Night on Earth

Night on Earth (1991)

Timing: 2:8 (128 min)

7.5/10
840

7.898/10
57474

7.7/10
71000

All about film

Video 2

Photo 27

Actors and characters

Release date

1991-12-12

Country

France, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, United States

Production

Canal+, Film4 Productions, Fine Line Features, JVC, Pandora Film, Channel Four Films, Pyramide Productions, Locus Solus Entertainment, PANDORA FILM Produktion

Genre

Comedy, Drama

Budget

$3 500 000

Revenue

$2 015 810

Website

Director

Jim Jarmusch

Actors

Winona Ryder, Gena Rowlands, Giancarlo Esposito, Armin Mueller-Stahl, Rosie Perez, Isaach De Bankolé, Béatrice Dalle, Roberto Benigni, Paolo Bonacelli, Matti Pellonpää
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Jim Jarmusch, Jim Stark

Operator

Frederick Elmes

Composer

Tom Waits

Artist

Audition

Editing

Jay Rabinowitz
All team (51)

• Several Soviet-made cars (VAZ-2109, VAZ-2104, and VAZ-2102) can be spotted on the streets of Helsinki in the fifth story.
• Some of what is depicted in the 'Rome' episode actually happened: Roberto Benigni often drove Jim Jarmusch, who was visiting him, around Rome at night, driving down streets with 'senso unico' (one-way traffic), risking being crushed at every intersection.
• Jarmusch wrote the screenplay for 'Night on Earth' in eight days. His previous screenplay hadn't been realized by the studio, and he decided to quickly create something new to distract himself and work with his favorite actors. The choice of cities was dictated by the actors' casting. Ultimately, it didn't work out to make the project quickly, as it required significant time and budgetary costs.
• In the episode "Rome," Roberto Benigni's character has a gear shift stylized as a black billiard ball #8. In another film by Jim Jarmusch – "Down by Law" – Roberto Benigni’s character recounts killing a man by throwing a billiard ball #8 at him.
• The filmmakers found a stunt driver to operate the tiny "Fiat" on a sharp turn during location shooting in Rome. The turn was so sharp that the driver couldn’t manage it even after several takes. Roberto Benigni (who played the driver) asked for permission to try, and he succeeded on the first attempt.
• When Giancarlo Esposito's character hailed a taxi in New York, the crew worried that a real taxi might stop in front of him and ruin the take. Fortunately, as written in the script, all the taxis passed by without reacting to Esposito.
• Two street sweepers who shouted after a taxi in Paris were genuine Parisian street sweepers. When filming had to be interrupted to reload the camera, they approached the film crew because they recognized director and screenwriter Jim Jarmusch. He was so touched by this that he gave them small roles.
• Two taxis were required for filming in each city. One was needed for exterior shots and was a standard vehicle. The second had lights mounted on the roof to illuminate the actors inside, and the engine had been removed to make room for the camera operator. This vehicle was towed on a cable behind a van containing the director, sound operator, lighting technician, and script supervisor.
• Some of what is depicted in the “Rome” episode actually happened: Roberto Benigni often drove Jim Jarmusch around night-time Rome, driving down streets with “senso unico” (one-way traffic), risking being crushed at every intersection.
• Jarmusch wrote the screenplay for “Night on Earth” in eight days. His previous screenplay had not been realized by the studio, and he decided to quickly create something new to distract himself and work with his favorite actors. The choice of cities was determined by the casting of the actors. Ultimately, it didn’t work out to make the project quickly, as it required significant time and budgetary costs.
• In the “Rome” episode, Roberto Benigni’s character has a gear shift lever stylized as a black billiard ball number 8. In another film by Jim Jarmusch – “Down by Law” – Roberto Benigni’s character says that he killed a man by throwing a billiard ball number 8 at him.