Bagdad Cafe (1987)

Overrated and overhyped

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The weird taste of Rosenheim coffee is the first of many symbols that build up the character of a grotesque stranger. To really understand the movie, the viewer has to have the experience in abandoning his or her comfort zone. Empathy is not only depicted by the plot, but rather by hidden symbols that reason the simple minded confusion, anger and intolerance. Gas and Oil Bagdad Cafe is physically shown as a dirty, remote desert location. However, throughout the story it transforms into prosperous oasis of human conscience. The song "Calling You" by Jevetta Steele doesn't represent abandonment, but the overall longing for the lost taste of Rosenheim coffee.

The desert blooms, in more ways than one, when a hefty Bavarian häusfräu is abandoned by her husband on the doorstep of a run-down, off-highway pit stop somewhere in the Mojave Desert, geographically (and culturally) midway between Disneyland and Las Vegas. The fanciful Arabian Nights title offers a clue to director Percy Adlon's intentions, but in this trans-Atlantic fairy tale it takes a good German woman to bring magic (and efficiency) to the desert oasis, dazzling with her sleight-of-hand the gallery of local eccentrics (including an aging ex-Hollywood hippie, played with sensitive self-parody by Jack Palance) and gradually winning the trust and affection of the café's bitter proprietress. It's refreshing in this age of boilerplate buddy film cliché to see such an easy rapport allowed to develop between the two women, but the natural charm of the story is almost overwhelmed by the psychedelic complexity of Adlon's visual scheme. Like his earlier 'Sugarbaby' the film is stylized to distraction, with the unnatural lighting, distorted camera angles, and ostentatious editing functioning as camouflage, perhaps to mask the director's shallow perception of offbeat Americana: Jack Palance with a ponytail is a hoot, but the climactic song and dance routine is (to put it mildly) an embarrassment.

Here's for an American comedy that's... uh... VERY German. At least, it's set in Nevada just outside of Las Vegas, and holds a very strong sense of the Southwest and its colors and energy, but directed by a German in a very Expressionist way.A German tourist has an argument with her husband and they split up, him taking the car and leaving her out in the hot sunny wasteland. Wandering along the highway she makes her way to Bagdad, a small town... or rather, a café with people who for some reason like to hang out around it all their lives... and befriends the usually angry and very aggravated owner. The two, though very confused with each other at first, eventually spark a friendship of "magic" that attracts many visitors to the small outpost.It's very funny and pretty quirky. A lot of the strange editing and washed-out cinematography add to a sense of Expressionism, but captures very well the landscape... both its heat and its beauty.This film is missing a few bits of character development and sometimes feels a bit rushed, but it's a very nice and very loving take on yet another type of culture shock that eventually works magic and brings people together. Some things weren't developed enough (Brenda's husband spends all that time spying and yet never comes back?) but the short time we spend with all these characters paints broad portraits that leave their echoes with us forever. That, indeed, is a very strong ability indeed.CCH Pounder is brilliant. If you want to see her do brilliantly as a very different character in a very good movie, watch Benny and Joon. The two movies are similar in that they bring very quirky characters together, but otherwise are nearly completely different. Between the two of these movies, I wish CCH Pounder was in a lot more movies than animations and television series.--PolarisDiB

Jasmin Muenchgstettner abandons her husband in the middle of the Arizona desert and walks to the nearest town, Bagdad. Really all the town is though is a truck stop with a café run by the short tempered and stressed Brenda. Brenda's husband Sal has just left and she has to run the café herself with her staff and her children to look after – not that hard a task considering how little business it does. Jasmin tries to fit in and takes on chores around the café (despite Brenda's mistrust and dislike of her) and gradually little changes come about as a result.It has been almost 15 years since I watched this film and I remembered very little about it apart from the title (which ironically it isn't actually called). Although you can see where the plot is heading and what the basic character dynamics are going to be, the film has enough weird unique charm about it to have picked up the cult following that it still has today. I can understand why some don't like it, because it is very deliberately offbeat in direction, characters and setting and in a way this approach is covering up for the lack of substance. Personally though the offbeat air and characters produced a heart and warm feel to the film that covered up for the lack of story. Director Adlon's imagery, the use of music and the great colours from the cinematographer all combine to aid this feel and it does make it strangely engaging.The lack of development beyond the kookiness was a bit of an issue for me because with the tone just right it wouldn't have killed it to reach a bit deeper and draw real emotion but it never seems to aspire to this. That said I did enjoy it because it still works as fantasy and half the fun is watching the dry café turned into something unlikely but very appealing. The cast buy into the fantasy as well. Pounder is great as she has the hardest character to deliver but she manages to be bad tempered without just being a b1tch – she allows us to see the root causes and thus feel for her. Sagebrecht is a weird piece of casting and she looks strange and out of place (which is the point I guess). Her performance is a bit more restrained and I didn't get to understand her character that much but she is good fun with it. Palance is a surprise piece of casting but adds to the "kookiness" of the whole thing. Calhoun, Flagg, Campbell and others all fill out the cast well and all get the tone of the film perfectly.Overall then somewhat of an acquired taste. A bit too deliberately kooky and offbeat for some tastes but yet still has a good heart and a slightly touching air to boot. Understandably this film is more of a cult success than a blockbuster but it is a nice little film that is worth a look for what it does well rather than its story or depth (neither of which it really has a lot of).