At first you’ll be wondering why you’re watching this, because it lingers a lot. But if you give it enough time, you’ll fall in love with the characters and discover a movie about … friendship and more.
The characters create an offbeat, charming film with real emotional depth that avoids becoming overly cutesy.
Jack Palance and Marianne Sagebrecht star in Perc... read more
Description:Jasmin (Marianne Sägebrecht), a German tourist, has just walked off from her husband at the side of the road in the middle of the Mojave Desert; Brenda (CCH Pounder) has just kicked her husband out of the roadside cafe-motel they operate. When Jasmin arrives at the cafe, the two begin developing a prickly but ultimately rewarding friJasmin (Marianne Sägebrecht), a German tourist, has just walked off from her husband at the side of the road in the middle of the Mojave Desert; Brenda (CCH Pounder) has just kicked her husband out of the roadside cafe-motel they operate. When Jasmin arrives at the cafe, the two begin developing a prickly but ultimately rewarding friendship. Many other movies have tried to duplicate Bagdad Cafe's mixture of loose storytelling, off-kilter metaphors, and rich emotions, but most often these imitators leave out the random chaos of life and the awkward pain of change that Bagdad Cafe captures with such a gentle touch. Bagdad Cafe earns both its quirkiness and its sentiment by keeping one foot firmly rooted in reality. Director Percy Adlon teamed with star Sägebrecht in two other similarly offbeat movies, Sugarbaby and Rosalie Goes Shopping; his more recent features without her haven't been as successful. Still, he continues to be noted for his odd but lively use of color filters and jagged editing. Bagdad Cafe also features the great Jack Palance (Shane, Requiem for a Heavyweight, City Slickers) playing an easy-going painter; the opportunity to be an ordinary person, rather than his usual wicked fiends, brings out a delightful mischief in Palance. Pounder, who usually gets small supporting parts, deserves another role like this to take advantage of her remarkable range. All in all, an eccentric and wonderful film.... (more)(less)
"One of the great feel good comedies of the 80s. It's the story of an unlikely friendship between an embittered motel/cafe owner (CCH Pounder in her breakthrough role) & a stranded German tourist whose unexpected presence changes the lives of the cast of eccentric characters who populate the film, including burnt out hippie painter Jack Palance.
This German indie was a mini phenomenon when it came out in 1987 & even birthed a short-lived CBS sitcom starring Whoopi Goldberg a couple years later. "
“At first you’ll be wondering why you’re watching this, because it lingers a lot. But if you give it enough time, you’ll fall in love with the characters and discover a movie about … friendship and more.
The characters create an offbeat, charming film with real emotional depth that avoids becoming overly cutesy.
Jack Palance and Marianne Sagebrecht star in Percy Adlon’s no-deaths, no-funerals, no-car-chases, no-love-scenes, no-murders, no-suicides, no-explosions, no-deaths, no-births movie.
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