Bagdad Cafe (1987)

Surreal, mercurial drama from West Germany has troubled-yet-complacent Marianne Sägebrecht leaving a bad marriage and coming across an eccentric café in the California desert. Oddball picture gets off on the wrong foot, with confusing hysteria and shouting from the residents, but those who stick with it will be rewarded by what follows. The sneaky film captures viewers unawares with its sideways message of love and friendship, eventually becoming a rather touching, lovely fantasy about human bonds. The unusual cast, including CCH Pounder, Christine Kaufman and (surprise!) Jack Palance, does strong work, though it is Sägebrecht's beautiful performance which holds the movie together. Followed by a far-inferior television sitcom. *** from ****

A lonely German woman decides to spend some time at a roadside inn in a desolate desert town in the U.S. West. The film gets off to a bad start, with a man and a woman apparently having a fight, but it plays like a silent film without titles, so it's not clear what is going on and no explanation is provided. It becomes engaging once Sagebrecht settles down at the café and starts to change the lives of the locals. However, there's no rhyme or reason to the plot. The focus is on quirky characters and situations, and it is charming enough in terms of quirkiness. There are good performances from Sagebrecht, Pounder, and Palance.

An unlikely visitor arrives in an unhappy community, and, after a false start, brings happiness to them and to herself. Such an outline of Percy Adlon's 'Bagdad Cafe' sounds almost conventional; but it wouldn't prepare you for the sheer weirdness of the characters or the setting (this is Bagdad, Nevada) or for the fantastical element that develops as the film progresses; nor for the sudden song and dance routine that breaks out before the movie ends. Even the theme song, which features prominently throughout, is frankly a little odd. The net result is certainly original, and not without charm; it never feels forced, but it is deliberately peculiar, and how much you like it will probably depend on how easy you find it to fall into its world. Adlon himself is Bavarian (as his the lead character); but if this is true Bavarian humour, it's certainly very strange.

Extremely entertaining movie with a very positive message to those who don't feel life makes any sense and without this notion still can do something about it, even in the American desert. Life offers us all these options if we stay true to ourselves and don't let ourselves drag into negativism and routine. This movie is highly recommendable for all ages and social levels and for people who lost any hope on a better future. Curious coincidence that I saw this movie on the day Jack Palance died without knowing it before. Jack died on November 10 2006 and I had the impression he was very much himself in this movie. Truly comical and absurd the presence of the Australian hitch hiker with his boomerang..