BAGDAD CAFé

'''Bagdad Café''' (also known as '''Out of Rosenheim''') is a 1987 German film directed by Percy Adlon.
The film runs 95 minutes in the U.S. and 108 minutes in the German version). It is a somewhat surreal comedy set in a down-at-heel truck-stop café and motel in the Mojave Desert. An ill-assorted cast of characters are assembled, including a plump German tourist (Sägebrecht as Jasmin) who has left her husband after a row in the middle of the desert, the short-tempered owner of the café (Pounder as Brenda) who has just thrown her husband out, Brenda's two children and grandchild, a strange ex-Hollywood set-painter (Palance), and a glamorous tattoo artist (Kaufmann). Through a passion for cleaning and for magic tricks, Jasmin transforms the café and all the people in it.

Contents

Cast

Awards and nominations

Television series

Trivia

External links

Cast

★ Marianne Sägebrecht — Jasmin

★ CCH Pounder — Brenda

★ Jack Palance — Rudi Cox

★ Christine Kaufmann — Debby

★ Monica Calhoun — Phyllis

★ Darron Flagg — Salomo

★ George Aguilar — Cahuenga

★ G. Smokey Campbell — Sal

★ Hans Stadlbauer — Muenchgstettner

★ Alan S. Craig — Eric

★ Apesanahkwat — Sheriff Arnie

★ Ronald Lee Jarvis — Trucker Ron

★ Mark Daneri — Trucker Mark

★ Ray Young — Trucker Ray

★ Gary Lee Davis — Trucker Gary

Awards and nominations

★ 1988: won Bavarian Film Award Best Screenplay (Eleonore & Percy Adlon)

★ 1988: won Ernst Lubitsch Award (Percy Adlon)

★ 1989: nominated for the Oscar for Best Music, Original Song (Bob Telson for the song "Calling You")

★ 1989: won Amanda Best Foreign Feature Film (Percy Adlon)

★ 1989: won Artios Best Casting for Feature Film, Comedy (Al Onorato and Jerold Franks)

★ 1989: won César Best Foreign Film (Percy Adlon)
:''Full list of awards''

Television series

In 1990 the film was turned into a television series starring James Gammon, Whoopi Goldberg, Cleavon Little, and Jean Stapleton, with Stapleton as Jasmin and Goldberg as Brenda. In the TV version, Jasmin was no longer German. The series was shot in the conventional sitcom format, before a studio audience, and had a very brief run.

Trivia

★ The film was shot at what was then the Sidewinder Cafe in Newberry Springs, California. Since then, the cafe has become something of a tourist destination, and has changed its name to the Bagdad Cafe. A small notice board on the cafe wall features snapshots of the film's cast and crew.

★ There are currently (04/2007) 19 volumes of tourists' signatures on hand at the Bagdad Cafe, a few signatures are by movie stars who have stopped in. The current owner enjoys keeping the Cafe's movie spirit and ambiance alive as well as the friendliness.

★ The actual cafe is almost identical to the one in the film; the motel is about a hundred yards off to the side of the restaurant. It sits empty and mostly boarded up, but you can easily see Jasmin's room at the far end. The water tower was specially built for the film.

★ Shortly after the film was shot, Flagg and Calhoun became schoolmates at the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts. While Calhoun still acts, Flagg does not.

★ Flagg is actually playing the piano in the film. He and his identical twin brother, Aaron Flagg, attended the School of the Arts together in the music department, and are skilled pianists.

★ The original German version runs 20 minutes longer than the US release.

★ The soundtrack album has a track where the director narrates the story, including the film's missing scenes.

★ The soundtrack features the song "Calling You", by Jevetta Steele.

External links

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★ ''Time Out'' film review

★ ''Channel 4'' film review