Five cities, five taxis, five meetings of people who formerly did not know eachother in five short films. Because of the setting, “Night On Earth” is mostly built on the dialogues between the taxi driver and his passenger(s).
Jarmusch worked these few elements very well. In the first film a movie-scout meets a very young taxi driver (Winona Ryder) but both appear to have different views on carreer-planning.
In the second part, an Eastern German immigrant taxi driver picks up a man from Brooklyn with a very catchy laugh.
Another immigrant taxi driver we find in Paris who first picks up to other Africans and later a blind woman.
The taxi driver from Rome is a hilarious Italian whose mouth does not keep still for a second. He literally talks his nighly passanger to death.
More melancholic is the last ride in Helsinki where dramatic stories are shared between the driver and his three passangers.
“Night On Earth” makes a very amusing film.