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66 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Freak Shows & Oddballs That'll Touch Your Heart, June 23, 2002
Bagdad Cafe is an odd film, and I mean that as a compliment. The characters are all greatly flawed individuals who, as the film starts, are largely unhappy. CCH Pounder plays Brenda who owns the cafe. This woman could scare the hide off a cat with that shrill voice that drives her husband off to park in the desert and observe her with binoculars for the rest of the film. Jasmin, the Bavarian German who likes her coffee strong, is fat and seems to change clothes regularly despite having a suitcase supposedly filled only with men's clothes. She is not the typical Hollywood star, but she comes to win our hearts. Jack Palance as Rudy Cox, the set painter from Hollywood, lives in a trailer and sees the world through rose colored glasses. His costumes are pure Santa Monica Boulevard chic. He charms us as he falls in love. The sequence of paintings he does as Jasmin gets progressively less dressed is hysterical. The other characters are also unique. Brenda's son who also has a son, a baby, wants nothing more than to play piano all day. The daughter dresses in trendy teenage garb and seems to repeatedly run off with anything with two legs and pants. Debbie, the tatoo artist, seems like an S&M freak, and eventually leaves because "there is too much harmony." The thing I love about this film is that most all of the characters change. Jasmin's unfolding is glorious. The themes in the movie of racial misunderstanding and harmony are also interesting. Jasmin has never seen blacks and pictures herself in tribal Africa being roasted for dinner. She's amazed at how light the palms of Brenda's daughter's hand is, a simple detail but beautiful in its innocent sense of wonder. The DVD version doesn't add a tremendous amount of extras such as bonus material, but the movie itself is the reward. If you like upbeat films somewhat off the beaten track, seek out this cinematic gem.
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51 of 52 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
DESERT RATS GET ACTUALIZED!, July 24, 2001
Filmed not too far from here in the town of Baghdad in the Mojave Desert, Percy Adlon's BAGHDAD CAFE has charmed just about everyone who has stumbled across this literally off-the-beaten track 1987 gem that's now available for the first time in a bare-bones widescreen DVD transfer. The story is deceptively simple. Marianne Sägebrecht is a German tourist who leaves -- and is subsequently abandoned by -- her husband(?) in the California desert. In the middle of nowhere, she makes her way to the run-down, failing, Baghadad Cafe and Motel run by C.C.H. Pounder (ER's Dr. Hicks). The rotund Sägebrecht quickly becomes a part of the eccentric family under Pounders tough-talking rule. Not only that, her presence is the catalyst that transforms the forgotten roadside stop into a bustling business and a life-altering experience for all present. Jack Palance is extraordinary as an ex-Hollywood set designer and artist who sees Sägebrecht's true beauty and becomes obsessed about capturing it on canvas. What he sees Sägebrecht becomes and in the process impacts those she touches. This wonderful film is about loving and accepting and believing and discovering and being. The original music by Bob Telson includes the haunting "Calling You" sung by Javetta Steele. This is one for the digital library. Highest recommendation.
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32 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A sweet and suprising tale, November 18, 2001
Possibly one of my favorite films ever made, this story of a german housewife, that leaves her husband in the Mojave Desert, end up suprising me constantly. Why? The lead actress Marianne Sagebrecht performance as Jasmine is so full of poetry and subtle nuances in the body language that most actors often forget to use. Many times she is in a scene where she is not saying much but she doesn't have to because her lines are in the way she moves and the expressions on her face. The story is about a sleepy two building town where despair is turned on its heel by the arrival of this stranger. It's about two very different people who become friends despite the tragedys they both are facing and its about the magic we all carry inside of us to transform other around us by being our most beautiful selves. This film was followed by a television series that failed to capture what this story easily told in 90 minutes. It also has a very haunting song called "calling you" that once heard will more than likely stay in the back of your mind. Its a gem and definitely belongs in the collection of anyone who really loves what great film making is all about.
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