This is one cool movie!
Added 1/31/2010
I must admit I made a couple of false starts at watching this movie before I hung in long enough to get the payoff. The first forty minutes is about as interesting as watching grass grow, but is necessary to develop the story and set up the artistic climax (visually and metaphorically). I've watched it several times and think I enjoyed it more the second or third time, especially if watching with a friend. In simplest terms, for me this movie is a metaphor for, "Once you have found the magic, don't let it go." Its a little campy and probably not for everyone. It is especially cool if you have seen Huell Howser's "California gold" episode on Newberry Springs (the setting for Bagdad Cafe).
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Good Feelings
Added 1/23/2010
Bagdad Cafe is a "feel good" movie! No matter how lousey you felt when you put it in the vcr or dvd player, you'll be smiling before to long. It's a movie about embracing our similarities and finding community among each other, and that feels really good.
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(4.5 STARS) Bagdad Cafe Is Calling You: Unique and Charming
Added 12/30/2009
If you are looking for something unique, here it is. "Out of Rosenheim" (also known as "Bagdad Cafe) may not be the most famous film in the world, but the visuals and the music (with the amazing melody of "Calling You") will stay with you forever.
The story follows Jasmin Münchgstettner (Marianne Sägebrecht), a traveler from Rosenheim, Germany. Jasmin has just left her husband on the desert road, and as if led by fate, she decides to stay at the seedy motel (next to a gas station and a café) in the middle of nowhere, which a bossy, always angry and yelling owner Brenda (CCH Pounder) runs. With the arrival of this unexpected guest, however, the sleepy place and the life of the people there change forever.
German-born director Percy Adlon has an oddball sense of humor that is endearing to some, but perplexing to others. Jasmin's husband drops in the café and drinks a cup of coffee. He praises the taste, but the coffee is actually made by his wife he has just left. Or listen to what Jasmin says at the very end of the film. Percy Adlon cleverly subverts our expectations as he did in "Sugarbaby" (starring Marianne Sägebrecht).
The film is not to everybody's taste, admittedly. It depends on which version you see (I saw the longer German version), but some part of the film is slow-moving, and some part is a bit too self-conscious (one character leaves the café behind, saying "Too much harmony" as if directed at audiences). Still "Out of Rosenheim" is a very charming film and the theme song "Calling You" is unforgettable.
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What makes a woman yell at a man that hates women who yell at him.
Added 11/29/2009
It's an amazing movie, about many different aspects of life. But what I noticed was the double bind between the owner of the cafe and her husband. He didn't do 'nothin' so his wife yelled because somebody in the family has to do 'somethin'. She wept after he left, just before Jasmin the German lady limped into her life. And she's just left her German louse of a husband who had irritated her so much that she'd rather hitchhike than be in the same car with him.
The two men seemed to want to keep track of their mate, but not enough to address their 'issues': apparent lazienss and extreme sensitivity to his 'manhood' in one. But boorishness, and 'non-involvement' with their wives in both. Jasmin isn't the kind of lady that can ignore something that needs cleaning up, fixing up, so she goes to work, cleaning up, and getting order out of chaos. They evolve into women who can do something themselves,
The scenes that showed the two twists (I think they are 'moebius twists', a ribbon twisted a half turn) that appearred in the sky and in pictures on the wall of Jasmin's room was a true mystical encounter to me.
The music was haunting as long as it wasn't the clamoring of the son, who seemed equally non-involved with his mother's harsh living conditions. That made the screeching excusable. I wondered why men do what causes women to do what they hate most.
I loved the Jack Palance, he was really into the character. It's a classic movie.
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Bagdad Cafe in suitable format
Added 11/16/2009
Happy to find this delightful film in a format I can view using standard, Australian, equipment (Region 0).
This is most important as, whereas PAL and NTSC work equally well, I am constantly needing to double check the Region.
It arrived in a reasonable time.
Quirky plot, superb performances.A sweet film without being sacharine.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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This is one cool movie!
Added 1/31/2010
I must admit I made a couple of false starts at watching this movie before I hung in long enough to get the payoff. The first forty minutes is about as interesting as watching grass grow, but is necessary to develop the story and set up the artistic climax (visually and metaphorically). I've watched it several times and think I enjoyed it more the second or third time, especially if watching with a friend. In simplest terms, for me this movie is a metaphor for, "Once you have found the magic, don't let it go." Its a little campy and probably not for everyone. It is especially cool if you have seen Huell Howser's "California gold" episode on Newberry Springs (the setting for Bagdad Cafe).
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
Good Feelings
Added 1/23/2010
Bagdad Cafe is a "feel good" movie! No matter how lousey you felt when you put it in the vcr or dvd player, you'll be smiling before to long. It's a movie about embracing our similarities and finding community among each other, and that feels really good.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
(4.5 STARS) Bagdad Cafe Is Calling You: Unique and Charming
Added 12/30/2009
If you are looking for something unique, here it is. "Out of Rosenheim" (also known as "Bagdad Cafe) may not be the most famous film in the world, but the visuals and the music (with the amazing melody of "Calling You") will stay with you forever.
The story follows Jasmin Münchgstettner (Marianne Sägebrecht), a traveler from Rosenheim, Germany. Jasmin has just left her husband on the desert road, and as if led by fate, she decides to stay at the seedy motel (next to a gas station and a café) in the middle of nowhere, which a bossy, always angry and yelling owner Brenda (CCH Pounder) runs. With the arrival of this unexpected guest, however, the sleepy place and the life of the people there change forever.
German-born director Percy Adlon has an oddball sense of humor that is endearing to some, but perplexing to others. Jasmin's husband drops in the café and drinks a cup of coffee. He praises the taste, but the coffee is actually made by his wife he has just left. Or listen to what Jasmin says at the very end of the film. Percy Adlon cleverly subverts our expectations as he did in "Sugarbaby" (starring Marianne Sägebrecht).
The film is not to everybody's taste, admittedly. It depends on which version you see (I saw the longer German version), but some part of the film is slow-moving, and some part is a bit too self-conscious (one character leaves the café behind, saying "Too much harmony" as if directed at audiences). Still "Out of Rosenheim" is a very charming film and the theme song "Calling You" is unforgettable.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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