Night on Earth Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.5
Overall		4.0

Night on Earth Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 23, 2019

Jim Jarmusch's "Night on Earth" (1991) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion. The only supplemental feature on the disc is an original trailer for the film. The supplemental features on the disc include a recorded Q&A session with the director and audio commentary featuring cinematographer Frederick Elmes and location and sound mixer Drew Kunin. The release also arrives with an illustrated booklet featuring essays by 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. In English, French, Italian, and Finnish, with optional English and English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

LA cab

Maverick American director Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth takes its audience on a wild trip through five busy cities -- Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki -- over the course of a single evening.

At LAX, a neurotic chain-smoking cabbie (Winona Ryder, The Age of Innocence) picks up a jaded talent agent (Gena Rowlands, Love Streams) who can’t wait to get back to her expensive Beverly Hills home. In the car, the two slowly warm up to each and then discover that they could not be any more different. Before they part ways, the agent offers the cabbie a role in an upcoming film.

Somewhere in Manhattan, a former clown (Armin Mueller-Stahl, Music Box) from East Germany who has just started working as a taxi driver picks up an angry black man (Giancarlo Esposito, Smoke) with a hat that looks exactly like his hat. But the immigrant has a terrible time driving his clunker and exchanges places with his client. Before they reach Brooklyn, fast-talking Rosie Perez joins them and unleashes an impressive number of F-bombs.

In Paris, a cabbie (Isaach De Bankolé, The Limits of Control) from the Ivory Coast gets seriously upset with his abusive black clients and abandons them in an unfriendly neighborhood. Then he picks up a blind girl (Beatrice Dalle, Domain), who proves to him that you don’t have to be able to see people in order to understand them.

The great Italian comedian Roberto Benigni plays a wacky cabbie that begins confessing his sexual sins to a priest (Paolo Bonacelli, Midnight Express) with a serious heart condition, but is forced to stop when he realizes that his client isn’t listening. Somewhere in the heart of Rome, the two part ways.

In bitterly cold Helsinki, a heartbroken cabbie (Matti Pellonpaa, La Vie de Bohème) tells his three drunken clients a story. At the end of it two of the men conclude that their freshly sacked friend who can barely stand on his feet isn’t that unlucky and abandon him.

The beauty and charm of this film are in the small details -- the way the cabbies and their clients casually reveal their insecurity and frustrate each other while trying to remain politically correct or warm up to each other against their will. These are the type of "meaningless" details big-budget Hollywood films routinely ignore.

There is plenty of Jarmusch’s trademark offbeat humor, but it would be quite a stretch to label Night on Earth a comedy. It is a touching and free of sentimentality observation of different people existing in modern societies across the globe who use words in a variety of different ways to create and destroy the common barriers that separate them.

The five vignettes use footage that was shot mostly inside the cabs, but one can easily tell when the locations change and with them the rhythm of life.

Jarmusch shot the film with acclaimed cinematographer Frederick Elmes (David Lynch’s Blue Velvet, Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm). Original music by Tom Waits is used to enhance the moody atmosphere in each vignette.

Night on Earth Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Criterion.

The only other release of Night on Earth that I currently have in my library is this Region-B release that Soda Pictures produced in 2015. After performing some direct comparisons tonight, I think that the same remaster was also used for this upcoming release. Unsurprisingly, the film has a pleasing organic appearance. Because a lot of the footage was shot at night and under unique conditions, some density fluctuations are easy to spot, especially in areas where light is severely restricted. However, this is also the one area where I think that there is still room for some improvement because shadow definition isn't optimal. (To be perfectly clear, I am very confident that a high-quality 4K remaster will improve different ranges of nuances, especially in the areas where shadow definition isn't optimal). Grain is slightly better exposed on this release, so if you view your films on a larger screen or project, you will get a marginally 'tighter' image. The color grading is very good. The primaries are solid and lush, never appearing boosted, and there are good ranges of healthy nuances. Image stability is very good. There are no large distracting scratches, debris, cuts, damage marks, warped or torn frames to report in our review. All in all, I think there is still a little bit of room for some meaningful improvements, but the current presentation has strong organic qualities. My score is 4.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Night on Earth Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 (with portions of French, Italian, and Finnish). Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature. There are also English subtitles for the exchanges that are not in English.

Like many of Jim Jarmusch's other films, Night on Earth does not have an aggressive soundtrack. It incorporates plenty of organic sounds and noises and even allows the dialog to be quite fluid. However, clarity is always very good, and there are only a couple of examples wits some minor unevenness that manages to sneak in. There are no audio dropouts or digital distortions to report.

Night on Earth Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Q&A with Jim - this program was created in 2007 for Criterion's DVD release of Night on Earth. Fans of the film from around the world sent various questions to Jim Jarmusch and he answered as many as he could. Presented with an introduction that was recorded in New York City. In English, not subtitled. Audio only. (61 min, 1080p).

• Jim Jarmusch - presented here is an archival interview with Jim Jarmusch that first appeared on Belgian television on June 4, 1992. The director explains how the original concept for Night on Earth was conceived and clarifies why language barrier sare actually not an issue for him. In English, with printed French subtitles. (6 min, 1080i).

• Commentary - this archival audio commentary features two longtime collaborators of Jim Jarmusch: cinematographer Frederick Elmes and location and sound mixer Drew Kunin. It is a very technical commentary with plenty of very specific information about the qualities that each segment of Night on Earth conveys as well as the manner in which they were shot under unique conditions. The commentary was recorded for Criterion's DVD release of Night on Earth in 2007.
  
  1. Los Angeles
  2. New York
  3. Paris
  4. Rome
  5. Helsinki

• Booklet - an illustrated booklet featuring essays by 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 Night on Earth.

Night on Earth Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Maverick American director Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth takes its audience on a wild trip through five big cities -- Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Rome, and Helsinki -- over the course of a single evening. It is a witty and hugely entertaining film with a fantastic cast beautifully lensed by Frederick Elmes. Criterion's upcoming Blu-ray release retains all of the supplemental features that were included on its 2007 DVD release of the film. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.