The Bagdad Cafe is a run-down little cafe that Brenda (Pounder) runs. It's dilapidated, frequented only by truckers, and home for a number of rather odd people: Brenda herself, her rather dim-witted husband, her two children (one is an abandoned father of a little tyke who plays classical music all the time, while the other is a beautiful teenager whose attentions are favored by the local bikers, truckers and high school kids), her Indian counterman and cook. Then there's the residents of the adjacent motel; a hooker who does tattoo work on the side, and Jack Palance as a Hollywood drop-out from the sixties who seems absolutely *delighted* with whatever is going on.
Into this steps Jasmin (Sagebrecht), a stout Bavarian woman who has just left her husband during their visit to the United States. She knows little English, and her first encounter as she walks down the highway (her American Tourister luggage wheeling along behind her) is The Bagdad. Brenda is in a really bad mood, as her husband just left her (he sits about a half mile away in a car, watching the Bagdad through binoculars and muttering "Oh, Brenda.") Due to a number of misunderstandings, it takes Brenda and Jasmin a while to hit it off, but when they do a bubbly, infectious happiness seems to grasp the entire group of characters; indeed, one leaves because things are "too compatible." From there, this giddiness doesn't threaten to overwhelm BAGDAD CAFE -- it *does* overwhelm it, slamming it (and the audience) into a grinning choke-hold for the rest of the film.
BAGDAD CAFE won the Golden Space Needle Award (I hear you gasp) for best picture, and it certainly seemed to be a crowd-pleaser; the audience I left with seemed to be buzzing about how good it was. I felt it had a slow beginning and slow ending, but then I'm not as enchanted with unusual characters (being one myself, I guess). Palance character was a delight, but it gets a bit too giddy for my tastes at the end. Still, a heckuva lotta fun with a big audience. Rating: $3.50 or $4 film.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
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