Night on Earth

Night on Earth (1991) is Jim Jarmusch's comedy-drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Five taxis, five cities, the same single night: the camera eavesdrops on whatever passes between a driver and a fare.

In Los Angeles a casting agent tries to talk her young cabbie into acting, but the girl would rather fix engines. In New York a flustered passenger takes the wheel himself because the East German driver can't manage American traffic. In Paris a blind woman sees the city more clearly than the Ivorian man steering her through it. In Rome a motormouth driver confesses to a priest right there in the back seat. And in snowbound Helsinki three drunks hear a grief sadder than their own. The cast includes Winona Ryder, Gena Rowlands, Giancarlo Esposito, Roberto Benigni, Beatrice Dalle and Matti Pellonpaa.

Jarmusch made a film about how night and a cramped cab pull strangers close faster than any proper introduction. Tom Waits wrote the score. A hundred and twenty-nine minutes of quiet encounters in several languages. Stream Night on Earth (1991) online on iFILM.