Saturday, 1 June 2019

Bagdad Cafe


(Percy Adlon/1987/Germany & USA) 

A German lady breaks up with her oafish husband in the midst of dustbowl America and lands in with a variety of characters living in and around the Bagdad Cafe, a roadside pit stop for truckers and travellers. And therein we witness the slow build of camaraderie and a shared spirit, particularly between the two wonderful leads, Marianne Sägebrecht and C.C.H. Pounder. Bagdad Cafe is of its time, when films could be quirky for quirk’s sake and I actually felt a stab of nostalgia watching it. A film like it, produced today, would probably get shredded. It survives the test of time though, as no matter how put on the eccentricities of character, at its core is straight as a die friendship and shared human experience. It is heart-warming, funny and unapologetic and Jack Palance turns in a magnificent performance also.

(3/5)   

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