Bagdad Cafe Reviews

Bagdad Cafe

Jasmin,leaves her husband in the middle of the Mojave Desert with only a suitcase and walks to the Bagdad Cafe. Mix a plump Bavarian woman wound tighter than a drum with an American family living at the edge of despair, a lot of dirt and the heat of the desert and you get quite a nifty little movie. If you like them original and quirky this one's for you.

Touching

Bagdad Cafe is the kind of Movie that comes along once a year if you are lukcy and touches the very core of you.

A simple story of two woman at polar ends of each other in more ways than one, brought together by this quirky little cafe and the small community who depend on it. Endearing, funny and so feel good - I can't think of any reason not to rent this movie.

[Highly rated reviewer]

A mistake!

We bought the Radio Times Film Guide 2005 for Christmas and are working our way through the unusual sounding - and often foreign - 4 and 5 star films.

We watched about 30 minutes of this and, tho we can see its well acted, we don't really want to know as its so dreary and slow.

It almost seems like a Tennessee Williams play made into a film without changing the setting very much. Also, its difficult to select the English version at the beginning. We thought we'd selected English but the first lot of dialogue was in German so we kept going back to the setup and eventually got it in English with German subtitles. These were no problem - a help in learning a language - but we wonder if other people have found they have the same problem?

Sorry - not a film for us but then that's the point of experimenting - not everything is going to be a hit.

Censorship ruins films

Unfortunately this 87m version of BC loses the complete thread of the original 118m film.

For reasons that are beyond me the scenes that make this film complete and understandable are missing. The penultimate Cabaret, German style, scene which finally explains the charm, attraction and the gentleness of the film is missing! Shame, because without it the film seems to have no point.

Also the subtitled translations are at best awful. My advice is to only view the full version in German.

[Highly rated reviewer]

I love this one.

The best way I can review this is by imagining a scene:

I'm stranded on a desert island.......suddenly I see a footprint in the sand......is this fellow inhabitant hostile, indifferent to my suffering or merely a top bloke/girl who prefers rugby to football,likes the Spice Girls and loves Feta cheese.

A work of genius.

Highly recommended.

Quite simply....

One of the best films I could ever have hoped to see. Charming and essential.

Extremely Slow Moving Film

My husband gave up on this film after 45 minutes. I continued watching it because it was so different. But according to me, nothing ever happened. If there was a message, it went right over my head. I notice that some critics wrote that it's about the friendship that develops between two women. I couldn't see that. I also couldn't understand why one woman went from screaming at a woman to being nice to her just because she said, 'I have no children.' One of our main characters goes through the film hollering at everyone, then she breaks into the room of our heroine, finds her playing with her kids, snatches the kids away from her, kicks her out of the hotel and says 'Go play with your own kids, lady.' Our Bavarian big-breasted heroine says sadly, 'I don't have any.' And suddenly she's allowed to stay and play with the kids, puts on a performance and the screaming, hollering mother character never hollers again. I don't know but maybe I'm not intelligent enough to understand this arthouse film.

Charming

This is a slow moving film that will reward you if, you too, remain calm and laconic. I think eventually you'll remember it as a warm film!

what a choice!

it has been a long time since I have seen such a good film. the story, the setting, everything left to the minimum...but the people and their characters are superb. you are glued to the screen all the time. no fights, no heroes...just simple people like you and me and still your are not bored. great to see that there is still something different around than only hollywood schmalz.....

Feel good

How wonderful - like a fairytail. Magical